Webnotes taken by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice LLC. Content also
featured on WBTV’s Protecting Your Cyberturf Segment featuring Kristen Miranda
and Theresa Payton
I
received inquiries recently about spam and other suspicious activity on the fun
social networking site of interests called “Pinterest”. People were
complaining to about obvious spam and pins with strange links. Consumer
reporter, Kristen Miranda, is with us tonight to explain.
We all know that when a site gets popular the bad guys flock there. Well, Pinterest is very popular...some say downright addictive...which means the spammers and scammers are moving in. One spammer said during an interview that he is making $1000 a day on Pinterest just sending out spam. But you don’t have to get pinned down by the spammers and scanners. WBTV’s cyber expert Theresa Payton has some tips.
HOW IT WORKS:
1. Spammers may create a pin on a popular topic and then tag your name in the message
2. This tag might get you or your friends to click on a link in the pin which then serves up spam or leads them to a malicious software site
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF:
1. Research: If you get an email notice that someone is following you, do your research and look at their pins on their board
2. Ratio of Following to Followers: Look for telltale signs like they have very few followers but they are only following a few people
3. Mismatched Topics: Does the board title match the pins?
4. Report it!: Use the “Report Pin” button on Pinterest to report spam or anything suspicious
5. Pinterest.com is the only Pinterest website: Don’t trust other variations of the website name
WORD OF THE WEEK:
FLASHBACK TROJAN: this is the name of the recent virus infecting Macs. You can fight back against Flashback by making sure you have updated your Mac’s operating system to the latest version. F-Secure has instructions on how to see if you have the virus and on how to remove it.
WEB RESOURCES:
Pinterest Support Page to Report Problems:
https://pinterest.zendesk.com/home
Pinterest Blog Post on How to Avoid Spam:
http://blog.pinterest.com/post/21069528666/addressing-spam-on-pinterest
Interview with the Pinterest spammer:
http://www.dailydot.com/news/pinterest-steve-amazon-spammer-tells-all/
Flashback Trojan remove at F-Secure:
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/trojan-downloader_osx_flashback_i.shtml?cnn=yes
We all know that when a site gets popular the bad guys flock there. Well, Pinterest is very popular...some say downright addictive...which means the spammers and scammers are moving in. One spammer said during an interview that he is making $1000 a day on Pinterest just sending out spam. But you don’t have to get pinned down by the spammers and scanners. WBTV’s cyber expert Theresa Payton has some tips.
HOW IT WORKS:
1. Spammers may create a pin on a popular topic and then tag your name in the message
2. This tag might get you or your friends to click on a link in the pin which then serves up spam or leads them to a malicious software site
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF:
1. Research: If you get an email notice that someone is following you, do your research and look at their pins on their board
2. Ratio of Following to Followers: Look for telltale signs like they have very few followers but they are only following a few people
3. Mismatched Topics: Does the board title match the pins?
4. Report it!: Use the “Report Pin” button on Pinterest to report spam or anything suspicious
5. Pinterest.com is the only Pinterest website: Don’t trust other variations of the website name
WORD OF THE WEEK:
FLASHBACK TROJAN: this is the name of the recent virus infecting Macs. You can fight back against Flashback by making sure you have updated your Mac’s operating system to the latest version. F-Secure has instructions on how to see if you have the virus and on how to remove it.
WEB RESOURCES:
Pinterest Support Page to Report Problems:
https://pinterest.zendesk.com/home
Pinterest Blog Post on How to Avoid Spam:
http://blog.pinterest.com/post/21069528666/addressing-spam-on-pinterest
Interview with the Pinterest spammer:
http://www.dailydot.com/news/pinterest-steve-amazon-spammer-tells-all/
Flashback Trojan remove at F-Secure:
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/trojan-downloader_osx_flashback_i.shtml?cnn=yes
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