New applications help avoid spammers on Twitter

Posted by Caitlin on July 8th, 2009

If you suspect that your newest Twitter follower is a spammer, you're probably correct. If the Twitterer in question is following hundreds or thousands of people but only has a few followers, it's probably a spammer. If every tweet includes a brief sales pitch and a link, it's probably a spammer. If the account has a cutesy girl's name and a pornographic profile picture, it's probably a spammer.

It isn't particularly difficult to identify a Twitter spammer, but chances are, there are other things you'd rather be doing with your time. Topify is a new application that puts more information in your Twitter notifications, making it quicker and easier to block spammers. And TwitChuck uses a variety of methods to help you avoid, unfollow, block and report spam accounts.

Many Twitterers consider it polite to follow anyone who follows them. But when you follow a spammer, you are encouraging the practice and doing a disservice to all legitimate Twitter users. And when you block a spammer, you are making it easier for Twitter to find and remove the account, and therefore doing a favor to all legitimate Twitter users.

Just like any other spammers, Twitter spammers may be attempting to push a product, or lure victims to a phishing site, or trick them into downloading malware, or they may be building a mailing list that they can sell. They may be a mere annoyance, or they may be dangerous hackers or identity thieves.

So be wary of spam, on Twitter or elsewhere. And be sure to protect your computer from malware and phishing sites with Internet security software.