Flood Of Spam Slowing Down Twitter Today

F-Secure discovers two fraudulent accounts, warns of tinyurls

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 25 March 2009 – Wondering why Twitter is really slow today? A flood of spam has infiltrated the microblogging community. F-Secure today discovered a fake Twitter account that tricks users into a Google scam, by promising a free Range Rover.

Another example is Kristen Andrews’s account, whose latest tweet reads: “My boyfriend emailed me this site that has a $5000 slot tournament on april’s fool day and it’s free to enter”, followed by a URL.

Kristen Andrews claims to live in Miami/ Florida, and has more than 1,000 followers.

The links leads to a page asking you to download the file goldencasino.exe, a Casino game.

“Twitter is aware of the problem and deleted "follower" Kristen's account within 10 minutes but the problem is that new Twitter scams are popping up left, right and centre,” said Patrik Runald, chief security advisor at F-Secure’s Security Labs. “Tweeple should check who’s following them, and be cautious when clicking on URLs and tinyurls.”

The link promising a free Range Rover, posted by Nevada-based Jason (Terri962), takes us to a page talking about how we can make US$5,000 per month, by simply posting a link on Google.

Clicking on any of the links in the ad takes you (after a redirect via krovs.com) to onlinewizards.net where it says we can now make US$6,500 per month. Sounds too good to be true? Then it probably is. To become a Google Cash advertiser, you have to submit your credit card details and other personal information.

For updates on Twitter spam and screen shots of the fraudulent sites, visit F-Secure’s Weblog: www.f-secure.com/weblog/ or follow Patrik Runald on Twitter.