"Twitter Suspends Fake McDonald’s Account That Conned People for 9 Months"

GS:

tweets were entirely unremarkable at first, consisting of boring pablum like “Have a happy McHolidays!” and “Try our McSpicy Chicken Filet meal, new from the Extra Value Meals Menu!”

In fact, they were so unremarkable that @McDonaldsCorp — the official corporate account that’s weathered other recent embarrassments — actually tagged @Mc_DonaldsHK in several of its own responses to angry Hong Kong customers. In one, the corporate employee wrote, “Thanks for sharing your experience. Let’s bring our friends @Mc_DonaldsHK to assist.” (McDonald’s has locations in Hong Kong, but no official Twitter account for that region because internet users in China can’t access the service.)

On July 24, though, the account suddenly went rogue, tweeting this at an upset customer: “This bitch freakin out about cheesecake while kids out here McDying. relax.” Off-brand and in poor form, but the message sneaked by because nobody reads regional fast-food accounts’ Twitter replies. That allowed @Mc_DonaldsHK to return to product promotion as usual — at least until this weekend, when the individual managing the account started tweeting about suicide and losing their son and wife: