Twitter users have caused an uproar by impersonating celebrities on the popular micro-blogging service. Businesses, too, are targets of fake Twitter profiles -- sometimes from competitors.
Exxon Mobil Corp. has found at least two unauthorized Twitter accounts under variations of its name. Twitter -- a networking service where users create profiles and send out short messages, or "tweets" to their followers -- terminated one of the profiles last summer. An Exxon spokesman says the oil company is considering what to do about the second profile, which it discovered several weeks ago.
In a defensive move, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines in April "registered every possible Twitter name that could be associated with us," a spokesman says. The move came after airline employees last summer found a rogue profile in the name AmericanAir, which was shut down four weeks later.
At Elevation Burger, a seven-outlet chain owned by Elevation Franchise Ventures LLC, a vendor in March found an unauthorized Twitter profile with tweets promoting rival Z Burger. Hans Hess, Elevation's founder and chief executive, complained to Z Burger and Twitter, which later suspended the profile after a letter from Mr. Hess's lawyer.
Amusement-park operator Cedar Fair LP, of Sandusky, Ohio, received an email from a marketing consultant who had created a Twitter profile in the name of its Cedar Point amusement park. The consultant, David Goebel, president of Goebel Group Inc., offered to relinquish control of the account in exchange for season passes to the Cedar Fair park and suggested that the company hire his firm to oversee its Twitter account. (more)
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