Chipotle has come clean and admitted that what seemed like a good old fashioned Twitter (News - Alert) hack was, in fact, real and part of a promotion on their behalf.

On Sunday, the company’s handle @ChipotleTweets released a few missives from its account that seemed rather strange, only to end with a fake confession of “we had a little problem with our account.”

Tweets like “Mittens13 password leave” and “twitter friends search bar” were sent out to its more than 200,000 followers, garnering an additional 4,000 for the stunt.

What it really ended up being was part of a 20-day long treasure hunt to celebrate the restaurant chain’s 20^th anniversary. Tweets like “Find avocado store in Arvada, Colorado,” were supposed to be fragments of hints that were to be tied into Sunday’s puzzle regarding ingredients used to make guacamole by the Mexican eatery.

"We thought that people would pay attention, that it would cut through people's attention and make them talk, and it did that," Chris Arnold, a Chipotle representative, told Mashable. "It was definitely thought out: We didn't want it to be harmful or hateful or controversial." 


image via mashable.com

The microblogging service is known as a hacker’s delight. With 200 million active users sending out over 400 million Tweets each day, Twitter is becoming an increasingly important source of information, making it rather attractive for nefarious hackers looking to reach the masses.

Some more famously unintentional Twitter hacks include the AP, a trusted news source, whose Twitter account sent out a bogus headline on April 23, 2013, reporting that explosions at the White House had injured U.S. president Barack Obama.

An attack on Fox News’ Twitter July 4, 2011 was one of the worst, as fake tweets claimed that President Obama had been assassinated.

Of course, less serious Twitter hacks have hit the social media airwaves. Take for example of healthy eating campaigner Jamie Oliver, whose account was hacked by those peddling a fad diet fix.

Pop singer Lady Gaga had her account compromised in 2011 and a tweet was sent out which read: “Monster, I'm giving away FREE iPad2's to each one of you in the spirit of the holidays :)”