BEWARE: Twitter Scam Emerges! [Updated x2]

Posted on January 4th, 2009. Written by Arron.

Fellow twitterers, this morning (04/01/2009 GMT) a phishing scam has exploded it’s way onto Twitter. Hit the jump for more info of how to protect yourself, and how you can help warn others …

[Update 04/01/2009 @ 03.05am]

The issue has now officially hit the Twitter blog (http://blog.twitter.com/2009/01/gone-phishing.html). The post covers what phishing actually is, how the scam artists managed it, what Twitter has done to help resolve the issue, and how you can help yourself avoid the next one.

[Update 04/01/2009 @ 02.11am]

OK, the general rule of thumb now is; just don’t trust any links sent to you via Twitter DM’s (at least for today). The CEO at twitter @Ev is said to be on the case. It seems the scammers are morphing the URL it sends out within DM’s to something different and non recognisable now, while also changing the accompanying message. Follow and help alert twitter of these phishers, using @Twitter.

Original Article:
In an attempt to spread the word further, and as the iPhone has dozens of twitter clients, I’ve decided to dedicate a post to this. Tonight I got warned of a few pretty nasty phishing scams invading twitter account holders. The major one being the one passed through DMs (or Direct Messages). If you receive a DM stating:

“Hey! check out this funny blog about you… jannawalitax . blogspot . com”

DONT CLICK THE LINK. The link will redirect you to a phishing site setup at twitter.access-logins.com.

This is not Twitter.com nor is it associated or affiliated with Twitter in any way. The scammers (whoever they may be) have masked the URL to look EXACTLY like Twitter.com. Make no mistake, the site is designed specifically to gain access to your Twitter account using your password, and spread the scam further into tweetsville.

“In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”

‘Phishing’ according to Wikipedia

You are advised at the minute to not sign into your Twitter account using any other URL other than: http://www.twitter.com. We are also advised not to share our Twitter login details with ANY 3rd party plugins or software, until this issue is resolved.

If you use Twitter and recieve a DM like this, obviously don’t click the link in the DM but reply to the original sender alerting them to change their Twitter account password immediately. For more information of the unfolding shenanigans visit Chris Prillo.

You can also follow hash tags #phishing, #DMs, #scam and #internet.

Help spread the word.
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