A really frustrating story about how one person had the Twitter handle @N and lost to an online thief - was effectively blackmailed into handing it over. Paypal, Twitter and GoDaddy have done nothing to help.
The most amazing part is that once the thief stole @N he had the politeness and decency to tell the victim exactly how he had done it and how to avoid it happening again. Who said there was no longer honor amongst thieves!!
There have been a number of times over the last two years when I have been left incredibly frustrated with big business. Each time I went straight to the top using LinkedIn. I InMailed the CEOs of ThomasCook and Eurostar who both got back to me on the same day and the CEO of BT, whose executive assistant contacted me that day. All my queries and frustrations were dealt with and resolved within days.
So if you get into a similar position to Naoki or have any other helpless situations, try contacting the top dog.
Will be interesting to see how these companies respond now that The Next Web have reached out. Hopefully The Next Web will keep us posted.
I had a rare Twitter username, @N. Yep, just one letter. I’ve been offered as much as $50,000 for it. People have tried to steal it. Password reset instructions are a regular sight in my email inbox. As of today, I no longer control @N. I was extorted into giving it up.
http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2014/01/29/lost-50000-twitter-username/#!tMmyH