Ways to Spot a Twitter Spammer
If you have a Twitter profile, it is good to know that the ‘birdy’ social networking site carries some serious spam issues. As it allows anyone to follow anyone, it encourages an influx of malicious spammers reach out to a considerable amount of Twitter users in a short span of time.
An apt way to avoid spam is by following people whom you really know. For notable personalities and popular entities, look for the ‘blue tick’ and follow them as such profiles are authentic and verified. Additionally, here are some tips that will help you spot a Twitter SpamBot even beforehand.
1. Extreme indecency
Indecency and immorality sells like hotcakes online. So, if your new follower has an appealing avatar and posts lot of lewd Tweets or snaps, it’s time to wave them goodbye for they are surely not human but SpamBot. Unfollow them just in time.
2. Unending deals and offers
Spammers never waste their time actually creating Tweets but inserting spamming links with attractive deals and offers -- making it sound promotional. Hence, it is only beneficial to ignore, rather unfollow profiles that post many vague things like - ‘whiten your teeth immediately’, ‘OMG check this out’ or ‘exclusive deal for you’, etc.
3. Incorrect words and misspellings
Continuous use of wrong spellings and words that fail to make any sense is a strong sign of a spammer. No human would make more than 10 mistakes in a Tweet of about 140 characters. Besides, smartphones and tabs are always on auto-correct so there is least possibility of spelling errors.
4. Still continuing as an Egg avatar
No pro Twitter user would like the default Egg avatar as their display pic but one who is inexperienced or a spammer. People keep changing their Twitter profile picture oftentimes and hence if you still come across someone sporting the egg, unfollow them immediately.
5. Not more than a couple of Tweets
One of your followers has been following more than 1000 people and is followed by 200 of them still the follower has not more than a couple of tweets. The user posts a feed rarely -- doesn’t that signal you for spam alert.
6. Absence of a sensible bio or no bio at all
A spammer would not waste time thinking about his life and times. He either would type in something random, quite generic or would leave the bio space blank. Know that it is a serious threat.
7. Male name for a female avatar
If it is a SpamBot, it will not know the difference between a male and female. Hence, it is likely that the profile would carry a male name but a female avatar or vice versa. This is one of the most common sign of a spammer.
8. Misrepresenting ratio
Before you follow anyone on Twitter, just visit their profile to check their number of followers and following. If the ratio of followers and following is amiss, leave the page immediately.
If people are following you, do not go out of bounds and start following them just like that. Remember that spammers are not hard to find but tough to spot. Be wary of whom you connect with online! Because if you are in social media optimization services, you should know that genuine followers are required than spammer and even you shouldn't spam there just keep it ethical and post quality tweets.
