Avoiding Twitter Phishing Scams in Direct Messages
Posted by Karen in Twitter, tags: Phishing, social networks, Twitter, Twitter Direct Messages, Twitter messages, Twitter ScamsAs you get ever popular on Twitter and you use it more and more, you may notice that you get a lot of DMs (Direct Messages) from other users and a lot of these have links included, though some of these are genuine, other are blatant phishing scams to get your information.
One of these includes the text “Is this you on here?” and once you click this you are taken to the login page of Twitter, this is just a cunning way of stealing your log in details to take over your account, so to put it simply DON’T CLICK IT!
If you have been tricked in to giving your username and password, then change it straight away on the Twitter setting in your profile.
I’ve recently been recieving DMs with regards to “iq scores“, now I’m not sure if these are phishing scams, but I’m not clicking them, if you have found you are sending these DMs then change your password.
So a couple of simple rules to follow:
- Never provide your Twitter username or password to any website that looks suspicious.
- If you are not sure about a link in a DM then don’t click it.
- If the DM is from someone you know, tweet them asking them if they sent it, if they didn’t tell them to change their password.
There you go a few simple rules that should hopefully keep you safer from the Twitter phishing scams..
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Avoiding Twitter Phishing Scams in Direct Messages…
As you get ever popular on Twitter and you use it more and more, you may notice that you get a lot of DMs (Direct Messages) from other users and a lot of these have links included, though some of these are genuine, other are blatant phishing scams to g…
Twitter: barbaraling
(4 comments) says:
I simply don’t click on any DMs I might receive. Makes life much easier.
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach´s last blog ..The Great Canadian Moose Riders – Today’s Humor of the Day
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Karen
Twitter: Blazing_Minds
(1093 comments) Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Sadly though, some people do click on them and that’s where their trouble starts..
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I’d have thought it’d be harder to catch people with these scams than that
Shane’s Music Mix´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at
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Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) says:
Do you report these to Twitter? Fortunately, I have not received any of these till now..
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..Promoting Your Niche Store – SEO vs. SEM
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Karen
Twitter: Blazing_Minds
(1093 comments) Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I have reported them in the past and Twitter in their wisdom, have done something about them, but they only seems to remove scammers and spammers in a mass removal once in a while!
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Twitter: ShotOfCoffee
(63 comments) says:
The amount of people who had their twitter accounts hacked and are now sending shady DM’s is getting out of control.
Mike´s last blog ..Fresh Brews: True Love And Peppermint Mocha
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Twitter: TechPatio
(52 comments) says:
Funny, I haven’t received *any* phishing DM’s on Twitter yet.. maybe I just don’t have enough followers
Or simply I don’t follow those people back that I think look fishy or I suspect is only following me so they can send their “Hey, nice to connect with you – check out my site at im-a-twitter-spammer.123″
Btw, Karen, you have two “Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail” -showing below your this comment area.
Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Twittley – A Digg-Like Twitter Community (Button Shuffle Colors)
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Karen
Twitter: Blazing_Minds
(1093 comments) Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Thanks for mentioning the two “Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail” I’ve sorted it out, it was something strange happening somewhere, hopefully there should be only one now
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Klaus from TechPatio
Twitter: TechPatio
(52 comments) Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Yup, only one “notify me”-box now. Super
Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Twittley – A Digg-Like Twitter Community (Button Shuffle Colors)
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Twitter: celebfickle
(30 comments) says:
I haven’t received such type of DM’s on Twitter yet… Maybe you only receive these when you’re popular on twitter and lot of followers. But thanks in future if I receive any of these I’ll not click them.
Nehh´s last blog ..Joanna Krupa upcoming hotness
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Twitter: topxmastoys
(2 comments) says:
I can’t believe that phishing has now extended to Twitter – when will these people stop trying to steal our details?? The key is to never click on any link in an email and always go directly to the site yourself.
Clare@ Sylvanian Families Caravan´s last blog ..Sylvanian Families The Caravan
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Twitter: ladybanana
(23 comments) says:
I got one a few days ago, just glad I was awake enough to realise what it was!
LadyBanana´s last blog ..Lost Comments
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Twitter: septicvault
(2 comments) says:
yup i recieve this kind of dm.. i was curious and click one and a warning page that the page i will be viewing was reported as scam or a phising website so I did not bother clicking…
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Twitter: zxxxt
(17 comments) says:
Yeah I get those but not only in Twitter also in Facebook.
ZXT´s last blog ..Not so convincing spam comments
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Twitter: dragonblogger
(13 comments) says:
Tweetdeck has a feature to show you the full URL of any compressed tweet so you can see where it leads before it opens the page, this is a valuable tool in preventing you from being redirected to websites which may contain trojans or malicious code in the html page itself.
DragonBlogger´s last blog ..Dragon Blogger Review of Heroes Season 4 Redemption – Episode 9
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Karen
Twitter: Blazing_Minds
(1093 comments) Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 9:44 am
I’m not sure if it shows all of them, but it certainly shows the majority, I have the settings turned on in Tweetdeck so it certainly helps
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Twitter: jan geronimo
(7 comments) says:
Last night, I’ve clicked one of those links. But my browser warned me that it’s a malicious site so I simply closed the opened tab… I had a friend whose followers was puzzled by strange DM he was sending. He was sending any, it turned out. He’s lucky he got his control of his account back.
jan geronimo´s last blog ..Read My Lips: Twitter Lists Are Meant to be Exclusionary
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Karen
Twitter: Blazing_Minds
(1093 comments) Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I think it’s best practise to let your friends know what they have sent you, just in case they have been hacked.
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Twitter: kelvinservigon
(4 comments) says:
I am receiving lots of DMs too. And most of them are texts with links. Just like what you’ve said, I’m not clicking those links… just to avoid something bad.
Kelvin Servigon´s last blog ..Buy Tickets Online for Concerts
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I guess there is an upside to not being on Twitter. I thought maybe I was missing out on something, but now I’m not so sure.
Is Twitter that effective at marketing your business? Or is it just for scammers as far as marketing? All the twitter feeds that I have read on various blogs basically are conversations between people, not marketing messages. I guess my timing was off there and I missed any marketing.
I have heard that tweeting a new post will unleash a flood of visitors. When I hear hyperbole like that, I have to wonder if it is accurate. What benefit have you derived from Tweets?
Keith@Norman Rockwell Art´s last blog ..Nov 10, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is home to Norman Rockwell painting
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Twitter: symphonyoflove
(14 comments) says:
It seems that every time when a channel gets popular with people, the spammers will come as well. Sometimes, I really wonder; these people are so smart, why not put their intelligence to better use.
BK´s last blog ..Child Obesity: Who Should Take Responsibility?
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Twitter: michae
(11 comments) says:
I just register to Twitter a few days back and this will prove useful for me I guess. I only have 11 followers at the moment and I’m looking for someone to follow too. I guess I’ll start following your Twitter names here.
MichaelR´s last blog ..OneSuite, the Hybrid Communications Service
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Twitter: HichamMG
(1 comments) says:
Karen, those annoying DMs increased now-a-days so there is an important note also to mention. People should check “3rd Parties applications” that are connecting to your account. This done form the web interface by logging to your account then ‘Settings -> Connections’ and removing unnecessarily apps since because even if you changed your password, they are connecting to your account.
Hicham@HichamMaged´s last blog ..Underneath the Shooting
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Twitter: freemnlegacy
(4 comments) says:
I don’t even read DMs anymore, I just go in an delete them when it reaches 20 or so.
Ms. Freeman@Baby Step of an Internet Entrepreneur´s last blog ..Don’t Get Stuck In the Quagmire of Thinking Small
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