Important! Read About My Twitter Password Hijacker

A few days ago, while I was checking my Twitter mentors, I found an account that I obviously didn't follow. I stopped following him at that time. Then the next day, when I logged back in, I found the same guy's updates. I was surprised and thought I might not have stopped following anyway, and removed him again. The next day, he reappeared. I didn't give it much thought as I don't use Twitter for any kind of promotion or don't deem it as anything comparable to my email, so as to give a strong password.

The guy who continued to reappear is Gary Vaynerchuk, a wine blogger and vendor. He goes by the Twitter user ID @Garyvee.

For all weak services, I use a common password (which is changed now). The same password was used on my Facebook account. A few days ago, I found that I was following a page created by Gary Vaynerchuk in Facebook. I never had any recollection of joining that page.

This is possibly a Twitter password hijacking. This person has somehow got my password for Twitter as well as Facebook and manipulated my accounts.

If you look at his Twitter account, you will find that he has astoundingly huge number of followers. Even more than several professional bloggers. If you are following this guy too, then I advise you stop following right away, and change your Twitter password.

Here are some tips to stay safe:

1. Don't ever share your Twitter password with any online service other than Twitter itself. Many Twitter-related online services require you to share your password. Don't do it.
2. Change your Twitter password now!
3. Keep different passwords for different services.
4. If you are friends with anyone you didn't originally add, change your password quickly and remove the person.

It is good that the wine guy didn't change my password, steal my contact details, or manipulate my account in anyway, other than use it to further his reach. But this type of business is abhorrent. Please let others know of this.

You have read this article Special Posts / Web 2.0 and Social Media with the title Important! Read About My Twitter Password Hijacker. You can bookmark this page URL http://neurotica-exotica.blogspot.com/2009/03/important-read-about-my-twitter.html. Thanks!