» How to protect your Twitter account from Scammers - TwitBacks.com Blog

How to protect your Twitter account from Scammers

Posted on January 5th, 2009 TwitBacks 12 comments

As many of you are probably aware Twitter has been flooded by a phishing scam. The scammers are putting up websites that look exactly like Twitter. These websites prompt you to login with your Twitter username and password and then use your Twitter account to spam your followers. They send DM’s and @replies under your account with their phishing url. Your followers may then click on the link, give their credentials and have the exact same thing happen. Our DM’s are flooded with different variations and URL’s of this scam. So what can you do to protect your account?

DON’T put your Twitter username and password into a domain that is not under http://www.twitter.com. Check your browsers address bar before logging in and make sure the url in the address bar is http://www.twitter.com.

BE VERY CAREFUL what outside Twitter applications you give your password to. If an outside application asks for your password, read their terms and do a little research on who is behind the application. If wary at all don’t give your password.

If anyone has further suggestions on how to protect your Twitter account, please posts them in a comment.

Please tweet this post so others are made aware.

See below screen shot for a great visual provided by @PawLuxury

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Tips and Tutorials twitter, twitter phishing, twitter scam, twitter virus
12 Responses to “How to protect your Twitter account from Scammers”
1. Michael E. Carluen January 5th, 2009 at 3:40 am
  
  To TwitBacks Team, Thanks for putting this blog post together. Your suggestion on doing some RESEARCH before using apps IS VERY IMPORTANT. In addition to what you have said, I recommend:
  
  First: Google, Google, GOOGLE the (Twitter app) website’s name. Many are legit, but others may not. If its not, someone would have blogged about it already.
  
  Second: check the about page, and look for real people. Any proud developer/founder will post their real identities behind their product. Get to know by Google-ing their bios too.
  
  Third: The sites Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and FAQ page must spell-out exactly what the site is doing with your Twitter credentials.
  
  Hope that helps everyone,
  
  Michael E. Carluen
2. @brandyellen January 5th, 2009 at 4:26 am
  
  Great post! I also recommend changing your password if you were hacked into. I have been @replying to those who sent me suspicious DM’s.
  
  I have 2 blogspot Blogs so it stinks for me that ppl are doing this!
3. ShockSurge » TwitBacks.com Blog » Blog Archive » How to protect your Twitter account from Scammers January 5th, 2009 at 5:05 am
  
  [...] Link: http://twitbacks.com/blog/how-to-prot…; [...]
4. TwitBacks January 5th, 2009 at 5:34 am
  
  Outstanding suggestions Michael!
  
  @brandyellen by replying to those who have been hacked is a great way to help end this.
5. Carole January 5th, 2009 at 8:15 am
  
  I am going to post this on my ning group and my blogs. Thanks for this!
  
  Carole
6. TwitBacks January 5th, 2009 at 8:29 am
  
  Thanks Carole. The more places it can be posted the better. If people know what to look for then the spread of these phishing scams won’t be so wide spread.
7. Twittonary January 5th, 2009 at 9:39 am
  
  Great post and most helpful. I have noticed a large number of DM’s from my followers who seemed to have been hacked- its more like a virus. Best just to delete them all.
  
  I have also noticed the link changing several times, but all are trying to get you to click over to something either way. One follower noted that his Firefox was blocked after he had clicked on a link as well.. not sure if it was from the same thing, but sounded pretty harsh. Best to just be careful. Thanks again for posting this!
8. CalgaryRealtor January 5th, 2009 at 10:37 am
  
  Given the huge number of 3rd party twitter pages (offering everything from Tweet stats to auto-responses to custom BGs) I’m surprised it took so long for this scale of phishing scam.
  
  How many of YOU enter your tweet id/pswd without even giving it a second thought?
  
  @CalgaryRealtor
9. René Silva January 5th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
  
  Does anyone remember TweetRank?, the service claimed it didn’t save usernames nor passwords, but it was pretty obvious that it was a scam. Twitter should advice everyone not to give usernemas and passwords to any untrusted Twitter app.
  Thanks for the advice
10. Rajesh Pancholi January 6th, 2009 at 1:07 am
  
  Thanks fopr taking the time to create this little article, much appreciated….
  
  R27
11. » When do you RT on Twitter? - TwitBacks.com Blog January 7th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
  
  [...] came after the phishing scam spread through Twitter. We posted some tips on our blog about How to Protect Your Twitter Account from Scammers, and so many of you RT’d the link that we received a bucket load of traffic to that post (and [...]
12. RaiulBaztepo March 29th, 2009 at 11:30 am
  
  Hello!
  Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
  PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language
  See you!
  Your, Raiul Baztepo
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