Twitter Trouble!

Doppelgänger This post has nothing to with roleplaying games, but with something happening on Twitter right now. Please don’t stop reading, because I need your help!

Some hours ago some person started tweeting to @daneofwar’s Followers (and people he followed) and accused him of scamming money from him. I doubt there’s any truth to that accusation, especially because this person soon started impersonating people @daneofwar was connected with through Twitter. He also started posting personal attacks against not only @daneofwar but also other people as well, like @highmoon, @madbrewlabs and me.

The community is usually pretty quick in reporting the fake accounts as soon as they appear and Twitter promptly closes them, but there must be some way to stop this person posting slander and misinformation all over Twitter. If you know someone who can help or get in touch with the people from Twitter, please do so!

Any help is highly appreciated!

P.S.: I protected my Twitter updates for now and changed my avatar picture. That will not stop the person impersonating me, but it helps me to feel a bit better. If you get any strange tweets that look like they were sent from my account, please double-check the username.

Michael Wolf is a German games designer and enthusiast best known for his English language role-playing games blog, Stargazer's World, and for creating the free rules-light medieval fantasy adventure game Warrior, Rogue & Mage. He has also worked as an English translator on the German-language Dungeonslayers role-playing game and was part of its editorial team. In addition to his work on Warrior, Rogue & Mage and Dungeonslayers, he has created several self-published games and also performed layout services and published other independent role-playing games such as A Wanderer's Romance, Badass, and the Wyrm System derivative Resolute, Adventurer & Genius, all released through his imprint Stargazer Games. Professionally, he works as a video technician and information technologies specialist. Stargazer's World was started by Michael in August 2008.

20 comments

comments user
Daniel M. Perez

Yep, same here. Only @highmoon is me. The bastard is also using a picture of my late mom as the avatar on some accounts, which has me wanting to do some physical violence on him.

If anyone knows how to track IP of a Twitter account, please speak up.
.-= Daniel M. Perez´s last blog ..Commuting Stats for January =-.

comments user
Stargazer

I've already filed a support ticket with Twitter and I know that @daneofwar has done the same. But alas they haven't solved the problem yet.

I've also read a few of the things he said about your late mom, that made me want to do some unpleasant things to him, too, trust me!

comments user
Rob Lang

You mean that PM declaring your love for me was false? Now I've broken up with my wife and I'm on my way to Germany for NOTHING? Technology can be cruel. Heartbreaker!

Seriously, though, sorry to hear there has been some bad blood on Twitter. The community is strong enough to ride over the problem, though. Let us know what the resolution is.
.-= Rob Lang´s last blog ..Roll your own in Cursed Life by Sean Wilt =-.

comments user
Canageek

I've gotten some tweets from those messages, they seem to be changing targets randomly, I think I got slandered in one, but I didn't really pay attention. I don't think you can track IP via a tweet, but read the documentation, the entire tweet format is there.

From how it is acting I strongly suspect its automated, grabbing onto names & pictures at random, looking at who is tweeting who and moving along that way.
.-= Canageek´s last blog ..A Thank You To @MassTwitFic =-.

comments user
Mad Brew

Heh, did you get accused of being this?

Michael__Brewer

I filed a claim with Twitter too and I'm currently speaking with my local police to see about my options to subpoena Twitter for his IP address and related info.
.-= Mad Brew´s last blog ..Is the iPad the Messiah of Roleplaying? =-.

comments user
Daniel M. Perez

Yeah, I saw that. That's libel and an offense. I hope you can get some legal leverage going.
.-= Daniel M. Perez´s last blog ..Commuting Stats for January =-.

comments user
Canageek

I've not seen anything recently, are the comments still ongoing?
.-= Canageek´s last blog ..A Thank You To @MassTwitFic =-.

comments user
Andrew Modro

He's still at it. I got hit with a DM from him and told the one he was apeing about it, but Echofon didn't reply as a DM and he saw it, so I got an oh-so-scary threat.
.-= Andrew Modro´s last blog ..Interview with the AntiPaladins =-.

comments user
Stargazer

The only thing we can do right now is wait until the guy gets bored of his sick little game or that either the police or Twitter does something to stop him.

comments user
Abraham Neddermann

Yesterday I was surprised with all that, but when looking at it, it said:

@username: blablablabla…dont give money to @username666…

With the only difference being the 666…so i thought it was correct, since I didn't remember any username with those numbers…

comments user
Rob Lang

I got one this morning but my male-ness kicked in and all I was thinking was "Ooooh, a girl sent me a message, how novel!" without actually registering the content!
.-= Rob Lang´s last blog ..Roll your own in Cursed Life by Sean Wilt =-.

comments user
Marion Driessen

Ah don't worry, I simply blocked the idiot 😉

    comments user
    Stargazer

    The problem is he creates new accounts all the time. It's actually hard work to get them all reported.

comments user
Marion Driessen

If I continue to get weird messages, I'll report them to the admins. At some point he will get tired of it. Sorry you and other innocents have to go through all this.

comments user
Sven

Sorry for the trouble you are having. 🙁

BUT I love the picture you chose to go with this posting. LOL! 😀

comments user
Stargazer

Thanks! At least the picture is RPG-related then. 😛

comments user
Mad Brew

Well, Twitter support was no help for me. From Twitter:

——-

coati, Feb 03 07:51 pm (PST):

Hello,

While we understand your frustration at being the subject of these written attacks, Twitter is a communications service provider rather than a content mediator. As a policy, we do not mediate disputes between users.

We can, however, intervene in the event of a specific violent threat, as explained on this page:

http://help.twitter.com/forums/26257/entries/1579

For all other issues, if you have previously engaged the user in question and were unable to reach a satisfactory resolution, we generally recommend that you block the user. This will prevent the user from following you and minimize any incentive to persist in their conduct.

Please note that per our Terms of Service, users are solely responsible for the content that they provide. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230, provides us with immunity from lawsuits based on such user-created content and we will vigorously defend against any claims brought against us. However, it is also our policy to give effect to a valid court order against a user in our capacity as a third party.

Thanks for your understanding, and our apologies for being unable to assist you further.

Sincerely,

coati

Twitter Trust and Safety

——

And even thought the account, http://twitter.com/michael__brewer is obviously spam, they have yet to kill it….

So, if any readers come across and would like to help, I ask that you go to that account and report it as spam.
.-= Mad Brew´s last blog ..Nevermet Press is Reborn =-.

comments user
Stargazer

It has been very quiet today. Either the guy lost interest in us or he's thinking about even more diabolical plans to make our lives hell! Who knows?

comments user
Canageek

I thought I posted this before, but I guess my cell didn't post it.

"We can, however, intervene in the event of a specific violent threat, as explained on this page:

http://help.twitter.com/forums/26257/entries/1579

and Andrew Modro said on 04-02-2010

"He’s still at it. I got hit with a DM from him and told the one he was apeing about it, but Echofon didn’t reply as a DM and he saw it, so I got an oh-so-scary threat."

Doesn't that count as a threat you can report?
.-= Canageek´s last blog ..A Thank You To @MassTwitFic =-.

comments user
Stargazer

@Canageek: Twitter doesn't actually care what people post using their service. They only intervene when someone makes a very specific threat like "I will punch you in the face tomorrow at 8 pm in the mall" or something like that. They even didn't delete the account Mad Brew reported to them.

But I think this "Twitter Trouble", as I called it, is over for now. The impostor hasn't posted in quite a while, at least I am not aware of any new posts, so he either lost interest, someone stopped him or he's making new plans on how to annoy us.