If you're careless about what applications you allow to access your Twitter account, don't be surprised if you find the bad guys are spamming tweets out in your name without your permission.
Here's just a small sample of the messages we saw earlier today, claiming to link to free iPhone 4 offers or tools to help you find out who had unfollowed your Twitter account.
Some of the messages posted from innocent users' Twitter accounts have claimed that it's easy to get your hands on a free iPhone 4:
Whereas others seem to suggest that they offer a way to easily monitor who has unfollowed you on Twitter. (Which is perhaps an attractive tool after Twitter acknowledge earlier this week that the service was suffering from an "unfollowing bug").
Rogue applications we have seen sending these messages include:
Unfollow Monitor App v1.0
Who Unfollowed You v2.9
Tweet Statistics App v1.0
Unfollow Stats App v1.3
Tweet Info App 1.3
Twit Stats App v1.2
Unfollow Details App v1.1
If you were unfortunate enough to grant one of these rogue applications access to your Twitter account, revoke its rights immediately by going to the Twitter website, visiting the Settings/Apps option and revoking the offending application's rights.
If you're on Twitter and want to learn more about threats, be sure to follow me at @gcluley and the rest of the @NakedSecurity team.
Follow @gcluley
Bird silhouette image, from ShutterStock
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Sorry to ask this basic question, but how do I check to see what apps have access to my account? To my knowledge, the only connection I've ever explicitly allowed is LinkedIn. I've checked the Twitter Help Center it is isn't helpful, to say the least.
Thanks for all the great info --
You do it by following the same directions given in the article, for revoking an application's rights.
There, you'll see a list of any apps that have permissions for your account. Then you can revoke any permissions that you want to.
Very useful 4 fb users
Be careful out there. I've seen scams of this type on Facebook as well. DON'T CLICK ON IT!! You'll never get the product and you'll instead get into a bait-and-switch.
These apps are popular; are they OK?
- Are Android Apps: TweetCaster & Plume OK?
- Also are Twibbon & Tweetascope OK?
you have my email now... since we have to fill that first; but the article hasn't told me anything I don't know already... #tricky
dam, i bet all those porn spam bots following me are now worried.