Stop Twitter Spam

@bloggersblog recently pointed out a sneaky new spam technique. Instead of spamming people from one spammer account that is following thousands of users, spread it around to multiple spam accounts that are only following a hundred or so people.

This stealthy technique is being used by these three “twam” accounts: @marriagemax1 @marriagcounsel @marriageadvice

All three of these Twitter accounts have profile pages that point to the same “Healthy Relationships” site which, of course, provides zero value and is full of ads.

Do they think we’re that easily fooled? Do they think we won’t notice that a Twitter ID that is supposed to be about marriage advice is full of random quotes from people like Benjamin Franklin that have nothing to do with marriage advice?

So what does this mean for Twitter spam detection algorithms?

1) Don’t exclude a site just because it’s not following thousands of people

2) Look for clusters of Twitter ID’s that share common text (e.g. “marriage”) and also share the same Web Site URL on the profile page.