Sports betting agency Luxbet has pranked Twitter users by pretending to sack a social media manager, who then “hijacked” the company’s account.
The hoax began when the company tweeted a screenshot of an email sent to employee “Dave”, which told him his “employment will be terminated, effective immediately”.
"Dave" wrote he had been "fired on my day off".
The supposed employee then launched a tirade on the official Luxbet Twitter account, telling the company’s 12,500 followers he had “changed their Twitter password and reset” it alongside the hashtag #DaveGetsFired.
“Dave” sent several follow-up tweets offering to buy people pizzas with his corporate credit card, which quickly boosted the hashtag to trending status in Australia.
https://twitter.com/luxbet/status/778774510619074560
https://twitter.com/luxbet/status/778763677633613824
Luxbet later reportedly confirmed to Mumbrella the tirade was a stunt to promote its new app, which some Twitter users picked up from the very first tweet.
https://twitter.com/Cristian_Sciuto/status/778758418626600960
https://twitter.com/Fremean/status/778762418113556482
https://twitter.com/ozzieh10/status/778785138553466880
The company has since deleted the fake employee’s tweets and attempted to smooth things over with users.
https://twitter.com/luxbet/status/778787846098292736