Phishing Scams Lure Twitter Users

The newest phishing scam on Twitter has snared thousands of users hoping to increase their number of followers.  Instead, users are sent off to a phishing page where cybercriminals steal their Twitter logins using them to generate more spam.

Thousands of spam messages are floating around on Twitter with links to increase the users’ follower count:

FREE MORE TWITTER FOLLOWERS!
CHECK out this site, im a member of it, gets you more followers
If you trying to get more followers check out
WANT MORE TWITTER FOLLOWERS?
Get more followers for free!

The cybercriminals use shortened URLs to prevent spam detection on Twitter.  Scammers are using a variety of URL shortening services to evade standard security precautions.

The shortened links lead to phishing pages capturing the users Twitter login, but never doing anything to increase the users following. The compromised accounts are then used to send more spam and lure in more unsuspecting users.

With more followers on Twitter, you’re able to expand your reach and connect with more people.  This makes for a very effective social engineering trick; taking advantage of user tendencies for malicious purposes. Users are typically none the wiser until spam messages start appearing from their account.

There are now a tremendous amount of 3rd party sites and services available to support the Twitter crowd.  It’s important that users remember not to give out login information without first verifying the legitimacy of Twitter applications and websites.  Most legitimate services now redirect users directly to the Twitter API and use the OAuth method of authentication.  Users should look closely at their URL bar to be sure they are on Twitter's site before entering their login credentials.

If you see strange spam messages like these showing up on your account, change your password immediately.  eSoft protects SiteFilter users from these phishing sites with the “Phishing & Fraud” category and is actively flagging new sites as they’re discovered.