‘Tweet Viewer’ Virus Spreads On Twitter

@deventweet
Edwin

WOW! You can see WHO VISITS your TWITTER profile. That's cool! :) – http://bit.ly/tweetviewer

March 5, 2011 11:42 am via See Wh0 Viewed Y0ur Pr0fileRetweetReply

@syndicatedtech
Syndicated Tech

I just viewed my TOP20 Profile STALKERS. I can't believe my EX is still checking me every day –http://bit.ly/tweetviewer

March 5, 2011 12:03 pm via See Wh0 Viewed Y0ur Pr0fileRetweetReply

There is something amazing about how desperately humans want to see who has viewed their online profiles. This desire has been taken advantage of (again) by Twitter spammers as tweets like “WOW! You can see WHO VISITS your TWITTER profile. That’s cool! :) – http://bit.ly/tweetviewer” and “I just viewed my TOP20 Profile STALKERS. I can’t believe my EX is still checking me every day” are proliferating this morning, at about 159 tweets a minute.

The “See Who Viewed Your Profile” application preys upon this exact curiosity, asking users for Twitter oAuth, and then using that authorization to tweet out the above. And while it’s not clear that it’s doing anything behind the scenes, at the moment it is definitely using the access granted to spread itself. Once again: Don’t click on any http://bit.ly/tweetviewer links, and if you do, immediately revoke the application’s access to your account by going to Settings > Connections > Revoke Access.

Twitter’s Head of Trust and Safety Del Harvey recommends the same, here.

@delbius
Del Harvey

If you clicked (even though you knew the link was bogus), you gotta revoke access to the app. Help page:http://t.co/TjSCpcL

March 5, 2011 11:47 am via Twitter for iPhoneRetweetReply

@msuster
Mark Suster

Access revoked, password changed. Damn iPhone usage of Twitter. Clicked on a link before I knew what it was. #fawk

March 5, 2011 11:39 am via webRetweetReply

Update: Bit.ly has blocked the domains hosting the links, but as long as the app has Twitter permissions it continue to spread with a new short link. Here are the Bit.ly stats of the originallink’s trajectory.

Source: TechCrunch

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Don’t Click On Shady Goo.gl Links: New Twitter Worm Making The Rounds

A Twitter virus is on the loose this evening, replicated by people clicking on mobile links shortened with Goo.gl like in this Twitter search. Thus far I’ve seen it spreading through two different urls http://goo.gl/od0az and http://goo.gl/R7f68 but there’s a good chance there are others. The worm also seems to be creating and/or hijacking a number of newer accounts for the past seven or so hours.

The Next Web has traced the http://goo.gl/od0az URL back to http://artcan-development.fr/tw.html through Securi but the real URL for the second link does not match up, showing a http://www.csrimini.it/tw.html link instead.

Twitter @support representative Troy Holden tells TechCrunch Twitter is on the case, “We’re aware and have sent out password resets for affected users. We’ll monitor the situation in case of further iterations.” In the meantime, don’t click on any suspicious links. Especially if you’re on a cell phone, as it seems to be originating at http://mobile.twitter.com.

Sourch: Tech Crunch

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