Twitter makes it easier to report spammers

Posted by Caitlin on October 19th, 2009

As Twitter grows in popularity, it suffers from a corresponding increase in spammers. These days, your newest follower is more likely to be a spambot than a real person. And as spammers become increasingly sophisticated, it gets harder to tell the difference. Even the savviest Internet users can have difficulty discerning, at a glance, whether a particular tweet comes from a friend recommending an interesting article, or a spammer luring you to click on a malicious link. Those shortened URLs certainly don't make it any easier.

Twitter is doing its best to stay on top of the issue. Most recently, they've added a tool to the Actions menu, which makes it as quick and easy as it possibly could be to flag a spam account. So next time a spambot follows you on Twitter, be sure to report it for spam instead of just blocking the account. The account will be blocked automatically in a single step, and you'll help weed out the spammers that clutter the website with sales pitches and sketchy links.

And if you're concerned about the spam in your email inbox, check out our Internet security software comparison chart, which includes a comparison of the spam and phishing protection offered by the top software providers.

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