Flirty phishing? 24/female/horny has just Twitter-spammed you

Filed Under: Social networks, Spam

Plenty of Twitter users must be finding the spate of spam and phishing attacks that have plagued them this week pretty tedious by now.

The latest message being spammed out claims to come from a young woman:

hi, i'm 24/female/horny... i have to get off here but message me on my windows live messenger name <username>@hotmail.com

24/female/horny message on Twitter

Hilariously, this message is being sent from hacked Twitter accounts that belong to middle-aged, male and.. well, I can't easily verify the other attribute.. users.

It's hard to believe that anyone with an ounce of common sense would fall for a message like this, inviting them to connect via Windows Live Messenger (the instant messaging system formally known as MSN Messenger), but maybe some would out of curiousity and intrigue.

It's not to be recommended though, because whoever was prepared to spam you might also be prepared to lure you via instant messaging chat into visiting an adult website, or send you a malicious link or dangerous executable file, or try and phish your login details to further the attack even further around the world.

These attacks are becoming quite an issue, and if they continue at their current rate one has to wonder how many Twitter users will become so fed up that they'll close their account, up-sticks and move elsewhere.

Of course, if you find that your Twitter account has been sending out messages like the one above then you should change your password and double-check your computer's security as soon as possible.

If you don't, then you may find that someone else has taken action against you. Twitter has indicated that it is beginning to reset the passwords of accounts that have been compromised by the hackers.

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About the author

Graham Cluley is senior technology consultant at Sophos. The readers of Computer Weekly voted him security blogger of the year in 2009 and 2010, and he pipped Stephen Fry to the title of "Twitter user of the year" too. Which was nice. He was also named "Best Security Blogger" by the readers of SC Magazine in 2011. You can subscribe to Graham's updates on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and circle him on Google Plus for regular updates.