Blue-tick scammers target consumers who complain on X
www.theguardian.com
Misleading Twitter handles displaying paid-for icon being used to carry out phishing attacks
  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    4•1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Consumers who complain of poor customer service on X are being targeted by scammers after the social media platform formerly known as Twitter changed its account verification process.

    They typically win the trust of victims by displaying the blue checkmark icon, which until this year denoted accounts that had been officially verified by X.

    I’ve since come across other fake Booking.com Twitter accounts which are following customers who are at their wits’ end trying to get a refund and have resorted to X to air their grievance with the company.”

    In June, passengers whose easyJet and BA flights had been cancelled were targeted by cybercriminals using fake profiles after they resorted to X to demand refunds.

    Bank customers have been warned to be vigilant as scammers are on the lookout for tweets that they can exploit to obtain personal account details.

    Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert at the campaign organisation Which?, said the recent changes to X’s verification processes had made it harder for users to identify trusted accounts.

    The original article contains 668 words, the summary contains 170 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • magnetosphere English
    3•1 year ago

    Not everyone is as knowledgeable as we are, and a lot of people don’t know about or understand how scammer-friendly Twitter’s new “verification” process is.

    Twitter should be held legally responsible. By changing the meaning of “verification”, they became accessories. By charging for the check mark and displaying ads, they are directly profiting from criminal activity.

    If Twitter was making a real effort to fight scammers, that would be one thing. However, their moderation is shit. If a user can find suspicious evidence, so can Twitter - if they bothered to look. Firing the mod team is an explanation, but not an excuse.

    Other businesses aren’t given a pass to ignore safety standards because they “can’t afford” them. Twitter should be no different. If it can’t afford to run safely, then it can’t afford to run at all.