Use tinyURL's Preview Feature to secure your Twitter Account !

Link shortners are now used extensively on web. They are good for websites with character limit, like Twitter. They are even useful outside twitter. But spammers and hackers are using this useful tool to trap novice users on social networking sites.

As I have seen, TinyURL is the most used link shortner by spammers and hackers. There is a strong reason for this! Have you ever noticed that, link shortend using TinyURL don't expand to original site on hovering your mouse cursor on it, but most of the other services do ?!

Yes, TinyURLs won't expand to original site on hovering mouse cursor, which helps hackers to hide the evil URLs from users ! Without knowledge, if you click on those links, you are inviting danger! After getting infamous for this cause, TinyURL has now taken steps to avoid this.

Now you can preview URL (or let us call it Web Address) of original site before going to that site. All you have to do is, go to tinyurl.com, click on 'preview feature' [found on left sidebar of the homepage] and click on 'click here to enable previews'. That's it, now, everytime when you click on a TinyURL link, you will be taken to TinyURL website and original link will be revealed. First of all, your browser cookies must be enabled.

Even though this doesn't secure your twitter account completely, it allows you to decide whether to go to the original website or not, thus reducing possible traps :)

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Beware of phishing on Twitter and Facebook !

I just got a direct message (DM) on twitter today and it was like, "Tell me if this blog is about you? http://tinyurl.com/6ccbp7w". The messages may be different, like, "This gotta be you in this picture?", but link remains same. At the first look itself, I found out it to be a spam. I had even seen such links on facebook. So I didn't click on that link.

But when I looked at my timeline, I saw many people complaining about such DMs and this caught my interest. So I decided to take risk and click on that link. At first, I hovered the mouse cursor on that link, but that didn't expand to the original site. That confirmed it to be a spam [I just wonder why most of them use tinyurl, a URL shortner service]. But I had to take risk. So, I cleared all my browser cookies first to secure other services I use. Then I copied the link and pasted onto new tab and was ready to go.

Now I clicked on that link and it took me to a webpage looking similar to twitter login page [if you use Google Chrome, you will be warned before entering that page! Read my other post about why Google Chrome is the best web browser! ]. Everything what you see on twitter login page was present there, but for my wonder, the address of that webpage was http://itiwitter.com/twitterlogin/ !! Many novice and average internet users really think that it is twitter and just enter their username and password and click on sign in. If you do that, your twitter account would then be compromised !

When you click on sign in button, the data you entered will be then sent to a PHP script, hosted on some unknown server, for processing. That means, your username and password will be saved by that script and you will be redirected to original twitter as usual! You never come to know about the password theft! You may get this kind of messages from your friends. And if you get one, sadly, your friend's account has been compromised. Many of my fellow followers are already victims of this trick. After gaining access to your account, hackers may use your account to trick your followers with similar links, or they would completely lock your account from you!

Most of the evil hackers use social networking sites to trap users to give out their credentials. Reason is not a surprise, social networking sites are widespread and even a novice user can use them without any difficulty. So please avoid clicking on any such links and be safe on web :)


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You are under attack - Be safe on Twitter !

Recently, twitter has become a favorite places for evil hackers. Someone follows you and you simply follow back just because they follow you. Then you get a direct message like, "hey check out who is stalking you on Twitter, visit http://t.co/q4wjuZB install app, works great". If you simply click without a second thought, your account is now compromised !

Yes, there are many such tricks, which bots [yes, they are not actually people, but automated programs] use to exploit your twitter accounts. Link shortners are their weapons. Sometimes, someone unknown tweet you with a link. But that link actually allow the bot to access cookies stored in your browser ! That is really dangerous because, not only your twiiter account, but all the websites you might have visited like, facebook, tumblr,yahoomail, gmail, ect would be hacked !

Some of the most used tweets to trick you are listed below. [Few are harmless, but useless and just spam].

> Wow, getting TONS of followers from this program. Can't believe it, check it out http://bity.me/7Ni

> Become your own boss, work from home, part-time -- http://ez.cm/XWkUub

> I made $800 yesterday from pc, check out how http://crod.cz/2h quiting my job now lol

> hey check out who is stalking you on Twitter, visit http://krul.rs/cb install app, works great [Dangerous !!]

> i got cheap medication online without a prescription...http://tinyurl.com/5slk8kr

> http://bit.ly/nC0mcy [extremely dangerous !! This links to http://redirect.php/?cookies=true , that is to cookies in your browser ! It simply then redirects to a website named http://chroniccomissions.com/indext1.php and you never come to know about stolen cookies of your browser !!]

> OMFG! I just received a F R E E iPhone 4 from JUST submitting my email! Go to this site for yours: http://bity.me/3BO [ These kind of links normally take you to porn related websites !]

> I just received a F R E E MacBookPro from this site! Get yours here: http://twtr.me/17g :P



Avoid clicking on such links, if you encounter any. If someone tweet you and have no followers and followings, they are bots and block such accounts. Click only on the links tweeted by someone you trust and before clicking, hover your mouse cursor on the link to see where it redirects. If it just show the same link, click at your own risk !

If you get such Direct Messages or tweets, even from your friends, think your friend's account has been compromised ! So inform them about this before fighting with them. If your account is compromised but still have access to your account, change your password. If you have lost the access, create a new profile and report the old account as spam.[This has to be done at the expense of losing your followers !]

Prevention is better than cure. So be careful before clicking on such links. Be safe, be happy :)


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TweetMeme - One place for hottest links on Twitter

Most of us use Twitter, a wonderful place for being updated with the latest news and trends over the world. But we can't open twitter and keep on looking at it everytime. Who has so much of time in this fast moving world ? And even, if you follow an average of 100 users, your timeline will grow like hell ! Most of the stuff you care for, go under hood because of other tweets.

So it is always nice to have a single place, where we can find the hottest news and links, organized on different categories. TweetMeme is a place which fulfill this desire !

TweetMeme scans the Twitter and organize the most trending news and links in a single place, in an organized manner. News and links are categorized under entertainment, sports, technology, etc so that you can have easy access to the news you care ! Every category is subcategorized into news, images and videos. You can view most recent top tweets, last 24 hours' or last 7 days'.

Now you don't have to worry about missing the "Train" ;)

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No more "Twitter" & "Facebook" on Radio and Television in France !

You might feel awkward to hear this but it is true that Radio Jockeys, Television anchors, News Presenters or any media are not allowed to use the words "Twitter" & "Facebook" in France. It seems like French Government is obsessed with making crazy laws which obviously make people feel awkward.

This is not a joke but a real regulatory ruling measure by the France Government. News Presenters can't say "For more news, follow us on Facebook & Twitter" any more. The reason behind this law is unknown but aren't the people of France willing to know ? Well, if it was in UK, USA or somewhere else, It would have been a huge news for the Media and lots of protests would have gone through. But it seems like French media has taken it simple and are seen with their normal routine as usual. Only a few people have raised their voice over blogs and Social networks but that really doesn't prevent the Government from strictly enforcing this Law !

To read more on this, click here.

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Fight over noise on Twitter !

Most of the times when we login to our Twitter account, it is annoying to see tweets from a single user you follow throughout the page. It even make you miss tweets of the user you care. You can unfollow such user, but that is not the thing you want to do ! If you agree with this, here is a nice extension for the Google Chrome users out there !!

Proxlet Tweet filter is an Chrome Extension which allows you to take control over your timeline. You can mute users who create much noise, block annoying applications(permanently or temporarily), block annoying foursquare checkins, hide tweets based on hashtags, see links just from chatty users and much more !!

Already 6,000+ users are using this extensions to say goodbye to noise on Twitter. It even has a good rating(4 stars). I guess you need to read instructions about settings to get the most from this extension. Some people have found it not working for them. But I recommend you to give it a try as you have nothing to lose !!
Click here to install !!

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