Jianjun's Blog

Twitter faces serious Spamming problems recently. Spammers use bots to mass follow normal users. Although Twitter seems to have a mechanism to prevent these guys being noticed by users they follow, from their profiles we see they DO get followers. If they follow 10,000 people, usually they have a few hundred following back.

Today I found a new trick used by these followers. This guy created two profiles, one is used to mass follow other users, the other is used to ‘reap’ followers. See the following screen shots:

Spammer Profile 1 (If you are on Twitter, block this profile immediately)

Spammer Profile 2 (If you are on Twitter, block this profile immediately)

The first profile claims to be a service of Twitter called “Twitter Private Messaging Service.” When you click on the URL on this profile page, which is: twitter.com/friendships/create/InTouch, you will automatically follow the second profile. That’s why you see the second profile has 1,024 followers!

I think Twitter’s /friendshps/create/username function is actually a security loophole. I can’t really figure out why this function is there.

If you are on Twitter, watch out for this kind of trick. Spammers get enough followers to send spam or even do eviler things. Impersonation is a violation of Twitter TOS, but we see it’s prevalent on Twitterland. Failure to enforce the TOS gives green light to spammers. Twitter has to do something now before things become out of control and lose its user base!

Twitter is a popular social communication or microblogging platform where people update their current status using less than 140 characters.

Most users use a Twitter client such as Twhirl or Twitter web interface to send and receive ‘tweets’. But Twitter also offers an SMS service, which works just as your usual mobile SMS. You won’t be charged a dime unless you send them out. You may choose to receive a particular person’s updates or only Direct Messages (DM). You can also set it to ‘Sleep’ during certain hours. Local Twitter SMS numbers:

USA 40404
Canada 21212
India 5566511

International users may enable their mobile device via Twitter’s UK number: +447624801423.

Visit http://twitter.com/devices (after you logged in) to enable your phone to receive/send SMS messages from/to Twitter.

To receive a particular person’s tweets, go to that person’s profile page and choose so.

Happy tweeting!

*Update*

Twitter has stopped sending SMS messages to my mobile in China since a few days ago.

*Update-1*

Twitter recently experienced quite some technical glitches. But the good news is SMS service is back. Now you should be able to enjoy it for free again.