Twitter warns users of viral prank that locks people out of their accounts

Twitter is advising users not to fall for a viral prank on its platform that is leading people to get locked out of their accounts.

Recently, pranksters have been telling users to change their Twitter birthdays to 2007 to make the news feed more colourful. However, no such hidden colour schemes exist, as many flustered Twitter users quickly discovered.

Instead, changing a Twitter birthday to 2007 will completely lock the user out of that account, due to the fact that Twitter rules prohibit anyone under the age of 13. Given that it is 2019, anyone saying they were born in 2007 would now be 12-years-old, which Twitter will see as a violation of its rules.

Reports of the prank became so widespread that Twitter’s official support account had to tweet an official statement warning people not to fall for it.

We’ve noticed a prank trying to get people to change their Twitter birthday in their profile to unlock new color schemes. Please don’t try this. We don't have different color schemes based on your birthday.

— Support (@Support) March 27, 2019

Twitter didn’t mention how many people have fallen victim to the prank. However, anyone who has duped can reclaim their account by Twitter Support and uploading a copy of government-issued ID to prove their actual age.

Via: 9to5Mac