Good news: no one has funny video of you dancing

I don't know if this bird tweets or clucks or warbles.

And no one is saying bad things about you on their blog.

And probably, no one is spreading nasty rumors about you. (But I'll admit, these are all guesses.)

If you don't know what I'm writing about, then you probably don't do much on Twitter. Because if you're like me, and are (somewhat) active on Twitter, then you probably see the above messages maybe once a day.

It works like this, as far as I can tell (and I'm no expert): There's some kind of hack where you get a direct message from one of your followers saying that "someone is spreading bad rumors about you" (or whatever) and there's a link to click. Click that link and... well, I don't know because I've never clicked the link, but I assume it somehow leads down the path that everyone who follows you gets the same spam message.

OK, I just Google'd it. This guy is an expert on it, and he does a better job of describing it here: http://www.hyphenet.com/blog/2012/05/07/dont-let-the-bad-rumors-dm-phishing-scam-hijack-your-twitter-account/



Looks like you need to enter your username and password, but still -- just don't click that link in the first place.

Let's make a gentlemen's agreement right now: if you ever see embarrassing video of me dancing (not likely because I don't dance); if someone is spreading bad rumors about me (not likely because in my mind, everyone loves me); if a blog is telling lies about me (also unlikely because just about every Seth Jones story is true) -- email me or call me. And I will do the same for you. We won't direct message each other on Twitter.

Sound cool? Cool.

I'll use the direct message function on Twitter on occasion, especially if someone Tweets (not DMs) at me first. It might be a story lead, and I don't want all 1,300 of my followers -- especially my competition -- knowing I'm chasing after a particular story.

Last thought on this for now: I do have 1,300 followers. The thought of me direct messaging all 1,300 followers with a spam message terrifies me. So I'm going to err on the side of caution in anything I get from Twitter. But you have my email address and you have my phone number. Please feel free to use them.

Thank you Twitter friends. Goodnight.