Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Spammers' New Favorite Tool? Twitter Search (for E-Mails)

by Warren Riddle on May 15, 2009 at 07:11 AM



As Twitter's renown continues to globally expand, the micro-blogging site has provided endless discussion fodder for media talking heads. Most of the commentary has revolved around celebrities' high-profile tweeting, and whether or not the site is the ultimate platform for the narcissist in all of us. One aspect of the site that is beyond debate, however, is its appeal to spammers.

According to Dancho Danchev of ZDNet, Twitter offers spammers a multitude of methods for disseminating their junk, all the while collecting e-mail addresses of unsuspecting twitterers.



One new and troubling technique allows spammers to amass member e-mail addresses almost instantaneously -- and it couldn't be easier. All a spammer has to do is perform a simple Twitter search for a phrase like "email me at." We tried it, and our search query returned a huge list of active addresses.

While millions of new users continue to flock to Twitter, the site must take precautions to ensure its members are adequately protected. If they don't -- and allow easy e-mail harvesting to continue -- their dwindling retention rate will continue to suffer. [From: ZDNet Via: Web Pro News]

Tags: e-mail, microblogging, scams, spam, top, twitter

Comments

1

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular