14 DAY TRIAL // Spammers continue to abuse compromised Twitter accounts to advertise shady miracle diets. Experts have come across a fake CNN account that has been used to lure internauts to weight loss websites.
According to Malwarebytes researchers, it appears that the spammers have compromised a Twitter account and renamed it CNN Breaking News. The account’s ID is “CNN__HotIine.” The trick is that the “L” is actually an “i” written in uppercase.
The spammy tweets take users to websites advertising weight loss products. Interestingly, the owners of the bogus sites are also trying to push potentially unwanted applications when users click on the “Click Here To Get A Free Bottle Of Green Coffee Bean Extract” link.
Currently, most of the spammy links have been removed. There are still three of them advertising “Snooki’s shocking secret for losing 26lbs so far this year,” but the rest appear to be regular tweets.
On the other hand, the account is still named CNN Breaking News, with the description indicating that it’s somehow connected to CNN.
There’s an easy way to determine if an account is genuine or not. Simply make sure that the account is verified. However, watch out for fakes, since the “verified account” logo can be forged. Make sure it reads “Verified account” when you hover over it with your mouse.