Everyone loves twitter for different reasons , but the most common ones being the sheer number of people you get to meet and the amount of information that is on offer .That being said and noted , there is the ugly side of twitter , there are all sorts of spammers lurking around to wreak havoc on your timeline and even your identity . So we need to be able to identify and handle spammers effectively if we are to make twitter useful and pleasant . Let us take a good look at the types of spammers in this post
Let us first begin by tackling the task on hand . Classifying spammers . I generally divide spammers into the following types :
- Link Spammers : These guys are the ones that tweet links about teeth whitening , herbal medicine , the twitter money tree , incredible revenue sitting at home and making millions on auto-pilot using twitter . The only problem with their links is most of the time , they are phishing sites and one click is all it takes to get screwed by them . You could end up loosing access to your own account
- Quote Spammers : These are guys who use the API to auto tweet a lot of quotes or jokes and even tag them , carefully mixed with that is a tweet with a link to an ebook that is going to screw your happiness (Note that auto-tweets from non-OAuth enabled apps will get you blacklisted with twitter) . The quotes and jokes are the lure for unwitting tweeps to follow them and then boom , you are hit !
- Convo Spammers : These are spammers who will spam you by replying to your tweet with a sentence like ” I agree , but look at : ” followed by a link , that link will lead you to you know where . One sure fire method to catch them is that they tweet from the API and not the web or a client . Most of the times , when you get replies from guys you don’t know , look at their timeline , it will be full of the same tweet sent to different people with the same link .
- DM Spammers : The most notorious ones that are now plaguing twitter like crazy . These guys spam your DM Inbox with seemingly “useful” links or tell you that they found your pic somewhere or try and help you to have “longer” sex and all that . Please do not click on any link even from someone you know unless you are sure that they sent it themselves . Many thousands of twitter users have been attacked and compromised by DMs like these .
- Human Spammers : By far the toughest and most difficult to tackle . These are real people who join twitter with an agenda to generally mess around with folks and their timelines . Some of them follow only girls and RT them .Some just tweet A/S/L all over the place . Others randomly follow people and diss them all over the place . They even launch scathing personal attacks . One of my senior twitter friends observed that these are the useless people who have migrated from Orkut where they were doing the same thing , to twitter recently .The only way you can deal with them is block and report spam .
In the next post we will see how to handle each one … Ciao !
Link to this post!
Hackers are all around us!!! When this changes, I can definitely say that the world has changed at least in social networking sites!!!
Waiting for the remedy part!!!
I was searching on Google for something else and accidentally stumbled on your website. That was an interesting post about twitter.
Thanks for the useful info! I’m already planning to make changes because of some of those spammers you outlined. Most drop off if you don’t follow them back but they certainly can be annoying. Thanks again for the heads up!
I’ve noticed a lot of spammers like these. I also noticed that people follow so many people thru twitter nowadays that it’s almost impossible to really keep track of all of the people they’re following
Spammers are all over. Yes the Human Spammers are the toughest to tackle. I think we can reduce spam if we are selective in who we are following.
Good guide lines to know the weeds in the twitter time line. Well organised. useful.
I agree, but look at: http://www.vtrravikumar.com
Just jokin dude… nice post indeed…
and one more frustratingly sick desperate twitter user who uses buzzom to spam others.. how did you miss that point? make it as the 6th Type!
If you have the balls publish this comment! afterall its the truth!!
Whoever you are , I respect your views . but would have been better if you used your real name . If you don’t like me , you can unfollow me and not read my tweets/blog posts .
All the best !
You have so nicely categorized spammers into 5 . I found the article really amusing! Although, I do not find problems with type number 1,2 & even 3 (I,myself, belong to this type) . However, type 4 & 5 are pretty much a nuisance ! Looking out for ways to handle the spammers!
:)
@prerna I will post soon about how handle them
Thank you for the comment
been keeping my eye on your blog for a few days now and i really am enjoying reading them. can i subscribe to your blog
You are right in warning the genuine twitters to be extra vigilant and to stop spammers invading spoiling efforts.your blog content s a Great reading.Thank you
The fifth kind really exists? Have come across the rest, so wanted to know. But then I am not a girl so wouldn’t know first hand.
@Ankit , yes , they do , a lot of them !
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Thank you for the info.
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Thanks. Keep reading !