Phishing on Twitter - how to protect yourself
Phishing is common on Twitter. Our guide will tell you how to protect yourself from fraudulent tweets.
This is how you can protect yourself from phishing on Twitter
If one of your Twitter followers in the direct message suddenly writes to you in English and sends a link, it is probably phishing. The URL leads you to a fake login page, for example. You should never enter your login details there, otherwise they will fall into the hands of the fraudsters.
- Ask the sender of the suspicious message whether it was intentionally sent to you. The senders often do not know that they are sending phishing messages because the fraudsters have hijacked their Twitter accounts for this.
- Just log on to the official Twitter website and do not give your account details anywhere or anywhere else.
- Install anti-virus protection with a phishing filter. You can find out which virus protection is suitable in the next paragraph.
Virus protection increases protection against phishing websites
Virus protection software with a phishing filter collects dangerous websites in a database. If you click on a phishing link, virus protection alerts you to the suspicious website and blocks access. We present three antivirus programs that protect you from phishing websites:
- The "Spyware Terminator 2012" is free of charge and has real-time protection in addition to the phishing filter. Thanks to automatic updates, the antivirus software remains up-to-date, but annoying with paid premium offers.
- The "BitDefender Antivirus Free Edtion" is ad-free and still unlimited free. In order for the built-in HTTP scanner to stay up to date with updates and to reliably warn you of phishing websites, all you have to do is register with your email address.
- "G Data InternetSecurity 2014" was specially developed for security on the Internet. You can see the integrated anti-phishing tool for free for 30 days. After that you have to buy the program. The version "G Data TotalProtection 2014", which also includes "G Data InternetSecurity 2014", is even more extensive.
For more information and tips on phishing, see our practical tip "Rip off emails - how to protect yourself from phishing".