There's a lot of Twitter spam going around, and unfortunately, it's some of you who spreading it. By clicking on the links you get via DM, you infect either your computer, your Twitter application, or both.
So far, Twitter spam that carries a nasty payload has been easy to recognize. It comes to you as a Direct Message (DM), and it's from one of your followers. But if you notice in the examples below, Twitter spam is generic: It never names you.
Really Nasty Spam - Don't click it. Twitter has not made this software. It's a lie by scum suckers who want to infect your account:
Twitter finally released an app that tracks your "Stalkers" get it here fazzt.biX/blah
Seven new examples (Thanks, Alice!)
Have you heard millions of people are making $5k+/Mo from home? heres how...t.co/blah
Was this blog you posted really necessary? tniX.biz/ad08 some kind of joke?
Someone said this real bad thing about you in a blog.... tniXurl.com/blah
I just found out who viewed me on twitter! find whos watching yours ti.co/blah
FIND OUT WHO STALKS YOUR TWITTER! THIS NEW APP ROCKS! ti.co/blah
viagra,cialis,soma,tramadol and more. no prescription. ti.co/blah
Gain over 1,000 followers a week by using: ti.co/blah
Even more Twitter Spam!
you'll laugh when you see this pic of you... tinyurl.coX/blah
You look different in this photo. cuts.pX/8
my friend sent me this pic with you in it.. t.cX/blah
you look like you lost weight in this video.. t.cX/blah
Original examples
haha my friend showed me this pic of you.. t.c/blah
This is NUTS, I swear I'm getting 100s of followers from this program!! Check it t.c/blah
I lost a bunch of weight, this stuff works! look at news article cXXnewz.com
Somone said this real bad thing about you in a blog.... tniXurl.com/blah
I found you in this video tinXurl.com/blah
Is that you in this picture tinXurl.com/blah
(note the typo in this one) your in this picture tinXurl.com/blah
discount drugs with no prescription required tinXurl.com/blah
no prescription required for your viagra,cialis,soma and more. tinXurl.com/blah
wow this really works! i found out who stalks me :P go to 0rX.com/blah
Read about Rob's battle with Twitter spam.
You'd think if it was really one of your friends or followers, that person would be more personal in the DM. But spam can't afford to be personal. It's written generic to try to lure you into clicking the link.
Don't do it. Clicking the link at best takes you to a spammer's site. At worst, it infects your computer with a virus. Somewhere in the middle is infecting your Twitter account. If you've got other examples, feel free to send them my way. I'll add them to this list.
Late breaking Twitter spam
Some Twitter spammers are stupider than others. Have a look at this example.
I ran across these two names, one over the other, in a friend's follower list. You would have thought the spammer would have been smart enough to change pictures.
4 comments:
Thanks, Diana. Some folks are new and do not yet get what might happen. I just figured some of this stuff, myself. Thanks for posting. Have a great weekend.
-Jimmy
Great post, Diana. I was the unfortunate victim of Twitter spam when I first joined. Clicked on an innocent looking invite to play Mafia Family (or something like that). Ended up sending invites to all of my followers.
I too wrote an article about Twitter spam at http://SharkbaitWrites.com when this happened to me.
Cheers!
- Rob
Timely post Diana. I've had video links that were spam. Apparently I needed to see big breasts. I checked that user's account history and they regularly sent those sorts of tweets.
I'm pretty sure the only way to stop spam posts is to have no need for them. They wouldn't work if a small percentage weren't fooled.
Thanks for some of these great examples. Using them inside my spam filter application I'm building. Of course I'll need a much larger data set in the long run but this is a good start.
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