The security of cyberspace has been the biggest concern of law enforcement for the past ten years. Information shared by users can be used by malicious persons to perpetrate crimes on various social media platforms. Users need to know the kind of information they are supposed to share. The information shared should be limited. One thing users should be aware of is that anyone can fall victim to these scams.
Twitter is still one of the most famous social media sites alongside Facebook. Therefore, to prevent a user from falling victim to these scams. They need to understand the common scams available on Twitter. Here are the most common scams possible on this platform.
Illicit direct messages:
Online scammers often target every aspect of a user’s Twitter profile and page. This includes their inbox. Scammers often hijack accounts and send direct messages that tend to look legitimate. These messages often send users to fake login pages that pick up’ users’ credentials. As soon as a scammer compromises a’ users’ account, they can use it to carry out lots of hideous activities.
However, phishing pages are not the only illicit direct messages sent by scammers on Twitter. Recent research carried out online showed that scammers target users through their inbox. Some IT experts suggest that Twitter can eliminate these scams by looking into the process of account creation.
Financial schemes:
This is like the most common Twitter scam. This is the end product for most of the scams available. These financial schemes attract users with money-making opportunities from home through tweeting. They usually include tweeting about other products and engaging in social media marketing.
Victims of these scams usually pay a little amount of money to sign – up. Then there are given a starter kit. Once this money is spent, these scam companies often charge these victims more money every month. Usually, the victims have no choice but to cancel their cards.
Spam:
Fraudsters don’t need to involve themselves directly in a scam. Usually, they make use of bot to act like a human being and communicate with potential victims. An example is the use of image spam. A scammer can send a spam message with the picture of a scantily dressed woman. This message usually includes an invitation like “hi handsome, msg me,” then they contain a form of contact. When a user decides to chat up the “woman,” the bot follows a pattern and gives the user a free pass to an adult site, which has a webcam.
When you visit the website, users are asked to input their details, which usually include a credit card detail. This turns the user into a potential victim because their identity can be stolen easily as well as their credit card. However, the bot makes use of diverse ways to carry out scams. Therefore, you may not see this form of scams anymore, but the general pattern is the same. There are over 20 million of them as identified by Twitter in 2015. Therefore the possibilities which these bots provide to scams are endless.
Worms:
There is less common when compared to other scams listed above. However, they still pose a threat as significant as the others. A typical example is a Mikeyy worm. This uses JavaScript to infect user’s accounts as soon as they visit the profile of friends already infected.
In a move similar to that of coronavirus spread. Anyone who visits the profile of a friend, colleague, or any follower in their network will be infected. When it happens, the worm becomes a considerable problem. It leads people to have no choice but to close their accounts on Twitter. However, it has become scarcely used by scammers.
Pay to get followers scam:
We have seen adverts of profiles who claim that they can bring thousands of followers for a small amount of money. These scam manifest in different forms, with some claiming that they can identify Twitter accounts that automatically follow you after you pay for their services. Others claim they can get you, followers, through a shared interest. That is, they will get you, followers, based on your hobbies and shared interests such as sports, movies, and music.
No matter what they claim they can do for you, most of the pay for followers providers are scammers. Instead, you should use our list of the safest and best sites to buy real Twitter followers! Therefore, if you agree to engage with any of these people, you could be accused of assisting in the distribution of spam on the social networking platform. Twitter can ban you from the site altogether.
What to do when you discover a scam on Twitter?
Twitter scams are a constant issue, but we have looked at the common ones above. The reason is to help you know when you are being scammed. When you discover a scam, this is what you should do about it.
The first one is you should know that Twitter only sends emails from @twitter.com or @e.twitter.com. Therefore, if you receive an email from a different address, which may include attachments and links, delete them without opening. If you do open it, do not, for any reason, download any attachments contained in these emails.
In case you suspect your account has been compromised, contact Twitter compromised account help page. Twitter will help you reset your account and create a new password. Twitter usually does this by sending you a secure link for you to use in creating a new password.
In cases of financial scams, you can report through the app. Follow the steps below:
- Select report tweet from the “v”, icon
- Choose it’ sit’s suspicious or spam
- Select the option that describes the way the tweet is a scam best.
- Submit your report.
- The process is the same if you are using a desktop.