Tweeters caught out by phishing scam

TENS of thousands of Twitter users have been caught out in a scam after being tempted to click on links such as “This you????” and “LOL this is funny”.

Internet security experts warn that cyber criminals will increasingly target social networking sites with “phishing” scams, which can be used to sell products like viagra or to steal online identities.

Victims of phishing include British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and leader of the House of Commons Harriet Harman who both had automated fake messages sent from their accounts.

In Miliband’s case a tweet was sent out to his followers which read “hey, i’ve been having better sex and longer with this here”, with a link directing people to a website selling herbal viagra.

Other malicious links direct users to pages that look, for example, just like the Twitter home page, where unwitting Tweeters are conned into entering their login details and giving away their password.

Graham Cluley, an internet security expert with Sophos, advised anyone who has been caught out to change their password immediately and delete any connections under the settings tab that they do not recognise.

Twitter wrote on their blog: “Over the past few days, we’ve seen an increase in phishing attempts and are working on resetting passwords for accounts that were affected.”