Of Late, Twitter has been a target of lot of spam messages, but the most recent ones are pretty dangerous phishing attacks and can allow a spammer to access your Twitter username and password. Most recently Twitter phishing attacks have spread through DM messages like “You Seen What This Person is Saying About You Terrible Things” and “Somebody is Saying Real Bad Rumors About You“.

The new phishing attack is spreading on Twitter through messages like:

Hey this user is posting very bad rumors about you…

Hi someone is posting horrible rumors about you…

The messages above are accompanied with a link which takes you to a phishing website that looks very similar to Twitter. The websites’ URL is also made to look very similar to that of Twitter.

Once you are on the website, you will be asked to sign in to your Twitter account because your session has timed out. If you enter your username and password into the phishing page, the scammers will redirect you to Twitter and ask permission to install an app which will then send out the rogue message as a direct message to all your followers and continue spreading the phishing attack.

Please DO NOT enter you username and password since the scammers will then gain access to your account username and password. If you already have done so, make sure to change your Twitter password IMMEDIATELY. Also follow our guide to remove apps from Twitter to revoke permissions to the rogue app that you granted access to.

Please do share this page with your Twitter friends so that they are aware of this phishing attack.

We deal with a lot of spam on a day to basis; in email and social networking sites as well. In social networking sites, Facebook has usually been the leader in scams but Twitter has not been far behind as well.

For the past couple of months quite a few scams have been spreading on Twitter including ones where people were sent DMs with messages like Somebody is Saying Real Bad Rumors About You and You Seen What This Person is Saying About You Terrible Things. While both of those were actually phishing attacks, a new spam message is currently spreading on Twitter with the message:

want to start a real internet biz this year? you must check this out [link redacted]

The link in question leads users to a fake website which talks about making money. Such kind of websites are dime a dozen and we have reported about them in the past. For example, the Work from home scam.

Ironically the website in question opens their fake or what they call "loosely based on truth" article with the question "Are Work at Home Programs a Scam?".  They even have a disclaimer at the bottom (do read it) which says:

I UNDERSTAND THIS WEBSITE IS ONLY ILLUSTRATIVE OF WHAT MIGHT BE ACHIEVABLE FROM USING THIS/THESE PRODUCTS, AND THAT THE STORY DEPICTED ABOVE IS NOT TO BE TAKEN LITERALLY.

It is not really clear as to how these messages are being spread on Twitter right now because the website in question does not have an option or link to share it on Twitter. If the message was shared without your knowledge please make sure to change your Twitter password immediately.

As far as making quick money online, I would suggest that you avoid all such claims that tell you about making thousands of dollars on the Internet. Most of them are usually scams will just make you part with some of your own.

Last month Twitter users were attacked using a DM scam where users received direct messages from people they know saying "You Seen What This Person is Saying About You Terrible Things". The Twitter Scam affected several users who went on to click on the accompanying link and then entered their Twitter username and password on the phishing website.

It looks like another similar scam is currently spreading on Twitter through direct messages. The phishing scam is similar to the earlier attacks and is spreading with the following message:

Hi. somebody is saying real bad rumors about you here ;(

The message is accompanied by a link, clicking on which will lead you to a website which spoofs the twitter interface and tells you to login using your Twitter username and password. The URL is also made to look very similar to that of Twitter.

The webpage in question asks you to enter your username and password and then redirects you to install an app on Twitter which in turn sends out rogue messages to all your followers.

Please DO NOT enter you username and password since the scammers will then gain access to your account username and password. If you do enter your username and password into the phishing page, the scammers will then redirect you to Twitter and ask permission to install an app which will then send out the rogue message as a direct message to all your followers and continue spreading the phishing attack.

To avoid phishing attacks, always look at the URL to see whether you are entering your password on the site itself and not some masked URL which is made to look like the original site. Additionally, you should also periodically check the apps you have given access to in your Twitter account and remove unwanted apps. Learn how to remove apps or revoke app permissions in Twitter.

We have been seeing a lot of Facebook Scams these days, however, it looks like Twitter is also being attacked by users with a lot of scam messages. Unlike Facebook most of the Twitter scam messages spread through direct messages and are usually phishing attacks.

A new direct message scam is spreading on Twitter right now with a direct message:

You seen what this person is saying about you? [link] terrible things..

The above message comes from someone you might know and follow on Twitter and looks pretty real. If  you click on the URL accompanied in the message, you will be taken to a webpage which is designed to look like Twitter and asked you enter your username and password.

Please DO NOT enter you username and password since the scammers will then gain access to your account username and password. If you do enter your username and password into the phishing page, the scammers will then redirect you to Twitter and ask permission to install an app which will then send out the rogue message as a direct message to all your followers and continue spreading the phishing attack.

Most modern browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox will detect the URL as a phishing website so you might be better off upgrading to a secure browser.

To avoid phishing attacks, always look at the URL to see whether you are entering your password on the site itself and not some masked URL which is made to look like the original site. Additionally, you should also periodically check the apps you have given access to in your Twitter account and remove unwanted apps. Learn how to remove apps or revoke app permissions in Twitter.

Twitter users are being hit by a new phishing attack where affected users are sending DMs to their friends, which contain links to fake website that looks exactly like the Twitter login page.

If you receive a direct message on Twitter that says, “haha the look on your face in this pix is priceless! [LINK], DO NOT click on it. Clicking on the link will take you to a fake Twitter login page, where you will be asked to re-enter your username and password.

After clicking the link, notice the URL in the address bar of your browser. If a user provides the log-in credentials, the credential will be sent to the attackers, after which they will full control over the user’s account and can retweet the phishing message from that account.

There are a dozen of scams and phishing attacks that occur on Facebook and Twitter every day. We constantly report attacks like this, so that it helps users stay cautioned about it. Recently, another fake message that was spreading on Twitter stated Pics of Osama Bin Laden Are Finally Released

I suggest you to avoid clicking on the link and alert your followers about the attack. If you have accidently clicked on the link  and entered your login details, then change the password of your Twitter and all other accounts immediately. Also, contact your followers to avoid the message and ask them to change their account password as well.

To learn how you can avoid falling victim to a phishing scam and keeping your Twitter account secure, please read Twitter’s official guide to Keeping Your Account Secure. Here are some tips that will help you protect your Twitter account -

• Use a strong password.
• Watch out for suspicious links, and always make sure you’re on Twitter.com before you enter your login information.
• Use HTTPS for improved security.
• Don’t give your username and password out to untrusted third-parties, especially those promising to get you followers or make you money.
• Make sure your computer and operating system is up-to-date with the most recent patches, upgrades, and anti-virus software.

Sophos’ Graham Cluley explains a simple way of creating a complex hard-to-guess password – and how you should never use the same password on different sensitive websites.

Just like Facebook Scams, there are also a large number of attempts to scam Twitter users too. Recently a new scam is making the rounds of Twitter where users are sent messages about a Twitter app called TwitVerify + Profile Spy.

There is widespread messages on Twitter asking users to not click on links such as “click verify”. There are several variants of this rogue and many people are reporting it as TwitVerify, TwitVerification and Profile Spy.

We advise you not to click on the links and remove the app from your profile if you have already done so and change your password immediately.

If you aren’t sure how to remove apps from Twitter, follow our earlier guide on How to Revoke Permissions for Twitter Apps. Please feel free to pass along this message to your friends.

A new worm has spread on Twitter and is spreading like wildfire. Users are spreading messages saying "Have you heard of HCG diet? AMAZING AND IT WORKS, I lost 2lbs in the last 3 days [link redacted]" to their friends.

This is a spam message so please do not click on the message. A quick Twitter search shows that an number of people have been affected by this and the number of updates that are coming through are astonishing.

First of all don’t click on this link or you might just spread the work yourself. Second, tell your friends who have posted this update to delete the message and reset their passwords if possible.

Update: The website in question is a landing page for some sort of dietary medicine. However, the page has scam written all over it so don’t click on anything. I am trying to investigate on how this worm is spreading and will update this post shortly with more information.

Update 2: If resetting your password does not help, it might be because of an app that has been added to your account. Learn more about revoking permissions for Twitter apps.

More to come…

(h/t @gaberivera)

Recently we gave away a free iPad to a lucky winner as our Christmas gift to our readers. That contest is over so where would you get a free iPad now? Not from those stupid bots pretty ladies on Twitter who mention you in tweets and tell you that you can win a Free iPad from some site.

First of the Free iPad mentions are a scam and I urge you to report the sender as spam and block them. Secondly most of the free iPad tweets are basically spam. If you are enticed and click on those links, you will be asked to fill up some survey which could lead to tons of email spam or you could potentially just download some virus or malware to your PC.

Some of these links could be as bad as the Facebook scams doing rounds of the internet and you could unwittingly share something on your timeline.

So please don’t click on the links when you see these kind of messages. Anything Free comes with a catch . However, when we say that we are giving away an iPad, it is for real .

Quite sometime back Twitter was under a IQ test DM spam where tons of users were affected. It looks like a similar IQ test DM spam is affecting users.

The IQ spam may arise when users click on the direct messages and decide to take the test resulting in users sending out direct messages to their friends without even knowing it. In the past 24 hours I have received 10 such messages from my friends, which goes on to show that it is affecting quite a lot of people.

If you are not sure whether you have been affected or not, go to your direct messages sent Inbox to see the messages that have been sent by you. In addition to that, also visit your connections page (click this link) and revoke access to any apps that you do not trust.

As always, tweet about this post to let your friends know about this Twitter IQ Spam problem .

Yes we all want to know who is visiting our profile pages, however don’t yet fall for that trap in the form of Twitviewer which claims to show you which users have visited your twitter profile.

Twitter has already sent out a notice to users to change their passwords if they have used that service.

To add to that advisory we also would like to say that, DO NOT use twitter services that ask for your username and password, twitter has a very easy to use OAuth API which can easily allow you to use any application without sharing your passwords.