Spammers Use Services Like Ping Vine On Twitter (Updated)

Please see the update at the end.

So here’s a question.  How many real people are on Twitter.  Real meaning not an account set up by a spammer or a bot account.  A lot less than you might think.  While spending some quality time on Twitter this evening, I came across something interesting.

I found a ton of accounts tweeting the exact same messages.  This is similar to a story picked up by TechCrunch.  In TechCrunch’s story, it was accounts supposedly set up by hot girls all linking to the same dating service.  The accounts I found were similar in that they were all set up to look like the owners were hot girls but they link to one of two sites.  The first is apparently some type of click fraud scheme (click here if you are bored and want to see it).  The second is that highly annoying link that takes you to a site that immediately begins showing you a video of two guys on a couch telling you how to get tons of Twitter followers.  I am sure you have seen the video by now, one of the guys is wearing a lei (click here if you need a laugh, but turn your speakers down).  Sad, very sad.

One of the interesting things is that the accounts do not send the same tweets are the same time.  They are random.  The tweets appear to be quotes or daily thoughts etc.  If you put one of these quotes into the Twitter search, you come up with a huge list of these bot accounts.  I call them bots because they appear to be on cruise control.  It appears that these accounts are using services like Ping Vine or HelloTxt to tweet RSS fed messages through their Twitter accounts.

How do you spot one of these accounts?  One thing they all have in common is that the account names are all women’s names followed by a number.  What should you do if you encounter one of these accounts?  Block it.  That’s it.  You’re done.  You don’t need a spam button.

Back to my original question, how many real people are on Twitter?  Who knows.  Time will tell.  Twitter is becoming more of a second internet everyday.  Instead of building web apps, people build Twitter apps.  Instead of domain squatting, people are account name squatting.  Instead of spamming email and instant message chats, they are spamming Twitter.

Eventually the service will either be so inundated with spammers, that it won’t be profitable for the spammers anymore.  In addition, so many people are using Twitter apps like Tweetdeck that they wont even see the spam.  The only people that will be hit with the spam will be the people new to the service.  But that is of course the target for the spammers.  The people who have been on the service for a while are the early adopters and they normally wouldn’t be taken in by the lame efforts of the spammers anyway.  The people I feel sorry for are all the new people joining Twitter because they saw it on Oprah.  Ok, maybe I don’t feel that sorry for them.

If you want to see for yourself how many accounts I am talking about, click this link to a Twitter search.  You will get a list of accounts.  Look at the tweets from any of the accounts.  You will notice a trend.  Do a search with one of those tweets and you get another big list of accounts but not the exact some list as before.  Have fun!

UPDATE

I recently received the following comment.  Instead of just approving the comment, I decided to update this post and discuss it.  Here is the comment:

Comment on a couple of articles (btw, I found you on my Twitter, so obviously you don’t think I’M spam or you wouldn’t be following ME).

1. “…takes you to a site that immediately begins showing you a video of two guys on a couch telling you how to get tons of Twitter followers. This program does not use Ping Vine or HelloTxt.”

I used this program, the TwitterMachine, and I do NOT have a woman’s name followed by a number. Personally, I found the program brilliant in helping me set up my account to be automated with feeds from serious marketers’ blogs. And I’d much rather watch a couple of down to earth guys explain something step by step than come up on another sales page that SCREAMS at me.

The author of “a video of two guys on a couch” and I also exchanged links on Facebook and he’s been very helpful in a few other marketing areas as well.

2. “Another good ways to spot spammers are that all their tweets come through twitterfeed.”

This is also NOT entirely true. I DO use Twitterfeed but I do NOT spam Twitter. I manually search and choose my feeds very, very carefully to focus on specific materials plus my own blog’s feed. That is NOT spam.

I think you are doing your readers a grave disservice by lumping us all in the same pot.

Notice I used my REAL name with a REAL website and you can find my full profile on my REAL Facebook at facebook.com/*********.

Have a REAL day!

I am not including the name or contact information for this person because my repsonse is not a personal attack on this person.  In response to the first part of the comment, let me explain something.  I think people creating videos and placing them on their websites is great.  People using all technologies available is always a plus.  My problem here is that the video starts playing immediately once you go to the site.  This is a pet peeve of mine.  When I go to a site that has video, I want to be the one that hits the play button.  That way, I can set the volume control or if I am in an environment where I am trying to preserve a quiet atmosphere, I can bookmark it, and view it later.  I regard all sites that immediately begin playing a video or sound when you land on the page as spam.  Sorry, if you think that is wrong or if you are offended.  But it is annoying as hell.  Period.  So yes, as far as I am concerned, these guys are spammers.  If they would prefer to not be regarded as spammers, it is very, very simple.  Add a play button.  .

Also, if you believe that setting up your Twitter account to automatically post feeds from “serious marketers blogs‘” isn’t a form of spam, then you are confused.  Seriously, seriously confused.  The feeds from your blog is fine.  Everyone does a certain amount of shameless promotion.  If you want to tweet a link to someones blog who you think your followers would find helpful, go for it.  But automating the feeds is going too far.  If people wants nothing but feeds from blogs, they will get themselves a nice RSS reader.

For the second point made in the comment, I completely agree.  Not everyone who uses the services I mention are spammers.  There are lots of legitimate uses for those service.  Even though what is quoted in the comment above was not from my post but rather from another comment, I still want to discuss it.  First, read the comment… “Another good way to spot spammers are that all their tweets come through twitterfeed.” Twitterfeed is a great resource…one that I have actually advised people to use. There is nothing wrong with the service.  But the fact is that spammers are using it.  Let me use this analogy.  Suppose I said that all axe murders use an axe.  I did not say that all people who own axes are muderers nor did I say that all axes were used to murder people.

I am thrilled that the person who left this comment has done so well using these services.  I would suggest that perhaps they give up an evening of Twittering and Facebooking and curl up with a good, informative guide on reading for context and how to understand what is written.  And when you are done with that, you can send an email to the “guys on the couch” and tell them to get a damn play button.