arise technologies: Twitter spammers impersonate celebrities

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Twitter spammers impersonate celebrities

By Jonnelle Marte

Used to be, the biggest threat to a celebrity?s reputation was the paparazzi invading their privacy and the tabloids telling tall tales about them.

Nowadays, there?s another, more insidious, menace out to destroy their good names: Twitter bots.

Are you a social star? Ask Twitter

Twitter said Thursday it is giving users more ways to see how popular their tweets are, and information on what types of people ?follow? them. Shira Ovide explains how it works.

Consumers these days may be relatively unlikely to open the questionable messages crowding their email inboxes, but spammers haven?t given up. They?ve just expanded into social media websites like Facebook /quotes/zigman/9962609/quotes/nls/fb FB -0.61% ? and Twitter. After one recent spate of messages circulated on Twitter, promoting a ?miracle? diet pill spammers claimed was endorsed by Dr. Oz, The Dr. Oz Show got so many complaints ? over 11,000 ? it issued a statement in May alerting fans to the ?illegal use of the Dr. Oz name? on sites like Facebook, Google and Amazon. ?It?s not me,? Dr. Oz explained.

Celebs like Dr. Oz, who are apt to discuss products on their programs ? without necessarily selling them or endorsing them ? are easy targets for scam artists, says Chester Wisniewski, senior security adviser for Sophos, an information technology security and data protection company. Within days of a product being discussed on the show, fraudsters will begin circulating emails attempting to peddle fake versions of that medication or tool, he says. ?The spammers pick right up on it,? Wisniewski says.

This isn?t the first ? or the last ? example of scam artists using a celebrity?s name to appear legitimate. But experts say it could cause consumers to think twice before they click on certain links or buy something because they believe it is backed or recommended by a friend or well-known name. ?Maybe it will build a savvier consumer,? says Rachel Weingarten, a marketing and personal brand strategist and president of Two Bites Media. It might also make celebrities be more selective about the brands they back, she says.

More often than not, the scam artists are simply looking to sell the fake goods, says Wisniewski, whose company has tested out certain scams circulating online. Some scam artists claiming to sell diet pills will actually ship the person a bottle of pills, but it may not contain the drugs they promised, he says. Other times, clicking on a link will direct consumers to a site that downloads dangerous malware or hacks into their accounts to pass the link on to their friends and followers.

Consumers whose accounts have been hacked to promote one of these scams should change their passwords and consider using some of the added verification measures being introduced by sites like Facebook and Twitter, says Wisniewski. By registering their phone number, account holders can receive verification codes for signing on or be alerted every time their account is accessed from a new computer. They should also update other accounts that may have used the same password, he says, adding that consumers should avoid reusing passwords.

If they disclosed credit card information or other sensitive details to a possible scam site, consumers may want to alert their banks and the credit reporting bureaus to the fraud, says Adam Levin, co-founder of online security company Identity Theft 911. Some banks and credit card companies will let customers set up alerts when all transactions, or those above a certain amount, are made on their accounts, he says. And instead of clicking on a link from a friend if they?re interested in buying something, consumers should try to track down the proper site for that company to see where they can buy the product directly, he says.

Branding experts say Dr. Oz?s good reputation should survive the latest batch of scam artists misusing his name. While in the short term, some people who were annoyed by the messages may be temporarily turned off by his name, the TV personality?s decision to set the record straight and increase awareness of the issue should help him win back his fans, says Dan Schawbel, author of ?Promote Yourself: The New Rules for Career Success,? a book coming out in September on how young people can use social media to advance their careers. ?It?ll happen to the next celebrity,? says Schawbel, adding that companies can minimize the damage by addressing fans on the same platforms the scam artists are using. ?The quicker they catch it and resolve the issue, the better.?

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