I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of getting Twitter auto-direct messages claiming that I can “get 10,000 followers in 90 days.” That’s BULL! Please stay tuned here on my Blog for my step-by-step approach to building a targeted Twitter account that provides value to you AND to your community of followers.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to launch my own counter assault on these MLM-type Twitter marketing scams. These people give the rest of us legitimate direct internet marketers a bad reputation. So Knock It Off!!!!

You might be asking yourself, “How does this affect me?”  Well, other than the general nuisance of it all, there is only 1 reason for a scam and that’s to (ultimately) take your money.

For those marketers who are ethical social butterflies, I say to you: One bad apple will spoil the bunch. Or in this case, ruin a perfectly good communications channel for your business. So let’s stop turning a blind eye and speak up! These spammers have an ulterior motive.  Whether that’s to capture your email address, mailing address, phone numbers, or maybe even your driver’s license or social security number, I’m not sure.  But it’s not just to help you get thousands of followers on Twitter, that’s for sure.  Once they have enough of your information, they’ll use it.  Perhaps it’s just to build an email database that they will market and sell to, you guessed it: SPAMMERS.

It could get worse:  The more information you allow people access to, the more susceptible you are to Identity Theft.   Now, I’m not claiming that any of these Twitter Spammer Scammers listed below are stealing your identity.  But they are getting some of your private information — even if it’s just your twitter account details.  Remember, you have other information inside the Twitter “settings” part of your account, and if someone can get into your personal Twitter account, they can get access to stuff like your cell phone number.

So be careful out there people! Here’s my growing list of the Biggest Twitter Spammer – Scammers:

1. http://www.twittertrafficmachine.com/

   Usually comes in a Direct Message or a Retweet such as: “Thanks for the Follow! Would you like to know How to Gain Followers and Make Money doing it?” or “If you want to get more follows, click here” or” Thanks for the follow! Want 20K followers in 3 months? Then go to http://budurl.com/dominatetwitter. No Thanks.

2. http://www.synaura-maqui-berry.com/

   This guy really got me to click with this crappy, mis-leading message.  There’s no stinkin e-book!  Sure, there’s some chapter for a training module that he’ll give you for free. But you have to dig to find this. And, to get it, he’ll ask you for your email and other personally identifiable bits of information. I DM’d this dude back and said something like, “get a life and stop this MLM crap on Twitter.”  Told him I was adding him to my poop list on this blog.  (I’m a woman of my word)
   Here’s his exact DM and you tell me if you don’t feel sucker punched:  “synaurateam can u proofread my ebook? password on the PDF is “synaurateam” download it from http://tinyurl.com/c2ywjo tell me wht u think!”

3. http://www.TweeterGetter.com

   This is your typical long-form sales page, claiming to “100% White Hat” and will “Get 15,642 followers in 30 days.”  The only person benefitting from this program is the guy who started it, and that’s @GaryMcAffrey.  In fact, he spends quite bit of his time @replying to people accusing him of just this — Twitter SPAM.  BTW, Mr. McAffrey, the definition of “Scam” is: “a confidence game or other fraudulent scheme, esp. for making a quick profit;” (thanks to Dictionary.com).  Well, I tried this guy’s system, and I didn’t get much in the line of followers.  I think that qualifies as a “fraudulaent scheme,” don’t you?

Oh, and by the way:  it’s not just me who’s fed up with this abuse of a great tool. Law enforcement officials in the U.S. are beginning to take note of Twitter.  Read the story. For more on how not to be a Twitter or Social Marketing spammer, read Krista Neher’s thoughtful post on the topic.  She’s summed it up very nicely!

ps. I’ll keep updating this list from time to time… I’m sure those who are in “charge” of these three scams will be ticked off. But too bad. This is the life of a whistle-blower.

Be Sociable, Share!

•