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Are You Being Spammed? I was!

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Boomerang Social

I post a lotTwitter on Twitter, well more then some and less then others I guess. Yesterday I noticed in my email that all of a sudden I had a rash of followers coming on board.

I also like to re-tweet for others when their topic is helpful or interesting, and it brings more attention to them. I've noticed the more I do this the more followers I generally pick up. That's great as on Twitter I personally like an array of knowledge coming through my feed. I don't necessarily try to pin it down to my niche market. Some may think that is good and some may thing it is bad; it's just the way I personally like it.

Anyway, due to this rash of followers I seemed to get yesterday I went into my account and check out those who had followed. To my surprise all but 1 were spammers - and not nice ones to say the least. I guess I was surprised as this was the first time I received so many of these at one time. Needless to say, I had a great time blocking them and hitting spam on them. (There is usually a way on most of the reputable social sites to notify the network that it is spam and/or delete or block them.)

This prompted me to go into Twitter's advanced search and enter some criteria which included re-tweets along with a main search word of Google. I now see how easy it is for spammers to pick new targets and something tells me that they may have software that actually automates it for them (though that's just a guess on my part).

The reason I'm pointing all this out is so that no matter what account you have, when someone friends you, follows you, or whatever that site wants to call it - please click on their name aLinkedInnd check them out. Most all of the social networks allow you to, at the very least, see their profiles and current activity. See if they appear to be a real person that you want following you, because remember, (generally speaking) when you post on your feed it shows up on theirs. Choose wisely where you want your tweets and comments to show up.

GoogleAlso, as just a little helpful hint, if you have a Google Account and haven't changed your password lately - do so now. (Google accounts include Youtube, Gmail, profiles, places, etc...) They were having their own set of issues!  More Info Here

If you have any questions with your accounts being spammed, give me a yell!

Comments (4)

David Burrows
Classic Realty - Fairfax, VA
No Pressure, Just Seriously Devoted to Real Estate

Thanks for the information and yes I go to the profile of everyone that follows me. There are times I refuse to follow because they are spammers. Thanks for the information...

Jul 22, 2011 04:55 AM
Gabrielle Jeans
WebTech Dezine, Gabrielle Jeans Real Estate Coach - Toronto, ON
Real Estate Web Solution, Real Estate Trainer and Coach

This spam issue has been affecting my twitter account. I have been getting a lot of spam links recently. I really wish Twitter would do something about it because it is starting to become annoying. Thanks for the tip about the Google passwords.

 

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Jul 22, 2011 05:00 AM
Gary Pike
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Metro Brokers - Powder Springs, GA

Thanks for the tips, I need to reset all passwords soon.

Jul 22, 2011 05:02 AM
Colleen Gray
Boomerang Social - Raleigh, NC
Digital Marketing Manager

Gabrielle, if you are getting spam links - which I'm not real clear on what you mean by that - you might want to change your password.  With Twitter - the more intense the password the better off you are.

There was a period of about a month I kept getting a notice that "supposedly" Twitter wanted me to re-sign in all the time.  I never did it but sent them an message asking why I was getting it.  Again, it wasn't them but spammers.  I changed my password making it faily difficult and that ceased immediately.

Just an idea.  Anytime you are having a repeated issue with any social network - first thing is to change your password AND NOT by any screen that popps up and tells you to.  Go into your account settings and do it in there.

 

David - definitely the smart way to go.  Keep in up dude!

 

Gary - get in there and change them.  It can never hurt to do so at any time.  If these hackers and spammers would put their talents to good use - it would make the world such a better place!

 

Thank you all for commenting!

 

Jul 22, 2011 05:10 AM