Pesky Twitter Bots?

[RebeccaT]

Over the last few days I have gained Twitter followers all with the same montage style header, user names made up of random letters and feeds full of links. Is anyone else getting a sudden influx of these?

 

[annamaytiddies]

Yes, especially with "Check out my 18+ pics" and generic lady pictures. It's so painfully obvious they're bots. I went through my followers and blocked and reported about 50 of them. :snooty: reporting them for spam is the best we can do!

 

[JerryBoBerry]

Yes, especially with "Check out my 18+ pics" and generic lady pictures. It's so painfully obvious they're bots. I went through my followers and blocked and reported about 50 of them. :snooty: reporting them for spam is the best we can do!

At first I was going to say no. But the "Check out my 18+ pics" part clicked. I have been getting a few of those lately too.

 

[SaffronBurke]

Yes, especially with "Check out my 18+ pics" and generic lady pictures. It's so painfully obvious they're bots. I went through my followers and blocked and reported about 50 of them. :snooty: reporting them for spam is the best we can do!

I have a TON of these, all random female names like "Ashley" and "Jessica", some random, probably stolen, headshot, and same header with pictures of assorted ladies.

A couple have faved/retweeted a couple of my tweets, which just confused me. They're part of what I get rid of when I'm cleaning up my follower's list.

 

[AmberCutie]

A couple have faved/retweeted a couple of my tweets, which just confused me.

That's how they get followers, using other peoples' content to grow their follower count.

 

[Ann_Sulu]

I've seen this sort of thing for ages, but the only thing I don't get is why?? I mean yes, I'm sure they get a large following eventually by posting sexy pics, however how in the long run does that benefit them? They aren't promoting the women in the pics, unlike twitter promoters. They aren't doing anything other than wasting mass amounts of time to...get...a...larger twitter following. Unless I have it wrong, these people really need to find a better/saner hobby. :?

All I can figure is it's it's something like so their mom doesn't find their spank bank.

 

[yummybrownfox]

I'm not sure if it helps any, but there is a Twitter program called 'TwitBlockApp'. It's described as "a bulk blocking and junk filtering tool for Twitter." It shows you a list of your Twitter followers that are likely to be spam/junk accounts. It shows the screen name, and a percentage of the likelihood that it's a junk account. Then you have the option of blocking that follower, or keeping them as a follower.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

I'm not sure if it helps any, but there is a Twitter program called 'TwitBlockApp'. It's described as "a bulk blocking and junk filtering tool for Twitter." It shows you a list of your Twitter followers that are likely to be spam/junk accounts. It shows the screen name, and a percentage of the likelihood that it's a junk account. Then you have the option of blocking that follower, or keeping them as a follower.

Interesting. It found 48 it thinks have a good probability of being spammers. A few of those I did recognize from mfc. All in all a lot less than I would have thought.

 

[Johndoe91]

I've wondered about this for a while, because outside actual camgirls im close with, I have NO idea how i have followers, I figured it was something like this.



Coincidentally, look who my only recent non-bot follower is

 

[Shaun__]

Tumblr bots suck too, I was so happy to see I had mail last week. It turned out to just be spam. :angry4:

 

[yummybrownfox]

^Yeah, I could never figure out how I keep getting new followers when I hardly even tweet anymore. I mean, maybe when I favorite or retweet someone else's tweet, people are seeing my name next to a butt cheeks avatar photo, and it's sparking interest? Lol.

 

[RebeccaT]

I've wondered about this for a while, because outside actual camgirls im close with, I have NO idea how i have followers, I figured it was something like this.



Coincidentally, look who my only recent non-bot follower is

Oooh! It's me!!!!

I finally got round to following followers and that's when I suddenly got all of the bots...at least I know you're real :-D

 

[weirdbr]

I've seen this sort of thing for ages, but the only thing I don't get is why?? I mean yes, I'm sure they get a large following eventually by posting sexy pics, however how in the long run does that benefit them?

It's part of trying to make the accounts look 'legit'/'human' enough to avoid detection from the spam detection system from twitter; these accounts then are sold to operators (or are already owned by) who sell follows/likes/retweets to users who want to look more popular than they are or to get certain tweets/hashtags to become 'viral'.

The same approach happens on Facebook as well; quite a few large brands were caught a while back buying 'likes' on Facebook/Twitter to get their advertisement campaigns to go 'viral'.

 

[Ann_Sulu]

I've seen this sort of thing for ages, but the only thing I don't get is why?? I mean yes, I'm sure they get a large following eventually by posting sexy pics, however how in the long run does that benefit them?

It's part of trying to make the accounts look 'legit'/'human' enough to avoid detection from the spam detection system from twitter; these accounts then are sold to operators (or are already owned by) who sell follows/likes/retweets to users who want to look more popular than they are or to get certain tweets/hashtags to become 'viral'.

The same approach happens on Facebook as well; quite a few large brands were caught a while back buying 'likes' on Facebook/Twitter to get their advertisement campaigns to go 'viral'.

I was also recently told that the links can get your info or give you viruses. I didn't click any of course, because well...what's the point? However, yeah, I wouldn't advice clicking any either.

 

[weirdbr]

I was also recently told that the links can get your info or give you viruses. I didn't click any of course, because well...what's the point? However, yeah, I wouldn't advice clicking any either.

That's possible - I always click on the links of the bots that follow me and usually it's a mix of work from home ads, pyramid schemes or ads to cam sites (usually the less famous ones/whitelabels). Sometimes it's legit content hidden behind ad.fly in an attempt to make 'easy' money, but I bet they sink more money in those twitter accounts than they make with the redirector.

I've yet to stumble upon any attempts to install a virus or trojan on my computers, but maybe it's because I open the links on a disposable linux virtual machine instead of anything running Windows - the 'smart' attackers avoid trying to install virus/trojans on something that isn't supported to reduce the risk of being caught.