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Viruses and worms are rampant on the web. Until only recently this has been a big problem on your PC. Surely, you wouldn’t think of running your computer without an anti-virus solution, but what about the viruses and worms spreading throughout the social networks you belong to? While they may not directly affect your computer, they can cause just as much damage, including: identity theft, stealing of your private and financial information, takeover of your accounts, and embarrassing situations!
Just today, in fact, a worm is propagating through Twitter direct messages (DMs) trying to trick unsuspecting members into thinking it’s a legitimate message from a friend. Today, we have a solution for that at SocialToo, and we are launching automatic anti-virus solutions for Twitter and other social networks.
Starting now, as part of a new premium service we’re offering, anyone who goes to SocialToo and checks the “Send SocialToo DM e-mails” box will no longer receive malicious DMs we detect as rampant on Twitter, as we will be stopping them at their source. We’re taking a proactive approach to this now, and all our users will not receive those DMs we’ve confirmed are malicious. For instance, the “hey. i make $300-500 a day online. this website showed me how” DMs that have been flooding the network over the last few days will automatically be deleted from your Twitter DM box and reported to Twitter’s @spam account on your behalf. Also, the “rofl, this you on here?” DMs will never show up.
As your companion for the Social Web, one of our main roles is to protect you from getting conned or tricked into clicking on a malicious link and having your account compromised as well.
Here’s what you need to do for it to be most effective:
- Click “Sign in With Twitter” on SocialToo.com. Click on the Preferences tab and check the box “Send SocialToo DM e-mails”. Be sure your e-mail address is entered and click “Submit” at the bottom. It’s now enabled for your account!
- Go to the “Settings” link in the upper-right hand corner of Twitter. Click on the “Notices” tab, and uncheck the “Direct Text E-mails” option. You don’t need this any more because we’ll replace that e-mail with more useful DM e-mails.
- Go to your Devices tab and turn off device notifications – again, the SocialToo e-mails will replace this – and we’re also working on some better mobile solutions to replace this functionality.
Once you have done all of the above, SocialToo will now be responsible for notifying you of new DMs. We will not forward those that have known spam or worms or viruses in them, and you will only get the good DMs.
This new automatic virus detection is free until November 1st for all SocialToo users. We are still working out the details on the new plan, and we will notify each user that has signed up so you can make the choice at that point if you want to continue with the service. This includes our existing auto-dm and spam service subscribers – again, it’s 100% free until November 1st.
We will need input from our users as you see malicious DMs. Please be sure to add them to your spam keywords as you see them, and we’ll be tracking trends through those keywords. Also, if you feel it’s of particular importance please let us know by DMing @socialtoo on Twitter or e-mailing us at contact@socialtoo.com. We’re hoping to make this smarter and smarter as we move forward, and you can expect to see much more from us in the future.
Lastly, if you’re a developer and would like access to any of this information, we do have an API. Contact us to find details. I’d love to work with you to integrate this same spam and virus protection into your own Twitter clients.
It’s time we put an end to worms and viruses on Twitter. You wouldn’t want to be on a PC without anti-virus protection. Why would you be on Twitter without SocialToo?
Consider SocialToo your vaccine for the Social Web.
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