Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook

Talking technology, computers, and the Internet… for the average computer user

Posts Tagged Twitter

Twitter Spam Scam Hits Users

Feb 22

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Twitter, crime | 1 Comment

If you use Twitter, be on the lookout for (another) phishing scam. It comes in the guise of a genuine follower’s message– usually it’s a direct message but there have been reports of the message on the public Twitter roster– saying something like “LOL, is this u?” or “hahaha u look funny here.”

If you click the link in the email, your browser will redirect you to the phishing site that looks just like Twitter. If you enter your username and password, you’ve just handed your credentials over to a spammer. The spammer will use your Twitter account to send messages to all your followers about pharmaceutical drugs; moreover, your account will be used as a springboard for more of those “hahaha u look funny here” messages to infect more Twitter user accounts.

So if you receive such an email, don’t click the link, don’t enter your username and password! If you think you have been snagged by the scam, change your password immediately. You can also read more about the scam at Mashable.

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Marketing Comes to Your Social Network

Dec 30

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Internet, business services, networking | 2 Comments

Imagine walking down a city street, and suddenly your iPhone buzzes. You look at it, and there’s a message from that restaurant– Mel’s Diner– further down the street, offering a 15% discount on lunch for people who visit within the next hour. Do you go? And how did they get that message to you?

Welcome to the new world of marketing via your social network. It’s one of the key projects of companies like Digital Development Partners, Inc (You can see their stock profile and performance at Market Watch). You see, there are now SO many products in the world, and SO many people…. the dilemma for the business has been how to get the word out? Mel at Mel’s Diner can’t possibly search Twitter and Facebook for every resident of his city, and befriend them and message them. Mel is a cook, not a twitterer! So he may hire a marketing company to sift through and manage the massive information.

This kind of marketing is very unique; it’s an in-your-face kind of marketing. What do you think? It’s great to get discounts, and you may even discover new products and services to benefit your own business or employment… but it’s an invasive form of marketing. Social networking is traditionally (if you can call 6 or 7 years of Facebook a “tradition”) reserved for friends and family communications. To have Mel intrude into your Twitter is a rude awakening for some.

It’s probably no surprise that the idea of Digital Development Partners was started by a college student at Western Carolina University, funded by a business, and won a contest for innovation and enterprise. The company’s brainchild is YuDeal.com (currently in beta), which turns social networking and global marketing on its head, as seen with the example of Mel and his Diner. What do you think of all this?

Remember, I’m a pro-blogger and I am sometimes compensated with stuff or money to review or mention products or services! This was one of them. :D You can read more about my blog policy on my About page.

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Make Money With Twitter

Nov 17

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Make Money Blogging, Twitter, marketing | Comments off

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Sponsored Tweets. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have a career in pro-blogging; I make a part-time living, making money online by promoting various advertisements and endorsements, and writing reviews and articles. If you are an enthusiastic blogger or writer, there IS money to be made. So far, the marketplace has been geared for paid blogging, ghost writing, or article writing. But the Internet is changing, once again. Leave it to the folks at IZEA to invent another excellent way to make money online.

The latest thing to come down the pike is Sponsored Tweets. Sponsored Tweets, at its very basic, is a way for you to get paid, promoting various products or services by your tweets at Twitter. IZEA is the middleman, providing the means of communication and payment from advertiser to blogger. Twitter is HUGE, its the biggest thing in social networking, and your tweets can reach thousands, if not millions, of people. The concept of connecting the vast audience of Twitter with knowledge about good products and services is brilliant.

Here’s how the system works, in a nutshell:

  • Sign up for Sponsored Tweets. It’s free. Offers await you.
  • Oh yeah– you have to have a Twitter account, too! Go do that first, eh?
  • Determine your pricing. There is a recommended price for you, but you can go as high or low as you want. IZEA has a very good help page if you need advice, and the Get Satisfaction forums are outstanding for finding quick help and tips.
  • Wait for offers from advertisers. You can choose to create your own sponsored tweets, or have them pre-written by advertisers. It’s up to you, and only you can give the final stamp of approval before it ever gets released into the Twittosphere. Disclosure is mandatory, however. IZEA has some very witty and unique ways to disclose; I enjoyed reading them, and you can tell that whoever did them definitely does a lot of tweeting!
  • There are some celebrities who have joined Sponsored Tweets. This adds a lot of clout, and you can also learn some tips of the trade on improving your audience. ;)

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There’s a very strict Code of Ethics for the Sponsored Tweets program (as well as all the IZEA ventures). There is always transparency and disclosure, but there is also freedom for expression and choice.

You won’t get rich with Sponsored Tweets, but you WILL make some very nice money on the side. And it’s a great way to supplement any income, online or not. And in this economy, every dollar counts! Check out Sponsored Tweets, it’s a REALLY easy way to make some money. Sign up for Sponsored Tweets here.
SocialSpark Disclosure Badge

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Twitter Storing All Tweets

Sep 29

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Internet, crime, marketing, news, surveillance | 4 Comments

This is interesting: Twitter stores all tweets. All of them. All the mindless drivel, the babble, the sponsored tweets, the quotations and witty sayings, the urls, the photos, the personal data. Forever, apparently. Or maybe just for two weeks. Who can know? The New York Times paints it as a good thing (“historical”), but I can see arenas of abuse for this.

Many people have worried that the inaccessibility of historical Twitter search results might mean that the messages weren’t being saved at all. Company co-founder Biz Stone told us otherwise by email today, though. Twitter is in fact saving all the tweets. You just can’t access them through search “right now.”

We wrote to Twitter to inquire about the company’s stated plans to scrub forthcoming geolocation data from messages after 14 days. That plan is said to be aimed at avoiding subpoenas, though the publishing of the location data at all is opt-in in the first place.

Scrubbed geolocation data after two weeks and no way to access historical information at all? That sounded like a pretty bum deal for a world-changing new communication platform. So we emailed to ask.

This was the reply we received from Biz Stone: “We definitely save all the tweets although you’re right in noting that our search focuses more on newer content right now. And yes, the plan is to drop the coordinates after 14 days.”

As with everything, you should never reveal sensitive personal information in a public forum, especially an Internet public forum, where data is harvested and stored indefinitely. Twitter’s own Terms of Service says:

Any information that you provide to Twitter is subject to our Privacy Policy, which governs our collection and use of your information. You understand that through your use of the Services you consent to the collection and use (as set forth in the Privacy Policy) of this information, including the transfer of this information to the United States and/or other countries for storage, processing and use by Twitter.

Why on earth Twitter would want to store data on every mommy blogger’s baby diaper change or every businessman’s restaurant tweet is beyond me. Unless Twitter has intentions of selling that data. Advertisers pay BIG money for such targeted data.

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Beware of Clicking Twitter Links

Sep 28

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Internet, news, security news | 3 Comments

It’s very risky to click on links, any links, be it in emails, in social networking sites, etc. A recent study said that there has been a 233% increase of malicious sites on the Internet, almost all propagating through social networking and emails. Yikes.

Twitter is especially susceptible to malicious clicking. Because urls are shortened for Twitter, the users cannot tell where the link is going. Who knows whether the link truly leads to Aunt Sally’s wedding dress, iscsi san or a worm? There are now several browser addons and such for detecting the origins of shortened urls, but still, it’s very difficult to know exactly where you are being led. And who knows what trojan, phishing scam, or virus awaits.

Symantec recently warned of the dangers of clicking links in Twitter:

The security software company released a warning and a video Friday on the dangers of clicking on the short URLs that link users from a tweet to a story, photo or video. Twitter isn’t the only place on the web users might find such shortened web addresses, but it is the most popular one.

The problem is that you don’t know where it will take you in most cases until you click on the link, something Symantec said malware authors have caught on to.

“Using enticing tweets and commonly used twitter search terms, their goal is to get other users to click on their links, leading to malicious code,” the Cupertino company said.

It offered examples with a YouTube video, which can be seen by clicking here.

The company said that in addition to its own security software, some browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer allow users to check the full URL of a link before clicking on it.

“While this won’t tell you for sure if the link is malicious, it will at least allow you to look more carefully before clicking,” the company said in its post.

I heard in August that Twitter was starting to filter links that pass through their system, but I haven’t heard it directly from Twitter. Have you? Symantec published their statement about Twitter-clicking over the weekend, so I assume malicious links still pass through.

Nonetheless, please be careful what links you click!

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