7 Ways To Avoid Twitter DM Spam Scam
The wacky crazy world of Twitter brings the good, the bad and the ugly to the social media community. The recent streams of Twitter DM Spam Scams are probably the ugliest of them all. If you are unaware of what I’m talking about, I’m referring to the fact that innocent individuals are getting their Twitter accounts hacked.
These hacks consist of random spam DM’s (direct messages) being sent to their followers with a link attached to it. When individuals click on these links, their accounts can also be compromised creating a vicious cycle. No one is exempt from these hacks, even my sweet innocent wife @Lakendria got hacked. Here are a few sample spam DM’s (don’t click the links, because I just copied and pasted them from some DM’s have been sent to me, I repeat don’t click the links). You didn’t really think that I was going to allow these links to be clickable did you? Here are a few samples: “hey! see if you’re smarter than me here; http://ssssmarttestinq.info” “Rofl this you? http://xsgay.co.uk/6924″ “hey, i got free ringtones from here… http://amazingrings.info” “lol , this is funny. http://aittech.com/?rid=http://twitter.secure.bzpharma.net/login.” ” Get bigger and have sex longer. go here http://concombre.com/?rid=http://callbling.com” Again, this is just a small sampling of the DM’s that have been floating around. Some of the other’s have included: a colon cleanse, iq test, is this you, Lol. this you?? and people making $249 a day on-line. I have outlined 7 Ways To Avoid Twitter DM Spam Scam below:
- Don’t open any DM links that seem remotely weird, that ask questions, starts with “hey,” or has links in general… especially links ending in .info
- Use common sense- if you see xsgay. something in a link, it’s probably not a good link to click. The most recent one is Lol. this you?? Lol this is funny. HaHa you look funny on here! Or basically anything with laughter in it. (2/20/10) somebody wrote something about you in this blog here http://tinyurl.com/yauj2fwAsk yourself the question “Does my Twitter friend even talk like this tweet reads?” (3/1/10)
- Never log into anything with your Twitter account information unless it has a twitter oath login or logging in directly from Twitter.com, Tweetdeck or a trusted third party application.
- Change your password every couple of months and immediately after opening any of the above-mentioned links.
- Follow @spam which is Twitter’s official spam account. You can send them DM’s reporting spammers and spam problems that you’re having. They are good about helping out. You can also click the Twitter Help link and file a formal help ticket complaint.
- DON’T OPEN DM LINKS PERIOD!
Have you been hacked? Hacked or not, share your thoughts, experiences and additional strategies to avoid the Twitter DM Spam Scam.
10 Responses to “7 Ways To Avoid Twitter DM Spam Scam”
Friends don’t send friends links via dm.
Done.
Great Twitter awareness, good for all humanity post.
Simple enough to see and read the “oddness” of the DM message itself and realize, why would my homie send me a message about an IQ test?
Hey,Does this still mean I can’t DM you?
Thanks for the helpful info. Our Twitter account has been flooded with these annoying spam links.
Awesome post.
If it’s alright with you, may I link to it and/or quote from it in my own growing post on good Twitter practices?
I recommend the http://bit.ly firefox plugin that expands the short link if you hover over it.
This, for me, is an essential plugin as even the most trusted of sources / friends can have their accounts hacked.
Here’s an idea: don’t follow everybody who follows you. Keep your friends count below 100 and only follow people whose tweets you actually want to read. Y’know.. like the way Twitter was intended to be used?
I’ve never had an issue with DM spam because I don’t automatically follow back every person that follows me. That, to me, is one of the most valuable features of Twitter; you don’t have to follow everybody back. It basically solves one of the biggest problems with email, namely that anybody can email you at any time, friend or not. If you follow everybody back in some misguided attempt to preserve people’s feelings, you’re asking for spam and deserve it when you get it.
good information, thanks!