Twitter Scam Alert: New Phishing DMs Hit Twitter

The thing about Twitter is that you inherently trust the network of people that you follow. You likely had to explicitly decide to follow someone, so the thinking goes that you know them at least casually. That’s the angle that hackers have recently and continue to exploit. A new Twitter phishing scam has just started making the rounds today, exposing everyone in the entire Twitter-sphere to the possibility of having their accounts compromised and their followers spammed. If you get a new direct message telling you that “somebody wrote something in this blog about you,” and an included short URL, do not open it.

This new scam works like every other Twitter phishing scam to date. The direct message comes into your inbox. The message implies that the person – whom you are following, and presumably trust – found someone writing about you in their blog. When you click the attached link, you’re taken to a fake Twitter login page that asks for your login and password. Should you enter your account login credentials, your account will be turned into yet another zombie Twitter account spamming thousands of followers with the same message. This type of scam is referred to as “phishing” because the hackers are essentially “fishing” for people’s account information.

Again, if you see the “somebody wrote something in this blog about you,” message in your direct message inbox, ignore it. You should never have to give your account details when trying to click a shortened URL.

[Via: Mashable]