Twitter’s New Policy Aims to Curb Financial Scams

• Twitter has announced a new policy that aims to eliminate financial scams on the platform.
• The policy says that accounts severely violating it will be permanently suspended at first detection.

Although Twitter already had a spam policy in place, this policy defines what constitutes a financial scam and deals with them specifically.

Details of the policy

“You may not use Twitter’s services in a manner intended to artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people’s experience on Twitter,” begins the policy.

• Activities in violation of the policy include relationship scams, money-flipping schemes, fraudulent discounts, and phishing scams.
• The policy does not govern financial disputes that may arise between individuals on Twitter such as sale-related issues or improper refunds.
• Violating this policy may result in different consequences depending on the severity and history of previous violations.
• Consequences include tweet deletion and blacklisting URLs among others.

Events possibly leading up to the policy

Twitter was recently observed to host a number of crypto scam tweets. Bitcoins giveaways were announced, and fake users or compromised accounts were seen to announce winning bitcoins. Users were told that they could double their coins, by sending a small amount to a website which would then transfer a huge fund back.

Last year, many fake accounts pretending to be celebrities were created and giveaways were declared. It is reported that the scammers made over $5,000 worth of Ethereum in a single night. The impersonated celebrities include Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, and John McAfee.

Twitter also accidentally promoted a fake PayPal phishing scam that hinted at the prospect of an iPhone and a new car in return for verifying credentials.

Worth noting

Users can report tweets that violate this policy by clicking ‘Report Tweet’, then ‘It’s suspicious or spam’. The report can be submitted after selecting the option that describes how the tweet is suspicious or spam.