This has just happened to three of our client accounts and I wanted to share the information with you. First be very careful what applications you give Twitter access to on your account.
This is the situation. On one account a user actually direct messaged us and said did you know you sent me a money making scheme tweet? We never tweet about things like that either personally or for clients. In several of the applications we use for Twitter like TweetDeck and HootSuite this tweet from us never showed. But when I went to www.Twitter.com to the account tweets I uncovered links to videos and other tweets that I know we did not do.
Here’s what you should do if this happens to you to.
1. Change your Twitter password immediately. As I could do this, it told me that an individual had not hacked the Twitter accounts, but rather an application which I had allowed access to was using my Twitter account to sneakily send out their own self serving links and tweet. Hmm, this is very bad.
2. In the Twitter account connections tab, I disabled all connections and shut off the access for all applications. When you do this you break the connection for all applications. Make sure if you use HootSuite, Social Oomph or TweetDeck, make sure to update your account with the new Twitter password or you will not be able to use those applications.
I am not sure but I suspect either TwitterFeed (hate to think this may be true) or more likely Twellow. All accounts were not spammed seriously but even one tweet that we don’t write that promotes something we have not approved is not okay.
The bottom line is be very careful with Twitter. I love the application, the reach, the viral opportunities, but do not allow others to access your Twitter following and sabotage what you are doing for their own sneaky and selfish use. If I find out which application has done this, I will for sure post the information so we can encourage their blacklisting. For more information from Twitter on what to do if you have been hacked visit the Twitter Hacked page on Twitter.com.