Many Twitter users are being infected by the ‘Unfollowed Me’ rogue app, and those users in turn are spreading the application to their circle of followers. According to the Sophos Naked Security blog, the Twitter scam hooks users by promising to reveal how many people have unfollowed them. The rogue twitter app’s viral attack is similar to the Facebook scam which promises to reveal stalkers.
A message from someone in a user’s network will typically have a link where the Twitter user can find out how many have unfollowed them, and hashtags with what look like currently trending phrases. If you decide to click on the link, you will be asked to give authorization for an application to access and update your twitter account. Click DENY!
If you accidentally allow the third-party access, it will tweet the same scam messages in your name to your poor followers hoping to trick more people into giving them access.
The link also takes you to a webpage which almost reveals the information you were looking for, teasing your vanity, but it actually takes you to an online survey. The scammers make their money off of every successfully completed survey.
If you’re unlucky enough to allow access to your Twitter account, don’t beat yourself up. Go to your settings page, click Connections and comb through the list of applications you’ve allowed access and revoke access to your account. Simple. You don’t really have to worry about any of these leaches leaving pieces of themselves behind. Be thankful you haven’t fallen prey to some of the more malicious scams floating around Twitter. Remember though, scammers use many different applications so exercise caution when welcoming in a third-party.
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