8 Steps if Your Twitter Account is Sending Spam
Posted by Chuck Welch on Nov 2, 2009 in featured, social media | 9 comments
If your Twitter account is sending DM spam, take the following steps:
1) Close Tweetdeck, Seesmic, Hootsuite or any cell apps that check your Twitter account.
2) Log into Twitter directly on the Web at twitter.com
3) Open “Settings” (It is on the top menu.) (Update: It’s now selected by clicking the menu pull down selected at the Twitter head & shoulders icon.)
4) See if you have a tab labeled “Connections.” (Update: the tab is now called “Apps.”) If so, click it and deauthorize everything you find there. If you want, note and reauthorize later.
5) Go to the “Password” tab and change your password. Make it longer and stronger.
6) Clear your Browser cache and exit.
7) Restart the browser and log back into Twitter. Make sure you no longer have a “Connections” tab under settings. Update: Make sure you no longer have any Apps enabled. If you do, go back to step 3 and repeat.
8] If you use Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Seesmic or other such third-party apps, you will need to give them the new password. I recommend you not do so for 24 hours. The fewer sites that have your password during this problem the better.
If someone you know is sending out Twitter spam, send them to this article.
PS: You can follow me at @chuckwelch for hyperlocal journalism information and get social media tips aimed at not-for-profits and small businesses at @sitesmith
Great, clear directions!
Step 5 should be done if only if blocking access doesn’t work because you may lose access to your account by changing your password at the present time. j.mp/OIGnU
Also, if your computer is infected (which has happened to Twitter users in the past), you need to get the virus off your computer to block access to your account.
Easy to follow directions, thanks for the tip. I was brought to your post by @lakelandvision after encountering a spam that I opened.
Thanks Twitter_Tips. A very good point that readers need to make sure their virus scans are up-to-date.
I haven’t had that password problem this month. I wasn’t hit by the latest problem, but followed the above steps to make sure they worked. I was able to successfully change the password of my account and a pair I manage. Those who were hit by the problem were also able to change their passwords.
Thanks Chuck! I can’t believe this nonsense happens. Do you have any tips to figure out which of the “connections” was the culprit? I’d like to be able to trust things like twitterfeed, for examples. Are these connections allowing the spammers in? Or is it spammers compromising them, therefore me. Kind looking for someone to oust here.
Nick…
I’d just assume they were all at fault at this point. I don’t have any proof who to blame.
The key might be to look at who gets compromised. It starts with those using some of the more obscure tools. I noticed a couple were using bots to collect tweets to auto-RT.
The others getting caught made the mistake of clicking the problem links.
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i did all this and now its not uploading images through my phone ?
Don’t forget Step 8. After 24hrs, you need to go back and enable any 3rd party apps that you still trust. Your app that uploads images probably needs to reconnect to your Twitter account. Go back through that’s process to get reauthorized.
Thankyou so much this was extremely helpful!