Phishing spam on Twitter

Dear Twitter,

You have done an incredible job of responding to a massive influx of new users, especially over the last 8 months.  With growth reaching 1400% month over month, the need to react and support quickly has been critical, and for the most part I would say you have done so better than just about anybody else has that has seen such rapid growth on their platforms.   With the recent roll out of Twitter lists you have also added value to the community by providing a tool that people can use to pull some signal out of all of the noise.  Many are finding the lists as the place to discover and follow new people.  Thank you for all of your work.

A new phenomenon has bubbled up from the user community, and it’s something that I would like you to take quick and decisive action on.  Phishing scams have torn through Twitter on an almost daily basis for the last several weeks, with unsuspecting users clicking links and turning over their credentials.  The results have been painful to deal with…I’m receiving dozens, and sometimes hundreds,of direct messages from real people (not bots) every single day with messages like, “hey. do this iq quiz for me http://quiz6545.info” and “i found y0u http://videos.twitter.shjjiwe.com/?vpgdzxiaq”. This is phishing that is perpetuating too rapidly and it’s starting to ruin the communication platform for me. Here is what needs to happen to fix this…

When I wrote a post about Qwitter, several people let me know that they just couldn’t handle knowing when somebody quits following them on Twitter, that it’s just too much of a blow to their ego.  To those who feel this way, I would caution you against using this service as well, because it will reveal much more.

Twitter Karma

While Qwitter only tells you who stops following you, Twitter Karma reveals the depth of your “relationship” with others on Twitter.  This excellent free service will ask you for your Twitter username and password, then after some time gathering info, will show you a chart of how you interact with others.  Some people follow you but you don’t follow them, and you follow some people that don’t follow you back.  Probably the majority of relationships show that you follow them and they follow you, unless you are spammer.  But then again, if you are a spammer you don’t care about this service. Also, if you are a spammer, shame on you.  Please go away.  Moving on…

Beyond satisfying your morbid curiosity for who follows you back, there is some use to this.  Through changes at Twitter and changes in peoples accounts, I have inadvertently stopped following people over time without meaning too.  I’m not sure if this holds true today, but it used to be that if you had a public profile and then changed to private you dropped most, if not all, of your followers.  I spent a great deal of time on the phone with Cynthia Ware testing this out, and we found it to be true.  If you have changed your account from public to private and don’t understand why so many people quit following you, now you know.  It wasn’t their fault…you booted them off!

There is also a neat feature that I haven’t mentioned, the bulk follow and unfollow.  You can “check all” and then click bulk follow.  You can be more selective, working your way down the page and checking only the people you want to, and click “bulk unfollow”.  I find this very, very useful.  So what do you think, is there a good place for Twitter Karma is your world?