One of the quickest ways to receive an official answer from a company when you have an issue is to tweet to them, but there’s a new Twitter scam going around online that should make you think carefully.
A plausible Twitter scam is currently being used to target bank customers by misusing the platform’s quote-tweet capability, according to a report by BleepingComputer(opens in new tab). This scam differs from others in that it targets clients who tweet at their banks to complain or ask for help with a problem.
Sadly, Twitter users who contact their banks on the platform instead get responses from scammers in the form of quote-tweets that tempt them to phone a phony helpline number. Similar to tech support scams or vishing scams, if a bank customer calls the number, the scammers on the other end may attempt to convince them to divulge important information.
Fake bank accounts on Twitter
Be out for answers from non-verified Twitter accounts if you choose to mention your bank on Twitter because they might be impersonating customer service representatives. Nonetheless, trustworthy businesses will occasionally respond to a tweet with a different Twitter account than their primary one. Usually, this isn’t an issue, but in this instance, it might be.
Ax Sharma of BleepingComputer recently tweeted with the hashtag #AxisBank and received a reply as a quote-tweet from an account posing as the bank. Although the lack of followers and the absence of a verification mark did raise some concerns, as we already mentioned, businesses occasionally utilize a different Twitter account to address customer complaints.
Instead of using a link to a phishing page, which would likely have been banned and many people would be reluctant to click on, the con artists behind this campaign chose to utilize a phone number to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Thankfully, a Bank representative replied to the quote-tweet to clarify that it wasn’t one of its authorized representatives. Along with that, they encouraged Sharma to “immediately halt any engagement with the other profile” and to refrain from disclosing any details.
How to identify a bogus Twitter account
Despite the fact that the offending account has been banned, the scammers behind this effort can quickly open another account and start retargeting Twitter users. To prevent these kinds of scams, it is crucial to be able to identify bogus accounts on the site.
As noted by BleepingComputer, the scammers behind this and related efforts frequently duplicate real accounts and add a few numbers to the end to distinguish their phony accounts. To appear legitimate, they also replicate an account’s description and utilize official photographs.
You should first check a Twitter account’s profile to see if it is legitimate because genuine users have engaging bios, authentic profile pictures, and unique tweets rather than just retweets.
You should now investigate how the account was validated. The introduction of Twitter Blue has made it much simpler for phony accounts to appear real, whereas obtaining the blue checkmark on Twitter used to be difficult. Also, Twitter has introduced a new color scheme that adds a grey checkmark for accounts belonging to public officials and a golden checkmark for business accounts.
You should exercise caution on Twitter, just as you should on all other social networking sites, as con artists are constantly looking for a fast buck or a method to steal your personal information. The account behind a tweet is probably phony if it seems too wonderful to be true or bears the telltale signs of a phishing email.