British politicians fall victim to Twitter scam

British politicians were among those caught up Friday in the latest Twitter-based scam which hijacks users' accounts to send out sexually explicit messages to friends and followers.

The micro-blogging Web site has been hit by a wave of so-called "phishing scams," which lure users to a bogus Web site where they're enticed to part with their passwords. The compromised accounts are then used to distribute rogue messages to other users.

Those tracking the Twitter account of Ed Miliband, the British energy minister, were surprised by a message carrying an unusually direct reference to the politician's sex life.

"Oh dear it seems like I've fallen victim to twitter's latest 'phishing' scam," Miliband said in a message posted shortly afterward.

He wasn't alone.

On Thursday, House of Commons leader Harriet Harman told lawmakers her account had sent a bogus message to opposition lawmaker Alan Duncan.

She didn't say exactly what the content of the message was, but she left British lawmakers wondering when she told them: "I wouldn't ever send a tweet like that."

Other prominent politicians and journalists were among those who received the rogue messages.

Even tech-savvy Twitter users have been hit. AP

Twitter Phishing Plus: Social Media Attacks on Rise

Twitter has been hit with large-scale phishing attacks in recent days, and today prominent online security firms say such social media hacking is becoming more sophisticated and widespread.

And it can take a serious toll on identity theft victims who may use the same password for multiple websites.

The cyber criminals are getting more precise – instead of relying on “blanket” tactics – with the help of Twitter, Facebook and other sites that can serve as goldmines of personal information, according to Cyveillance, the Arlington, VA.-based firm which provides online security services to Fortune 500 companies.

And new such social media sites are springing up regularly. Case in point, Blippy, a Twitter-like site that tracks credit card purchases at certain retailers once a user links up a card of choice to the service.

“Cyber criminals are focusing their efforts on developing more sophisticated and targeted attacks rather than using a far reaching blanket approach, in order to reap greater financial rewards,” said Panos Anastassiadis, chief operating officer at Cyveillance.

Phishing attacks is when online fraudsters send emails appearing personal, but are actually fishing expeditions for your log-in information that might get them credit card or bank account numbers, or other vital pieces of identification.

The recent Twitter attacks are good examples of the troubling trend.

Direct messages to Twitter users are asking “This you????” — followed by a link. Once you click on the link, you are taken to a fake Twitter login page.

If you make it that far, “hackers are just waiting for you to hand over your credentials,” writes Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.com, a leader in network security solutions for organizations. “In fact, they can automatically post the phishing message from your account as soon as you hand over your details.”

But hacking into your Twitter account is not the worst part, Cluley said. A third of social media users have the same password on other websites, which could include sites with financial information, such as PayPal, the leading payments processor for online purchases.

“It’s bad enough if hackers gain control of your Twitter account, but if you also use that same password on other websites (and our research shows that 33 percent of people do that all of the time) then they could access your Gmail, Hotmail, Facebook, eBay, Paypal, and so forth,” Cluley said. ecreditdaily

Phishing Scam Steals Twitter Passwords

Twitter users beware: This scam will not leave you ROFL...

A phishing scam is circulating on Twitter that aims to steal users' log-in credentials and then forward scam messages to all their friends in the hope of tricking them too.

The scam begins with a direct message -- one sent directly between two Twitter users -- that reads "ROFL this you on here?" and appears to link to a video site. When the victim clicks on the link, however, they are sent to a fake Twitter page and asked to log in. The scammers use that log-in information to automatically message the victim's contacts with the same direct message.

The phishing activity was reported earlier Wednesday on the Mashable blog, which says it received "multiple reports" of the scam.

It's a classic phishing scam, and one more reason for users to be cautious about messages that take them to a site where they're asked to log in or download something, security experts say.

Twitter warned of the scam Wednesday, saying in a Twitter message, "A bit o' phishing going on -- if you get a weird direct message, don't click on it and certainly don't give your login creds!"

This is just the latest of several scams making the rounds on the popular microblogging site as criminals look for new ways to cash in on its popularity.
PC World