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Twitter attack could point to worrying trend, experts say

Users of the social networking site Twitter have been hit with an innovative new malware scam over the past few days, it has been reported.

With growing numbers of politicians and media groups joining private users in making use of the micro-blogging site, computer security experts have revealed that smart criminals enticed users to follow links to a "Best Video" location on YouTube.

However, rather than connecting to the Google-owned site, the link worked to send a PDF document to users which was infected with a virus, with victims then informed that their systems were under attack and encouraged to buy fraudulent anti virus software.

While Twitter has confirmed that the problem was swiftly dealt with, some observers believe that this new scam could be the first in a wave of attempts to use the social networking sites for fraudulent purposes.

"It would seem that at least one criminal group is now exploring the distribution of for-profit on Twitter," explained Roel Schouwenberg, a researcher at Kapersky.

"If the trends we've seen on other social platforms are any indicator for Twitter then we can only expect an increase in attacks."

Meanwhile, Lichfield MP Michael Fabricanthas only just reinstated his Facebook page after he was targeted by scammers.

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