More 'sextortion' spam from person pretending to be Shiny Hunters asking for bitcoin - ignore

In my spam mailbox today - 

Note: It is actually true that Shiny Hunters (the real ones) gained access to the parent company (Carnival) of the Holland America cruise I went on eleven years ago (and I have had an increase in spam since then) but the rest of the email follows the exact same pattern as other spam emails that try to extract bitcoin from people. It just comes from some random having a go.

If you get one of these you can delete it / ignore it and report the bitcoin wallet to Chain Abuse. In the UK you can send it to Action Fraud.

- - - - -

From: You've been HACKED <fxuzn@na.commufa.jp>   <-- note it's possible that this is an entirely innocent email address that has been exploited, but I've included it for completeness.
Subject: Information about your online security

Hello,

We are the ShinyHunters hacking group.
A few months ago, we gained access to your devices and started monitoring your online activities.

What happened:
We gained access to the Carnivalcorp.com database where you have an account and easily accessed your email.
You weren't very careful about the links you opened.
A week later, we installed an exploit on your devices, including your phone, giving us access to your microphone,
camera, keyboard, and all your data.
We have your photos, browsing history, conversations, and contact list.

Among other things, we discovered that you frequently visit adult websites and watch explicit videos.
We managed to record you and created videos of you pleasuring yourself.
With a few clicks, we can share these videos with your friends,
colleagues, and family or even make them public.

Proposal:
Send us $2000 in Bitcoin to the following wallet:
bc1qzuk2m6hvt7cnu49mhwxhcx26d4gz0vsak6vdva

We'll delete everything immediately.
You have 48 hours from the moment you open this email.
Once the payment is received, we'll remove the malware from your devices.

What you should NOT do:
Do not reply (email was sent from a hacked account).
Do not contact the police or anyone else—we'll release the videos along with other stuff all over the internet.
Do not try to reset your devices—everything is stored on remote servers.

What you don’t need to worry about:
We will see your payment immediately—the wallet is generated specifically for you.
We will not share your videos or other things after payment—there is no reason to continue causing problems.

Don't play with us!
REF# : 89949

Another 'sextortion' Bitcoin scam email - these are sent out randomly, do not pay them anything

Another one of these spam / scam emails in my spam folder in Gmail (see my previous post). 

They are sent out to long lists of email addresses and have nothing to do with you personally. Ignore them, do not send money. I just publish these in case others google some text from the email. I hope they find this (or another scam awareness page) and are reassured that it's nonsense.

I have reported the Bitcoin wallet (1KSb6ZYjXjP5aGyMf6LDfmad5rsC7fV73J) here too: https://www.chainabuse.com/

- - - - -

From: clifford@audumi.lv
Subject: Amount of taxes

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

I'VE GAINED ACCESS TO YOUR DEVICES DUE TO YOUR VISITS TO CERTAIN WEBSITES.
In fact, it was those sites that helped me. One of them contained my special code, which worked. This means that I can see everything happening on your scr and in front of it.

IF YOU DOUBT THIS, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.
I'm not wasting my time on you and will simply post all this information about you on every possible website and social network, and send it to all your contacts.

I've made copies of your most interesting files and also have the contact addresses you use most often. I have your browsing history. I have everything I need. Initially, I was going to delete all the content from your devices and forget about it. But I looked at the sites you regularly visit and changed my mind. I'm talking about sites with all kinds of inappropriate content.

After some time, I had an idea. I took screenshots of the website pages where you spend your time alone. then I captured screenshots of you satisfying yourself using the cam of one of your deviecs. (by the way, I had to wait for you to successfully get in front of the canera lens.) But it was worth it, and it will impress all your acquaintances and regular people on the Internet.

To make a long story short, I'm offering you a DEAL. You transfer the money to me, and I'll delete all this stuff about you, and we will forget about each other.

1194 american dollars in Bitconis is fine with me.
My special wallet: 1KSb6ZYjXjP5aGyMf6LDfmad5rsC7fV73J

I give you only 44 hours from now to pay .
I've already mentioned what happens if you don't pay, I don't care, it's up to you.
And don't hold a grudge. Everyone has a job to do.

IF I SEE THE CONTENTS OF THIS EMAIL ON GOOGLE (etc.)
I WILL IMMEDIATELY PUBLISH ALL THE DATA COLLECTED,
NOT FORGETTING EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

 

 

 

Copyright infringement - spam email attempting to get a link on a website

Update 21 Nov - I've now had 3 of these emails and I've added the others at the end.

Here's some nonsense (text version at the end) -

Last week I received the above email (from someone purporting to be legally-adjacent) telling me that an image I'd used on my work website was in breach of their client's copyright. 

This is the image - 

                 Image by DrSJS from Pixabay

To fix this all I'd need to do was add a clickable link from my website to their clients. This is baloney. 

People use all sorts of tactics to try and get their website linked from other sites because this is read by Google as 'esteem'. 

If I link to your website from this blog (or any other site) I am effectively 'recommending' that site to readers. Strategies for getting a 'link back' on someone's website include offering to write a guest post (that includes a link to a particular target site), or sometimes people offer payment for you to add a link. Another way is to comment on a blog post, or like it and hope that someone clicks on their profile (or a link in the comment if it's been accepted).

How I confirmed that this email was nonsense
Several websites were useful: WHOIS to see when the various websites had been registered (very recent, suspicious), WAYBACK MACHINE to see if and when the site was first captured (again, recent). 

The image we originally used actually comes from Pixabay (free to use) and it was uploaded there in 2014, several years before we used it and well before 'Claude AI' created their website (July 2023) or used the image themselves. 

I used GOOGLE IMAGES SEARCH to see that the same image had been used on many other sites too (it was possible that it had been wrongly lifted and added to Pixabay but that hadn't happened here). 

Further reading
False Claims to Stolen ‘Free’ Photos May Be a Strange New Online Scam (26 April 2022) PetaPixel - raises the possibility of a scammer deliberately uploading someone else's stolen photo to Pixabay and then going after websites which have used it.

There was also this more recent article from The Skeptic magazine - the format of the email is very similar to the requests I received.

📄 When copyright credit scammers target skeptical organisations (1 February 2023) The Skeptic

📄 Beware of Nationwide Legal – fraudsters already in Poland! (23 August 2023)
Sadurski.com [English translation via Google Translate]

📄 The DMCA Scam Returns in the Form of Nationwide Legal Services (3 October 2022) FreeTech4Teach
- about the use of this image, also from Pixabay

Image by Chen from Pixabay

📄 A worrying scam backed up by an AI-generated website (11 February 2024) Mark Carrigan

📄 Discussion on Mastodon (19 September 2024): https://mastodon.social/@bagder/113164265224867686

Text-based versions of the emails above

[REDACTED] = htXps://^claude[I have broken this link]ai^•uk/

Subject:	DMCA Copyright Infringement Notice
Date:	Sat, 3 Feb 2024 07:21:59 +0700 (ICT)
From:	Ava Campbell | Commonwealth Legal <ava@commonwealth-firm.com>

Dear owner of https://www.cs4fn.org/petermcowan/,

I represent the Intellectual Property division for [REDACTED].
We have identified an image belonging to our client on your website.

Image Details: https://i.imgur.com/GPwog5k.png
Location of Usage: https://www.cs4fn.org/petermcowan/

We require that you credit [REDACTED] for this image. Please add a
direct and clickable hyperlink to [REDACTED]
either beneath the image or in the footer of
the page. This must be completed within the next five business days.

Please understand the seriousness of this request. Simply removing
the image will not suffice. If you do not comply within the given
timeframe, we will have to start legal proceedings under case No. 84132,
following the DMCA Section 512(c) guidelines.

For historical image usage, you can check the Wayback Machine at
https://web.archive.org/.

This is an official notice. We value your prompt response and
cooperation. Please correspond in English.

Regards

Ava Campbell
Trademark Attorney

Commonwealth Legal Services
3909 N 16th St, 4th Floor
Phoenix, AZ 85016

ava@commonwealth-firm.com
http://www.commonwealth-firm.com/ <-- this link is dead

- - - - - - -

2. Added 2 April 2024

Edit 2 April 2024: I have now received a second version of this email (on 28 March 2024), from a different company, and have added that at the end. I've also added to the 'Further reading' above a translation of a Polish website warning about the same company, from 2023, and a further article from 2022.

This second email comes from Nationwide Legal Services, first email came from Commonwealth Legal Services. 

Email from Alicia Weber | Nationwide Team <alicia@nationwide[hyphen]legal•us>

Dear owner of https://www.cs4fn.org/petermcowan/,

I represent the Intellectual Property division for [REDACTED].  We have identified an image belonging to our client on your website.

Image Details: https://i.imgur.com/GPwog5k.png
Location of Usage: https://www.cs4fn.org/petermcowan/

We require that you credit [REDACTED] for this image. Please add a direct and clickable hyperlink to [REDACTED] either beneath the image or in the footer of the page. This must be completed within the next five business days.

Please understand the seriousness of this request. Simply removing the image will not suffice. If you do not comply within the given timeframe, we will have to start legal proceedings under case No. 84132, following the DMCA Section 512(c) guidelines.

For historical image usage, you can check the Wayback Machine at
https://web.archive.org/.

This is an official notice. We value your prompt response and cooperation. Please correspond in English.

Regards

Alicia Weber
Trademark Attorney

Nationwide Legal Services
401 Congress Ave.#1540
Austin, TX 78701

alicia@nationwide[hyphen]legal•us
https://nationwide[hyphen]legal•us/

- - - - - - 

3. Added 21 November 2024

Another one. I've also added to the 'Further reading' section above a post by Mark Carrigan and a link to a Mastodon thread.

Email from Noah Carter | Commonwealth Legal Services

Dear owner of https://teachinglondoncomputing.org/about-us/

I represent the Intellectual Property division for Claude AI. We have

identified an image belonging to our client on your website.

Image Details: https://imgur.com/406AyWa

Location of Usage: https://teachinglondoncomputing.org/about-us/

We require that you credit Claude AI for this image. Please add a

direct and clickable hyperlink to

https://^^claudeai•wiki 

either beneath the image or in the footer of

the page. This must be completed within the next five business days.

Please understand the seriousness of this request. Simply removing

the image will not suffice. If you do not comply within the given

timeframe, we will have to start legal proceedings under case No. 84132,

following the DMCA Section 512(c) guidelines.

For historical image usage, you can check the Wayback Machine at

https://web.archive.org/.

This is an official notice. We value your prompt response and

cooperation. Please correspond in English.

Regards

Noah Carter

Trademark Attorney

Commonwealth Legal Services

3909 N 16th St, 4th Floor

Phoenix, AZ 85016

noah@elitejusticeadvisors•biz

https://elitejusticeadvisors•biz 

 

- - - 

Note: the image comes from Pixabay and was uploaded there in 2017, seven years before either the claude ai wiki site was registered or, for that matter, the elite justice advisors dot biz site. 

 

My reply said

 

Dear Noah

The image is already correctly credited to Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/illustrations/success-strategy-business-solution-2081167/) so I will not be linking to Claude AI as they have nothing to do with this image. It was created and uploaded to Pixabay in 2017, several years before either the link you'd like me to add (or even your own website) were registered.

Incidentally this is the third example of this email I've received within the last year, I will add it to the other two on my blog - thank you for sending it to me for my collection https://brodiesnotes.blogspot.com/2024/02/copyright-infringement-spam-email.html.

Best wishes
Jo
 

Inundated with spammers trying to get a link on my posts ;)

A post I wrote back in 2009 and updated in 2013 receives a disproportionate amount of spam attempts in which someone tries to get me to add a link to the page. Of course the link they want me to add has nothing to do with the page (it's very clear they've not read it or understood the page). 

The intention in getting the link onto my page is to 'tell' Google that my site thinks their page is worth linking to. Nope. This has been going on for a decade and I have kept 50 or so examples which I'll gradually add below, with their link, name and email address redacted. 

The page in question is which is a fairly popular page but is actually only my 10th most-read page is (inexplicably!). You might expect they'd want to pick a more popular one but perhaps are hoping to go under the radar.

Where London science communicators might work (24 July 2009) - this one attracts all the spam despite being much less popular than nine other posts.

All-time views for the most-read posts on this blog - the one
that attracts all the spam is the one right at the bottom!

Here are some examples from the back catalogue.

Suggestion of a link about nursing but my page is not about that.

I get a lot of requests from people claiming to be teachers or home educators saying that a small child in their class is terribly excited to share a resource with me and please can I add it and then tell them I've added it so they can celebrate. Bit too social engineering for my liking. Hard no.

The most recent one, on holistic ophthamlmology.
Note that 'click to unsubscribe' link at the end. I hadn't subscribed ;)

Spam link attempt from weight loss surgery and diabetes

Spam link attempt from someone with a guide
for safe travelling for people with diabetes

And a couple of bonus emails from people who've misinterpreted my post showing how you could (in 2012) "bypass" a third-party resource for handling RSS feeds sent to Twitter.

Handy Twitter RSS feeds to bypass IFTTT Twitter trigger switchoff (30 September 2012)

Someone asking me to post advice that is about heart bypasses on a
page where I'm talking about a completely different type of bypass.

This one is hoping to get a page about heart disease
and hair loss after a bypass on my page.

Another one just came in later this evening!

 

I recommend pre-emptively blocking emails from Cupventi and quite possibly Beehiiv for good measure

Occasionally I get spam in my Gmail account. 

It's usually fairly straightforward to deal with - deleting, unsubscribing, reporting as spam etc. You can also set up a redirect so that if an email arrives containing a keyword it bypasses your inbox and goes to the Bin or some other holding mailbox. 

Generally telling Gmail that an email is spam and unsubscribing means that's the end of it, not so with 'Cupventi' who seem more determined to irritate me with their spam emails about coffee, using Beehiiv as their newsletter provider (Beehiiv are somewhat the innocent party here). A different spam newsletter, also via Beehiiv, was easier to get rid of.

I initially unsubscribed from the daily (!) Cupventi newsletter and reported it as spam so was surprised to receive another message a day later. I contacted Beehiiv on Twitter to let them know that Cupventi were misusing their system and they told me they'd look into it. 

Everything went quiet for a while but a couple of days ago I received another one so I repeated the process of unsubscribing, reporting as spam and letting Beehiiv know. I also set up a redirect so that anything that mentions Cupventi or Beehiiv is automatically re-routed to my Gmail bin so I'll literally never see another message from them again unless I check. Guess what I stupidly just did. I'm quite irritated.

So... I have decided to republish without permission their copyrighted text, mangling all the links to they can't point to anything to show you precisely what you're not missing. No need for you to wait to be subscribed unwillingly to their repetitive (see bits I've bolded) blethers about coffee, feel free to pre-emptively block Cupventi, and possibly Beehiiv for good measure. 

Spam email below

 

"Please reply "STOP" to stop receiving these messages" - naming organisations who spam academic email addresses

As someone with an ac.uk email address I am regularly added to mailing lists without my permission. The first time I'm aware of it is when I get some spam and it ends with something like -

"Please reply "STOP" to stop receiving these messages."

or

"You have received this email because you have subscribed to The Bridge to Success LLC as [my email address]. If you no longer wish to receive emails please unsubscribe."

Since I've not signed up to receive these messages in the first place I suppose, by definition, I'm unable to unsubscribe ;)

I've had two of these today so am naming the organisations who spammed me here.

• The Bridge to Success LLC (web address includes thebridgesuccess)
• EdifyOnline

I've no objection to people emailing me to tell me about their organisation and invite me to join their mailing list but adding me and requiring me to take action to remove myself is guaranteed to get me irritated enough to start a new blog post about it. 

Naturally I searched on Twitter to see what others had to say about either of these organisations.

I keep getting solicitations from EdifyOnline and it's all sorts of red flags:
1. Looks like another "disrupt education" plan- uberizing higher ed, and more efficient exploitation of adjunct labor
2. An ed tech company w/ no twitter account pic.twitter.com/nGR107HaYJ

— Dr. Shawna M. Brandle (@ProfBrandle) September 18, 2020

Twoogling also indicate that MIT and EdifyOnline are collaborating so it seems to be a legitimate organisation, but I still hate being spammed.

 

 

The London Institute of Mathematical Sciences is harshing my mellow - spam newsletter

Late last year "LIMS" the London Institute of Mathematical Sciences added me to a list to receive their newsletter.

At the bottom of the newsletter there was a link to change my subscription or unsubscribe. I'd never subscribed (nor heard of them, their website was unfamiliar) and wondered why on earth I'd been added. It is always possible that I've mistakenly signed up to something and can't initially assume that someone else is at fault.

While technically clicking unsubscribe should remove me, I'd argue (admittedly pedantically but for heaven's sake this is a maths organisation and you'd think they would appreciate the precision of my logical argument) by definition I cannot unsubscribe if I've never subscribed. So I asked how / why I'd been added. Below is a summary of the redacted communications which I'm adding here in case others google to find out why they've been added to LIMS' newsletter / mailing list.

My email address should never have been added to a mailing list / newsletter without my permission, so clicking 'unsubscribe' wouldn't have uncovered how that error was made in the first place. Sadly, as you'll see, none of the other efforts I've made have managed to unsubscribe me either. A friend has advised that I contact the ICO though I'm sure they'd say "Oh for heaven's sake just click Unsubscribe" ;)

LIMS joined Twitter (@London_Inst) this month, and sent me another newsletter to tell me. Hence this post.


1. 25 November 2018 (they first emailed me on 23rd Nov)

Subject:	Re: The London Institute becomes an Independent Research Organization, and other news
Date:	Sun, 25 Nov 2018 21:56:44 +0000
From:	Me
To:	London Institute

Hi - can you clarify when I signed up to receive this? I'm not familiar with your website but the option to Unsubscribe suggests that I must have subscribed at some point.

Thanks,
Jo

2. My second reply following up, on 29 November 2018

Subject:	Re: The London Institute becomes an Independent Research Organization, and other news
Date:	Thu, 29 Nov 2018 12:12:58 +0000
From:	Me
To:	London Institute

Just wondering what the status of this enquiry is, thanks, Jo

3. My third reply on 29 November 2018

Subject:	Re: The London Institute becomes an Independent Research Organization, and other news
Date:	Thu, 29 Nov 2018 15:28:14 +0000
From:	Me
To:	[Redacted]

Thanks [Redacted] - I don't think I've been to a talk there and the website wasn't familiar to me. I am just always wary of finding myself subscribed to things as it seems to happen a lot with an academic email address (mine, I mean).

Best wishes,
Jo

On 29/11/2018 15:23, [Redacted] wrote:

Dear Jo,

I have sent an email around the Institute to see whom you are connected to/know and take it from there. I assume you would remember if you came to a talk here?

Best wishes

[redacted]

4. My fourth reply following up on 10 Dec

Subject:	Re: The London Institute becomes an Independent Research Organization, and other news
Date:	Mon, 10 Dec 2018 17:09:56 +0000
From:	Me
To:	[Redacted]

Hi [Redacted]

Any news on this?

Thanks,
Jo

5. My fifth reply, to a new message

Subject:	Re: Happy Christmas from the London Institute
Date:	Tue, 11 Dec 2018 17:39:10 +0000
From:	Me
To:	London Institute

What is going on here? Who signed me up for this? If I signed myself up (I genuinely don't remember) when did I do that? I've randomly started receiving messages from you in late November having never knowingly communicated with you before. Why?

Thanks,
Jo






6. Their reply reassuring me that they'd asked for my details to be taken off their database - this was in response to #4

Subject:	Re: The London Institute becomes an Independent Research Organization, and other news
Date:	Fri, 14 Dec 2018 11:29:30 +0000
From:	Redacted
To:	Me

Dear Jo,

I am afraid I have no finite answers on this but have requested that you are removed from the database so you will receive no further updates or seminar notices from the London Institute.

Kind regards

[Redacted]

Didn't work ;)
Everything went quiet until April 2019

7. My sixth reply to a new newsletter

Subject:	Re: London Institute in Times Higher Education and other news
Date:	Fri, 5 Apr 2019 16:04:59 +0100
From:	Me
To:	London Institute

How is it that my email address is still on your mailing list despite assurances in December 2018 that it would be removed (see attached)? I had never knowingly heard of LIMS before your first email to me in November 2018 and still have no idea how or why my address was added in the first place.

Jo

8. Six months after that we begin again...

Subject:	Re: Follow our new Twitter account and see our range of research projects
Date:	Wed, 16 Oct 2019 19:03:52 +0100
From:	Me
To:	London Institute

Why am I receiving this?

Thanks
Jo

Disable notifications at the level of a tweet - suggested Twitter improvement

by @JoBrodie, brodiesnotes.blogspot.com

Yesterday I had a handful of notifications from slightly iffy accounts that had been favouriting tweets of mine, or tweets I was mentioned in, but with all of these tweets being from several years ago.

The tweets were reasonably popular being retweeted or responded to a few times when they were originally sent. As far as I can tell the purpose of favouriting these tweets now is to get people to notice the account doing the favouriting, a sort of "hey I'm here". Some people will follow / interact, others will ignore or not even notice (I report as spam* and block).

Sometimes one tweet will receive a spate of new favourites. To stop the notifications tab from recording this (not talking about email or web notifications as I got rid of those on day one) the options currently available are to block each account that favourites a tweet, activate the option to show only notifications / mentions from people you follow, or delete the tweet (if it's one of yours).

A suggestion
Allow users to choose to stop receiving notifications about activity on any tweet that they previously sent or were mentioned in (at the level of the tweet, not user). This will not stop replies to the tweet of course (but my experience has been that these bots never reply, they only favourite previously popular tweets).

A separate suggestion (not related to spam bots) for users with tens of thousands of followers
Instead of sending a notification each time someone interacts with a tweet instead do it in batches of 10, 50, 100 etc. That way people still get the information but aren't swamped with constant updates. I'm not affected by this as I don't have tens of thousands of followers, I just get the spam bot interaction instead, but the reason I killed off Google+ was because I couldn't work out how to switch off notifications. It also seemed like nothing much had happened to warrant being notified most of the time so it was the final straw for me ;)

*annoyingly Twitter's phrasing says 'they are posting spam'. In fact they're often not posting anything they're just engaging in spam-like behaviour to get someone's attention.

Twitter's spam reporting leaves a lot to be desired

I have recently spotted a lot of identical or suspiciously similar tweets on the #homeopathy hashtag coming from 'bots' (automated fake accounts). They are indiscriminately retweeting and favouriting positive and negative tweets about the subject so it's not clear if they're on a particular 'side' or what their purpose is. They are also tweeting more generally about health and weight loss so I would have to assume they exist to tweet a particular link or two and are covering their backs by tweeting other health-related stuff as well, ie hiding in plain sight. It's a popular tactic.

As they deliberately avoid sending spam tweets blocking them 'for' posting spam is not quite right and Twitter's options for reporting them correctly are therefore a bit limited.

The accounts are almost always female (according to their avatar) with digits at the end of their name, eg Jodie123. Their bios look similarly cut and paste with liberal use of dividers like ✦, ✶ or ✪ (I have to admit I use | and / in my bio, or did until I recently changed it).

Examples below

• TV addict ✦ Professional Speaker ✦ Soccer fanatic ✦ Subtly charming geek ✦ 53 Countries since 2012
• Social media fan ✶ Author of fantasy books ✶ Travel consultant ✶ Beauty appreciator ✶ Technology lover
• Advocate for human dignity ✪ Spirituality ninja ✪ Sunglass fan ✪ Detoxification ✪ Nerd 

They are mostly retweeting genuine tweets so their spam-like behaviour is more subtle and probably only noticeable if you are the one whose tweets (or tweets you're mentioned in) are being favourited ('liked') or retweeted - it's not apparent just from looking at their timeline, you have to be aware of several similar accounts to get the full picture.

In other words you can only really see the spam if you're in a position to be able to see the spam!

An example would be that you've tweeted about #homeopathy and a lot of similar-looking accounts retweet it. I suppose it's a tiny bit like #EverydaySexism which is largely invisible unless you're a woman who regularly experiences a range of men making comments at you. Different people moving through an otherwise identical space see and experience it very differently.

I am reporting these accounts as spam though I've not seen many of them being removed (I suspect Twitter just disagrees with my assessment because each account doesn't, individually, look particularly spammy). I'm not sure if Twitter pays attention to my pattern of reporting (ie several similar accounts in a short space of time) but I wish they did because then I think they'd notice the problem.

Perhaps Twitter isn't particularly bothered about these types of accounts. They aren't very harmful, beyond spouting nonsense into the Twittersphere (but let's face it we all do that too), they're not abusive and they're not posting the same tweeted link over and over again. But they don't contribute to the ecosphere.

While we're at it I still hate all those Sumall and Commun.it tweets that thank a bunch of strangers for tweeting (and do it in such a way that the tweet is visible to ALL of the tweeter's followers, and not just the strangers they're thanking - ugh).

What a depressing thought that future internet archaeologists will be left with the "(insight by commun.it)" tweets which, by volume alone, must surely be taking up plenty of Twitter's server space. Have a scroll though some of them and despair ;) Drivel.


 

Spambots that favourite random tweets on Twitter - a possible (gradual) solution

I am a bit surprised that @Twitter's not suspended these accounts. They are not necessarily posting spam (mostly sharing identical tweets with photos of underdressed people) but I don't think they're contributing that much to Twitter. I've blocked all of them after they've favourited tweets of mine. I assume favouriting is to make the account look like it's engaging in 'normal Twitter behaviour'. But perhaps I am just a terrible prude ;)

There are instructions below if you want to block them in one go. I've used TweeterID to convert their Twitter names to their Twitter ID, which Twitter uses for blocklists.

There seem to be hundreds of them but here's a selection:
https://twitter.com/JuliaOconnoztj
https://twitter.com/RubyFrazieratw
https://twitter.com/LilianaMaxw8lj
https://twitter.com/SydneyCrawfdo1
https://twitter.com/Teahyunggi32172
https://twitter.com/BossSaranin
https://twitter.com/ValyaChekinev [Google search results for 'her' image - http://preview.tinyurl.com/orwp7pl]
https://twitter.com/1980Urban
https://twitter.com/v_ignatenkov - not awfully safe for work ;)
https://twitter.com/ryasnovl - OK this one might just be a webcam sort of thing
https://twitter.com/MissVariychuk
https://twitter.com/LadySlablyuk
https://twitter.com/zalymova
https://twitter.com/phili_trask
https://twitter.com/robyn_rockin1
https://twitter.com/1973Dolganova
https://twitter.com/kovaltsovl
https://twitter.com/1997_voronina

INSTRUCTIONS for spamblock2015 file
Save a copy of https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4000104/spamblock2015.csv
Delete Column B - all that should remain is a single column of numbers

Using the desktop version of Twitter log in and go to Settings / Blocked: https://twitter.com/settings/blocked
Click the 'Advanced options' link then 'import a list' then 'Attach a file to upload' - upload the file. To be honest I've no idea what happens after that!

Every so often I'll update the file with the new ones I block, filename won't change. Assuming it works if you check back and download then upload a later version of the file it will overwrite and you'll be blocking more of the spammers. I'm hoping that this might get Twitter to start suspending these accounts (in which case the list of accounts to block will actually reduce).

spamblock2015.csv file last updated 20 July 2015, 14:45 BST (prev 17 July 2015, 22:20).

Twitter metrics tools and automated spam - how to unsubscribe

How to unsubscribe from receiving automated tweets from...
• paper.li - tweet @newscrier saying stop mentions. Ctrl+F-search for newscrier here for more info.
• Commun.it - email info@commun.it asking to have your Twitter account added to their blacklist
• SumAll - I don't know, they're looking into it but claim they can't do it
• TweetJukebox - I don't know, they said they'd consider adding an opt-out function
 

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This is a small grumpy rant. In the global scheme of things if this is all I/we have to worry me/us then we're not doing too badly. But honestly, I ask you - why are we OK with automated services spamming people with irrelevant tweets about interactions etc on Twitter? 

Recently I and a few other people were thanked collectively in a single tweet. While I recognised someone else in the list I'd no idea who the sender was or why it had come to me. After searching for any previous conversations we had I realised I'd replied to a tweet that had been RTed into my timeline, and I was now being thanked for doing so.

However the person hadn't sent this tweet, an automated system had. Echofon, which is a mobile Twitter app, tells you what service the person used to send the tweet (most Twitter apps don't) - I could see that this one said 'via Commun.it'.

Tweet management and analytic services like commun.it, SumAll and TweetJukebox do a bit of behind-scenes number crunching and then send auto-tweets from the accounts of people who've signed up saying things like

"Thanks to @Harry, @Hermione and @Ron for the RTs this week (insight by TweetMarketingTool)"

Perhaps my dislike of these tweets is a bit extreme but here are my objections.

1. There are thousands of these identical tweets being sent from different accounts, it's pretty spammy
2. It's poorly formatted. If it's meant to be sent to someone then their @name should be first, not in the middle. Presumably this means it's intending to thank people more publicly, which seems self-serving to me. Public thanking has its place (sparingly done) but pinging these out and telling all your followers about someone else's interaction with you seems odd
3. It isn't sent in reply-to anything in particular (no threading to cue you into a conversation) so puzzled people might have no idea why they're receiving a tweet
4. Three otherwise-unrelated people are included in the tweet for no obvious reason
5. It's automated and the person whose account sent it may be unaware that they've thanked a bunch of people - algorithmically-generated gratitude doesn't come across as very genuine

Blocking people who send these tweets is overkill but also ineffective because the tweet hasn't really come from them, but from the Twitter-metric tool. I'd have thought using automated tools to send spam to a number of people would be against Twitter's terms of service but given the volume of these tweets in existence, and the services not being banned yet, I suppose not.

Here's what Twitter says, to app / tool developers, about the need for letting users opt out (this comes from their Automation rules and best practice page -

"Automated replies and mentions
The reply and mention functions are intended to make communication between users easier, and automating these processes in order to reach many users is considered an abuse of the feature. If your application creates or facilitates automated reply messages or mentions to many users, the recipients must request or otherwise indicate an intent to be contacted in advance. For example, sending automated replies based on keyword searches is not permitted. Users must also have a clear and easy way to opt-out of receiving automated reply messages and mentions from your application."

Twitter services I've been in touch with
commun.it - email info@commun.it and ask them to 'blacklist' you

I had an email exchange with commun.it after I received a couple of 'via Commun.it' tweets in May 2015, and I absolutely failed to make my point with them. They were steadfast in their belief that their product is not spam and that people like receiving automated thank yous and other identikit communications (I'm sure some of them do). My request, that I never wanted to receive another tweet via their system, was met with puzzlement and instead they tried to offer me a free trial of the VIP service. They offered some suggestions on how the wording of the automated tweet might be improved while failing to realise that it was the automatedness that's the problem. Eventually six months later they agreed to blacklist me and I've not received a commun.it spam tweet since September 2015.

TweetJukebox - no info yet on how to opt out

"THANK YOU TWEETS: When a user mentions you, where we come from it is common to "thank" them. Using our Thank You Tweet tool, you automatically thank up to 50 people for their interaction every Friday. Your jukebox system will thank the top Twitter™ users that mentioned you during the week. This feature is automatic, you don't have to do anything. Yes, that's right, more free time. Woohoo!"

It is common, and polite, to thank people but it's a bit impractical to thank everyone that interacts with you on Twitter (and a little bit weird). Weirder still when it's done by a machine.

Tweet Jukebox did at least understand my bleating and may well instigate something that lets me tell its system that I never want to receive these, which is great. Can't see anything in their FAQ announcing it yet though.

SumAll - no info yet on how to opt out
Their helpful support person told me that at the moment they're unable to let people opt out from receiving automated mentions. I think that's quite bad but they've at least agreed to pass my suggestion on to their engineers.

paper.li
This creates a sort of newspaper derived from information shared by people on Twitter. You can stop the service from telling you your content's been curated by sending a 'stop mentions' tweet to @newscrier. You can also stop the service from using your content by adding your site by contacting @paper_li.

I don't think many people I know receive the paper.li spam because as soon as the service began sending their tweets out in 2010 there was wailing and gnashing of teeth and the instructions were shared to stop this promptly.

Tweets I'd be happy never to see in my timeline or mentions again
- anything from Storify telling me one of my tweets has been used in it
- any automated tweet thanking me for doing normal interactive things on Twitter
- tweets telling me how well you did on Twitter, even though I like you and am happy things are going well :)

Ideally all of these kinds of tweets would be easier to switch off for users - presumably you can still get your Twitter insights sent to you, without having to tweet this information to your followers.

Twitter (desktop version) has a new Mute option for users, what does it do?

by @JoBrodie, brodiesnotes.blogspot.com


This post refers to using Twitter on the desktop Twitter.com version - things may well be quite different on Twitter for Smartphone apps and other apps (eg Echofon, which I use).

Yesterday I spotted, while pruning spam followers, that Twitter's added some extra options to the block function, and that I also have the additional option of muting people.

Mute

If you mute someone then their tweets don't show up in your timeline but they do show up in your mentions. This means that people probably won't know you've muted them, because their messages to you still get through. You can also find their other messages by visiting their profile page or searching for messages they've sent.

I've used my test account to mute myself. In the screenshot above you'd click on the snowflake / gear wheel icon and choose 'Mute this user' from the options. Once done you'll see a red icon of a muted speaker.

Block
I block a lot of spam followers or people who've followed me for what I think are irrelevant reasons (because I once mentioned a word in a tweet that they're interested in). You used to be able to block 'without blame' but now Twitter requires you to fill in one of four options before you can block them, I don't really like this but that's what's changed.

 

This means that blocking someone is a little bit harsher than it was previously. It still means that none of their tweets will show up in your timeline or mentions (though you can still view their profile as they can view your tweets through your profile).

The big difference is that by blocking them you are also reporting them to Twitter, which may not be what you want. 

So there's no way of removing someone from your follower list without potentially getting them in trouble, which seems a shame.

Remember: blocking someone on Twitter never stops them from reading your tweets, it only stops tweets showing up in timelines / mentions.

Further reading
What happens if you block someone on Twitter? What happens if they block you? (4 Jan 2014) - although the pictures are now slightly out of date the functionality hasn't changed.

Answers to common search questions
I'll put them here when I have a look at my Google Analytics logs - don't fret I can't tell who searched for what, meanwhile here's what Google suggests in its autofill.

1. Can I tell if someone's muted me?
1. How do you know if someone's muted you on Twitter?
No. To the best of my knowledge this information is not available to users (though presumably Twitter must know, obviously, so that it can avoid delivering the tweets).  See also answer to 2.

2. If I mute someone on Twitter will they know?
No. See answer to 1.  Additionally I am not aware of any notification sent when someone mutes someone else, I don't think Twitter wants to make this information available.

If you visit their profile page you'll see the red 'silenced speaker' icon (see first picture) so you'll be able to find out if you've muted someone (assuming you forgot). I suppose the only way they'd ever know is if they played around on your computer while you were logged in to Twitter, and visited their own profile (!), or you sent them a screenshot ;-)

3. Who muted me on Twitter?
It's not possible to tell.

Thwarting spammers on hashtag livetweeted events

Summary
Type this into Twitter's search page (or on your smartphone Twitter app's search)

#hashtag -x.co

where #hashtag is the tag you're interested in and x.co is the URL shortener being used by spammers (eg it could be -bit.ly).

Note that this also works on Storify should you want to capture the hashtagged tweets minus the spammers' contributions.

Update 21 Jan 2014 (welcome #iscg visitors) - you can also use the slightly more obscure URL shortener is.gd to shorten your URLs, chances are the spammers restrict themselves to x.co and bit.ly. There are a variety of URL shorteners out there so it's possible to keep a step ahead. Good luck and happy conferencing :)

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More detailed explanation
We all know that if a word, phrase or hashtag starts trending then it attracts the interest of spammers hoping to exploit the eyeballs of those watching the stream of tagged tweets.

Generally spammers include a link, though sometimes it's just text (rarer) and if they do then it's worth trying to subtract the root URL from the hashtag search.

So if you're watching the search output results from #RCGPSoMe (Royal College of General Practitioners Social Media chat) and annoyed by spam links coming from x.co then search for #RCGPSoMe and not for x.co, thus:  #RCGPSoMe -x.co which gives you this URL:

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23RCGPSoMe%20-x.co&src=typd

(the %23 means # and %20 is just a space).

Since the spammers are also using bit.ly then I'd recommend pruning that one out too, so type into Search
#RCGPSoMe -x.co -bit.ly and remind people to use tinyurl.com or t.co or some other URL shortener so their tweets aren't mangled too.

Search for #RCGPSoMe -x.co -bit.ly which gives you 

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23RCGPSoMe%20-x.co%20-bit.ly&src=typd

1. This works both on https://twitter.com/search (ie the web version) and on Echofon on my iPhone, just by typing in the keystring
2. I'm aware there's an app / tool / site which will collect tweets only from people who've registered, ignoring the spam, but have forgotten what it is. Tweetchat.com will help a bit but not perfect.
3. The search string also works on Storify! This means you can semi-automate the capture of appropriately hashtagged tweets, hooray.

I can't take credit for the search string though it was certainly a case of fortune favouring the prepared mind. I suspected it might work and Googled to see if others had investigated and these two had come up with something: A trick for stopping event hashtag spam (1 October 2012) but an alternative, which may not work as well now that Twitter has hidden the info on the app used to send the tweet, was Finding ways to battle hashtag spam (7 May 2012).