If you think someone’s account has been hijacked, let them know!
Tell them to change their account password and check for bad apps at http://j.mp/YourTwitterApps. (You can also just send them this tweet.)
Of course, sometimes, you can’t tell. But you should usually check, because if your account was hijacked, wouldn’t you want someone to help you? Here is the list of messages sent from hijacked accounts: http://bit.ly/HijackAlerts
“Hacked” or Hijacked?
Accounts can be taken over in a variety of ways. For example, you can be taken to a page that makes it seem you are logged out of Twitter, and once you log back in, the bad guys get your password. This fools a lot of people, even smart users when they’re tired.
Some people argue over whether an account should be considered “hacked” or not depending on what happened. For that reason, I often just say “hijacked account” to avoid the debate 
For more info on what can happen, see “How bad Twitter links & apps can trick you.”
Hijacked Twitter accounts are usually used to send spam messages, which encourage users to click links that point to sites that either claim to sell something or try to trick users to enter login credentials or install apps that will take over their accounts to send more spam.
What is spam?
Spam takes a lot of forms, but the kind to watch out for always has a link, and always encourages you to click it, often with dramatic statements such as:
- “Is this you in this pic/video/blog?”
- “See who’s visiting your profile/stalking you on Twitter”
- “This is something you might like to see…”
- “$3,000 to $8,000 a month working from home”
- “You have been sent a e-Card”
- …and many, many others
How can you tell when someone had their Twitter account hijacked?
- Someone you are already familiar with on Twitter begins sending uncharacteristically spammy messages.
- Someone is sending a phrase that Twitter (@Safety @Spam @Delbius) or @TweetSmarter has warned is a being sent from hacked accounts. @TweetSmarter will always add the hashtag #Alert or #Warning to such tweets. Warnings from Twitter can take a variety of forms.
What should you do?
Tell anyone you think that has been hacked to http://bit.ly/BlockBadApps and read http://bit.ly/IfTwitterHacked. Send them a DM, or tweet if they don’t follow you.
Why doesn’t Twitter do even more to protect us?
Twitter suspends bad apps, and blocks suspicious links. But spammers, as soon as they determine a link or site has been blocked, keep tweeting similar/same things with new links to new websites or apps that do the same bad things. And until Twitter catches it again, more people are spammed or infected with malware.
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## NOOOO..None of the above..SOMEONE IS BLOGGING nasty things about me. DONT KNOW how to CORRECT IT!!! PLEASEEEE HELP!! thank You..
See “How to deal with negative information about you online” at http://bit.ly/kOHDJk
A variation of hijacking is abuse of the retweet feature. It’s not exactly an impersonation, so it slips through a TOS loophole. But it can be a decidedly malicious or misleading attribution.
In other words, *any* one can type *any* text, add “RT” at the beginning, and cite YOUR Twitter handle as the originator. Depending on the app one uses, it’s not always clear when something is an “official” RT. And many users are not even knowledgeable enough to look for that RT symbol.
Example: “RT: @Twitter – All users should delete all DMs due to hijacking attempts using malicious links in DMs.” See what this could lead to?
Twitter’s policy on this practice? “Block and Ignore”. When celebrities, commercial users and @Twitter itself find they have been bogusly RT’d often enough, I’m suspect that may change. For now, ordinary users can only silently stew while falsified RTs stand.
Yes, that’s been a problem forever, I’m afraid. I wrote about it once but can’t find the link at the moment. Twitter’s policy does allow for suspension for that practice, but they are extremely liberal in applying said policy. Same if you copy other people’s tweets outright. Technically against policy, but forgiveness is the order of the day.
What you can do is:
►Save your tweets where you tell the other person what they are doing is wrong
►Save the tweets where they do that
►Present your evidence to Twitter via http://bit.ly/TWICKET
What can happen is the user is suspended, and then reinstated after being told what they did wrong, and them promising not to do it anymore. Many, many, many suspensions (and unsuspensions) have followed a similar pattern. I’ve also seen @Delbius (head of Twitter’s trust and safety team) talk to users directly, and after hearing them say they understand that what they are doing is wrong, and that they won’t do it again…problem solved. Though I haven’t seen that happen in specifically this kind of case, but similar ones.
I get this spam messages a lot by DMs on twitter
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