Spam News

Phishing scam spreads on Twitter via direct messages

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Twitter users have reported a new phishing scam spreading on the social network through direct messages into a user's inbox. The messages say "you're on this vid" and contain links to a phishing website.

The link in the messages takes users to a phony Twitter log-in site that asks for user passwords, in a scheme designed to steal passwords and hijack accounts for sending out more phishing spam to a user's contacts.

Twitter has been working to block spam accounts that can be used to spread malicious links for phishing or spreading malware and worms. Users who suspect that they have been spammed by an account can click on the actions toolbar and then click the "report as spam" button to report the suspicious profile.

Phishing scams have drawn increased attention in recent weeks due to the appearance on a website of a list of 30,000 stolen passwords from webmail services including Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo and others.

Security experts believe the list was likely compiled by cybercriminals using a combination of data-stealing Trojan malware and phishing attacks.