This morning I had two new Direct Messages in my twitter account both read -

lol , this is funny (and a LINK) and the other one  read   Lol. this you?? (and a LINK) Different people and profiles sent them to me but it was the exact same link.

This was a Twitter post from a friend of mine. He opened one of these links, you can tell what happened to him.

Both are most likely a phishing scam since part of the link included a login area.  It is a method to try and capture my username and password. Why? …  is sometime still beyond my understanding but once they have the password they need then the hacker sometimes sends messages from your accounts to your friends and followers saying they were stuck on a trip and to wire money – so I guess if even a few people fall for it – that may be why the hackers do this. Other reasons, may be simply because they can and some links will include viruses as well.

How do you protect yourself in a world where you can be connected to thousands of people and have no way of personally knowing each person and knowing you can trust every link that come your way.

Be Aware:

• Check your own sent Direct Messages on Twitter and Facebook and make certain that any sent messages are ones you did send.
• Read messages before clicking. Yes that means slow down your trigger finger and read. If you don’t know the person, use caution – look at the link and make sure it seems reasonable. If it is out of character for that person then be wary.
• Contact the other party and ask if they sent you a message that said ” lol is this you?” Don’t include the link or they may click on it – but your note back to them may be the first they realize they may have been hacked.

Checking your own profile regularly should be a part of your weekly tasks on social media. It is something we do for our clients when we manage their social media accounts.

Look at your profiles, messages and posts – make sure it is all correct. If it looks messages have gone out that you did not setup/authorize – first thing to do is change your password.  As noted in a previous post, your email password assigned to your social media accounts should always be different a well.  If it is not – then you also need to check that account and change its password.

Online Reputation is a big reason why people use social media – having it compromised can bring you down, and you may not ever realize what happened.  Be Aware and Keep your Reputation more Secure.

Technorati Tags: online networking, social media security

Every so often Twitter runs a purge of inactive users and accounts, when it happens you will see followers drop off your profile.   Even the folks at Twitter realize that it’s okay to hit unfollow, I do it all the time.  Shocked?  Don’t be.  There is nothing wrong with clicking unfollow and in some cases even the block button is okay to hit too.

Why do I do it? Well, in most cases it is because I get no value from that person and my connection with them. Many will argue you have just removed the viral-access from their connections (you tell two friends, they tell two friends and so on – well, on Twitter that number could actually be two thousand or even more), but sometimes those people may not be connections you want to have or be associated with.

I tell all my clients the two main standards I have for not connecting with someone; naked pictures and blatant swearing… though recently I have added overzealous sales pitches and using the @reply to mention other people along with a sales link.

I use social media primarily for my business as do my clients,  but a lot of my personality comes out too. Overall I try to keep it fairly professional and would rather not be associated with certain actions I deem unprofessional.

There will be many people that disagree with me wholeheartedly on these choices and that is fine.  The difference between us comes down to our social media strategy – our reason for being on Twitter.  The point is to remember that it is okay to click the unfollow button when you want. It is your choice and no harm can come from doing this; in fact in some cases it can free up space so you can see your more valuable connections more often.

Technorati Tags: online networking, Twitter, virtual assistant