Yesterday we noticed a strange occurrence on Twitter: hundreds, if not thousands of Twitter accounts were sending out spam links, all at once. Most of these accounts weren't your usual spam accounts, but regular Twitter users with real accounts, followers, and tweets. Then, the flood suddenly stopped.
We wondered if it was just a strange group of accounts or a one-time attack. Now we're fairly certain that isn't the case. Thousands of compromised Twitter accounts are sending out waves of spam throughout the Twitterverse. The tweets are coming hard, hundreds per minute. Here is a sampling of what's going on:
We aren't sure as to the exact cause. It seems to come in waves, and then it stops. It could be a compromised 3rd party application. It could be an old phishing scam or even the more recent TwitViewer scam. We have emailed Twitter about the issue.
Regardless, if you believe your account is compromised, immediately change your password! In addition, do not visit any of these websites - they can compromise your account further (or worse).