Twitter’s latest DM scam; How to protect yourself and followers

Another scam has become rampant on Twitter over the past few days, with a spate of direct messages being unlawfully sent via hi-jacked Twitter accounts. The majority of messages read “guaranteed. make $3,000 to $8,000 a month from home” or similar, and it’s well advised that follow-through links within not be clicked.

The follow-through links load typical #getrichquick websites that request the user to part with a small amount of money secured with the promise of a larger return, albeit one which never occurs. Luckily, many URL shorteners, like Twitter’s official t.co and Tiny URL, recognise some of the links as spam and warn users before continuing.

• Find out how to avoid phishing & other scams on Twitter by uncovering short URLs before you click.
• IT security firm, Threatscape, tells us what to if your business Twitter account has been hacked from.

Here’s The Sociable’s short and simple guide to protecting yourself and your followers on Twitter.

1. The most important thing you can do to protect yourself on Twitter is to revoke access to third-party services you may have granted involuntarily or by mistake. Granting access to an unsavoury application will give it full control to send tweets and direct messages from your account. Go down through your list of applications, as guided below, and revoke access to those services you don’t recognise. Be ruthless, you can always re-authenticate in the future if needed.

2. This one is obvious but changing your Twitter login password from time to time is advised. Choose an alpha-numerical combination that’s at least eight characters long.

3. If you receive any suspicious direct messages from people you follow don’t click any links and certainly don’t part with any money!