14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter users should be careful if another user tells them that they’re hideous, or something like that. Cybercriminals have launched a spam campaign that’s designed to lure internauts to a Twitter phishing site.
The Twitter spam run has been brought to my attention by Janne Ahlberg. The security expert says that many of the accounts from which the spammy messages are being sent out are compromised.
The tweets read something like “you look hideous,” “lol I figured this was you,” “haha this tweet about you is nasty” or “lol did you mean to post this?” These types of messages are bound to make some curious users click on the links.
The links point to a Twitter phishing site. It’s possible that this is actually how the accounts used in the spam campaign are compromised. As the phishers harvest credentials, they add the newly compromised accounts to the spam run.
On the Twitter phishing page, users are informed that their session has timed out and instructed to re-login. The page is somewhat similar to the genuine Twitter login page, but a close look at the URL shows that it’s hosted on a .tk domain apparently made of random letters and numbers.
Currently, around 20 spam tweets are being sent out each minute. However, the number could increase if more accounts become compromised.
The problem with spam runs that rely on compromised accounts is that it’s difficult to stop them. Impacted users should change their Twitter passwords to stop the spammers, but that could take a lot of time.
Hopefully, the social media network will address the problem soon. In the meantime, watch out for suspicious tweets. If you’re a victim, change your password as soon as possible.
