Stop Twitter Spam

Did Mike Gravel, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Chris Dodd suddenly decide it would be a great idea to add us all as Twitter friends once again? Nah. It’s just some crafty spam-artists trying to take advantage of the “follow you, follow me” culture of Twitter.

Michael R. Beck – Washington, D.C. attacks Twitter? (3/31/08)

Seems Twitter is jumping the spam shark. Increasing amount of bogus followers who just peddle stuff.

Twitter user groby (3/31/08)

Most likely scenario seems like everybody completely ignoring @replies from those they don’t follow, turning off those “X is now following you” emails, and following only a small number of people. Now that I think about it, seems like I’m describing Twitter devolving back into its original formulation of sharing what you’re doing with a small, pre-existing social group. Huh.

Response by whitneymcn to blackrimglasses.com : Twitter will Devolve

Twitter spammers are removing and re-adding and following and un-following people so as to be able to send more notifications. I don’t want to turn off notifications or limit people’s ability to follow my Twitter stream; I just want to deincentivize [sic] those who mass-add Twitter contacts for no other reason than to fill inboxes and follower lists with self-promotion.

The Guardian – Why are there no spam or trolls on Twitter?

ProBlogger pulled an April Fools stunt today with the announcement of PayPerTweet. Many people on Twitter were fooled by this and complained about how this will increase the spam levels on Twitter. Even some prominent bloggers were fooled by this prank. Here are some comments spotted on Twitter today…

Great, just what we need – twitterspam! PayPerTweet will only be used by lazy people/companies with nothing worthwhile to say
- barcodeguy

Thinking about using PayPerTweet? Let me know so I can block you now. Thanks!
- mkhall

PayPerTweet == Fake Grass Roots == Astro Turf
- isaiah

And some people are thinking that it’s just a matter of time before someone launches something like this as a real service. We’ll be keeping our eyes open…

…PayPerTweet is actually believable in this day and age. Countdown until it is released as a real ( non-april fools service )?
- browning

Yesterday, I had my first twitter spam follow. My guess is the person behind this has a bot pouring through twitter looking for people in Vancouver… With twitter spam, it just sits there mocking me until I block the follower…My guess is that when twitter reaches some critical mass, people are going to write bots to sign up for accounts to continually spam people. You’ll get things like HomeLoanx3492ad following you all the time just to grab your attention. Once it is blocked, a new account will be created and the whole process will start again.

The Cult of Gary – Twitter Spam (3/31/08)

so I have a few people that follow me on twitter. I know who they are. It is fine. Every once in a while, I will be notified that a new person is following me… and I am all wth? who? So I go check… only to realize it is basically spam. That is kinda lame.

Day After Yesterday – twitter thoughts (3/31/08)

[expletive!] was twitter mentioned in mainstream press recently? spammers are hitting me thick and fast..

Twitter user Peter Wells – 3/31/08

incidentally, I’m super quick on the draw with the “block” feature on twitter. zero tolerance for spam.

Twitter user Brett Kelley – 3/31/08

ForSaleByOwner is now following your updates on Twitter. Spam takes on so many forms! Spammers try monetizing Twitter before Twitter does!

Twitter user BriefEpisode – 3/31/08