diff --git a/twitter.lib.php b/twitter.lib.php
index ebc40c4..d7aa742 100644
--- a/twitter.lib.php
+++ b/twitter.lib.php
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ class Twitter {
    *
    * @see http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-users%C2%A0show
    */
-  public function users_show($id) {
+  public function users_show($id, $use_auth = TRUE) {
     $params = array();
     if (is_numeric($id)) {
       $params['user_id'] = $id;
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ class Twitter {
       $params['screen_name'] = $id;
     }
 
-    $values = $this->call('users/show', $params, 'GET', TRUE);
+    $values = $this->call('users/show', $params, 'GET', $use_auth);
     return new TwitterUser($values);
   }
 
diff --git a/twitter.pages.inc b/twitter.pages.inc
index fb3d069..911ca5a 100644
--- a/twitter.pages.inc
+++ b/twitter.pages.inc
@@ -316,14 +316,18 @@ function twitter_account_form_validate($form, &$form_state) {
     $verify = TRUE;
   }
 
+  $twitter = new Twitter($name, $pass);
   if ($verify) {
-    $twitter = new Twitter($name, $pass);
     $account = $twitter->verify_credentials();
     if (!$account) {
       form_set_error("password", t('Twitter authentication failed. Please check your account name and try again.'));
     }
-    $form_state['twitter_account'] = $account;
   }
+  else {
+    // if we're not verify credentials, simply load the user data, without oauth
+    $account = $twitter->users_show($name, false);
+  }
+  $form_state['twitter_account'] = $account;
 }
 
 /**