I’ve had a Twitter account for 13 years, so when I receive an email claiming to come from Twitter that asks me to confirm my account my automatic reaction is that it will be a scam – possibly attempting to phish my login credentials.
After all, why would Twitter need me to verify an account I’ve had since January 2008?
Turns out, however, that the email really did come from Twitter and that the links did go through to Twitter’s site rather than some dodgy phishy webpage desperate to lure me into handing over my password.
Some of you may have recently received an email to “confirm your Twitter account” that you weren’t expecting. These were sent by mistake and we’re sorry it happened.
If you received one of these emails, you don't need to confirm your account and you can disregard the message.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) April 23, 2021
A red-faced Twitter admitted that the emails had been “sent by mistake.” It’s unclear just how many Twitter users may have received the accidential messages, but there are certainly plenty of folks who seem to have been left scratching their heads or warning others not to click on the links.
Hopefully Twitter will take a close look at what went wrong, and put some measures in place to ensure that such a goof doesn’t happen again.
If you got an email from Twitter asking you to confirm your account, it wasn’t a phishing attempt… it was just a goof on their part.
No-one give them the nuclear codes, ok? https://t.co/R0sT2Kzz2p
— Graham Cluley (@gcluley) April 23, 2021
