Spam-Demon Exorcist

What to Do If Your Twitter Account Has Been Compromised

2011-09-23T22:23:00.000-07:00

Here's an article Twitter wrote on what to do if your account has been hacked into: My Account Has Been Compromised

Sure-Fire Test for Phishers

2010-06-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

The Phishers are crafty devils and are always looking for new ways to trick you out of your password, so they can hack your account. If a "sign-in" site comes up asking for your Twitter password, and you aren't quite sure if it's real, here is a way to test it.

Go ahead and type in your account name, but then type in the WRONG password. If it says "wrong password" then they already know it, and it must be Twitter. However if they accept it, then they are phishers. Luckily they can't hack into your account, because they don't have your real password.

Copy the hackers http address above and send it to @spam on Twitter and tell them what happened. Twitter can only keep up with these crumbs if we let Twitter know about them.

What To Do It You Are Hacked.

2010-03-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

Twitter has put out this trouble shooting guide, telling you what to do if your Twitter account is hacked into. My account is compromised! (hacked?)

How Fake Twitter Page Works

2010-02-25T17:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a video showing the fake Twitter page I talk about. USA Today

Twitter is Apparently Working on Attack

2010-02-23T21:47:00.000-08:00

Mashable's blog from February 20th on the problem: Phishing Attack

Update on New Attack

2010-02-21T22:03:00.000-08:00

You won't believe this one. I'm now getting spam for a company called "Call Bling" selling "Male Enhancement" tools. I got half a dozen from innocent people. Each link has a different name but ends with "?rid=http://callbling.com"

I thought the first part of the link was arbitrary. It's not. It's a real website that nothing to do with these people. So the link looks like this.
"http://creativekidspreschool.com/?rid=http://callbling.com". I'm sure Creative Kids Preschool knows nothing about this. Twitter accounts aren't the only ones being used!

New Attack

2010-02-21T10:02:00.000-08:00

This morning I got a direct message from half a dozen unsuspecting victims. They read: "lol , this is funny." or "haha, u look funny on here" followed by a link. The links had various names, but they all ended with "http://twitter.secure.bpharma.net/login" It took me to a site with the URL "http://twitter.secure.bzpharma.net/login/" Well, it ain't Twitter and it ain't secure! They want your password so they can hack into your Twitter account and send out messages in your name. DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR PASSWORD! If the URL doesn't say "Twitter.com" it's not Twitter.

These usually come as Direct Messages because few people check their sent messages. (Why would you?) It's the easiest way to send messages from your account behind your back. GO INTO DIRECT MESSAGES AND CHECK "SENT". If there are any messages you never sent, erase them at once. Change your password. Also go into "Settings" find "Connections" and revoke anyone access you don't want.

If you recieve any of these remember: the person who "sent" them knows nothing about it. Don't get mad at them. TELL THEM TO CHANGE THEIR PASSWORD! Tell them to erase the message and warn their followers. If you "politely" ignore it you will only be helping the hackers who are using innocent people.

We have to watch each other's backs!

Another Phishing Attack

2010-02-09T15:44:00.000-08:00

An article from TechCrunch on latest Phisher Attack Twitter Asks Users To Reset Passwords After Possible Phishing Attack

They're Back

2010-01-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

I just got followed by someone telling people not to pay attention to any spam messages he sent, because he didn't send them. He knew hackers got into his account some how. So be on your toes and be careful who you give your Twitter password to. Problem with hackers is once you find a way to block them, they find a way to climb over the barrier.

An End to Spam Demons?

2009-12-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

It's been three weeks since I have gotten any spam messages from hi-jacked accounts. I think Twitter got rid of them. I will leave this blog up just in case the phishers find another loophole. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

Revoke Spam Demons!

2009-12-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

My apologies! Twitter was not just sitting on their butts. They put a new application in (or I just noticed it.) Now you can exorcise demons with the push of a button.

On you Twitter screen at the top is a white bar with "Home Profile" etc. Click on "Settings". Once in "Settings" click on "Connections" at the top. You will now see everyone connected to your account. Below each description is a "Revoke Access". Click on "Revoke Access" on each one you DON'T want to have access to your account. Many of these are harmless like "TweetChat". You can't participate unless you are connected. Anyone who does not need access or who look suspecious--dump them.

Hopefully this will solve the problem.

Any Other Spam-Demon Hunters Out There?

2009-12-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

If you run across another site on this subject that is more in the know than I am, please tell me. I will put a link to it. So far I haven't come across one. Twitter should have one up to send newbies to with the most up-to-date information on these phishers. Sorry Twitter, but ignoring hackers won't make them go away.

Okay, So Who Is This Spam-Demon Hunter?

2009-11-07T17:34:00.001-08:00

If you are wondering who I am and if this is another hoax, my name is Jeanette Bennett a.k.a. @scablander on Twitter. @Wendell_Howe is my experiment in writing, tweeting as one of my characters from a book I hope to someday publish. That's the extent of my marketing.

Wendell's twitter site offers me an advantage on tracking spam-demons. I have over 6,000 followers on that site and a lot of them writers, other starving artists types, Sci-Fi fans, historians, etc.--you know, real people who aren't marketers. What gave me a heads up was when I got 1/2 dozen direct messages marketing a diet system all at once and all from writers. I might blow off one, but a 1/2 dozen--from writers? Why would someone either promoting a book or trying to learn to write want to tick off their followers? So I sent them all back a DM asking if they had sent it. They hadn't. So began the detective work.

I think I was getting them from writers, because they are honest trusting souls who naively took the bait of the phishers. I don't like people ripping others off. It's bad enough to get spam on twitter, but from people who never sent it? These scam artists are making these innocent people look bad. I don't like that. Neither would Wendell.

I will post any new information or suspecious activity on this blog. I might get a few phishers mad at me, but I don't care. If I'm going to get anyone tweaked off at me, it might as well be a bunch of scummy creeps preying on nice people.

Horrifying Tales of Spam-Demon Possession

2009-11-04T15:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, the story below is a spoof on the current plague of Spam-Demons, but I think I captured the embarrassment and anger the victims must feel. I call them Spam-Demons because they "possess" another person's Twitter account and make the Tweeter send messages against their will.

There is a new predator prowling Twitter looking for naïve victims so it can have it’s way with them.

Take the story of @Get_Along, author and illustrator of the children’s book, Why Can’t We Just Get Along With Each Other? Her avatar is Boo-Boo, the kitten she saved by crawling down a steep ravine. @Get_Along got a Twitter account to promote her book and to teach kids to be nice to each other.

“It was horrible!” She recalled, quite shaken by the experience. “I woke up one morning, feeling exhausted. I turn on my computer and call up Twitter. My Follower numbers have dropped dramatically. I have dozens of angry Tweets from my followers, wanting to know why I called them fat. Fat? I would never call anyone fat. I tweeted back to them, asking what they meant. They all said I sent a direct message to them advertising a weight loss program. I had done no such thing! Then I look at my messages sent. There they were! I had sent them, and didn’t remember a thing! Why would I even want to send something mean like that?”

@Get_Along was the victim of Spam-Demon! These evil creatures will possess someone on Twitter and force them to send spam to their followers! The victim is completely unaware.

Another victim was @Love_Earth22, an ecology student from Seattle. His story is even more terrifying! “I got on Twitter to tell people how they could help save the environment. I would tweet hints on how to recycle more, links to environmental news--ya know, that kind of thing. One morning I wake up in my apartment, laying in the floor--wearing a leather coat. I'm a vegetarian! Even worse, I’m surrounded by hundreds of flyers telling people I could show them how to make $300 a day--and they’re printed on UNRECYCLED paper! I was so ashamed!”

Perhaps worse of all is what happened to @SweetMercySis. Spokeswoman for the Sisters of Sweet Mercy, Sister Beatrice, told us their tale. “It was the worse scandal we have ever had. The convent started the Twitter site to ask for donations for yarn. We knit caps and scarves for the homeless. We had Sister Agnes do the Twitter site. It’s getting hard for her to knit at her age. One morning we hear this bloodcurdling scream coming from Sister Agnes’s room. We go in and find her laying there in a leather corset, fishnet stockings and high heels. The poor thing is on the verge of having a heart attack. We find spam in her sent direct messages for some X-rated adult ‘dating service’. Who would do this to an eighty year old nun!”

These evil spam-demons need to be stopped, but it will take all of us working together to do it. We don’t want anymore victims like the ones above.