If you ever see links in your Twitter direct message preceded by comments such as “Have you seen yourself in this pic, lol!” or “I saw a real bad blog about you, you seen this?”, etc – do not click on them, even if they appear to be from close contacts of yours.
The link itself is not the problem (i.e. just clicking on the link will not cause harm) – it’s where it directs you that counts.
The link will take you to the Twitter homepage and ask you to login to access the link. But in fact, this is not the real Twitter homepage, it is a fake one that instantly steals your login details once you enter them. Then it instantly sends the same spam direct message to all of your contacts (at the rate of 100 a day which is the Twitter maximum for 24 hours).
So, as a rule, NEVER click on any link in a Twitter direct message (unless it is part of an active direct message conversation you are having with someone of course). Just delete it instantly from your direct message inbox.
More information here from security experts AVG: (and yes, you CAN click on this link!).
© This article has been provided by David Fernando of Terra Ferma Media, a social media marketing firm
