I'm just a bit suspicious when I get a direct message on twitter, out of the blue, from an MP who's not my own. And I'm rather more suspicious when he tells me "Really horrible blog about you, might want to read this migre.me/6TEr5" ... for one thing, I'm sure he has better things to do, and for another I can't see many MPs using language quite like that.

Following the link ... and I get to the login page not of "twitter" but of "twittelr" which upon further investigation through the whois database is regsitered as follows:

Registrant Contact:
  zhang yu
  yu zhang sdfgsdfghf@msn.com
  0463965823 fax: 0463965823
  changhailu12hao
  nanning guangxi 230254
  cn

I've met enough people in my time, and I'm sure upset more than I would like (one is one too many, but you can't make ommlettes without breaking a few eggs!), so there may be some really horrid blogs out there that I haven't come across. But the MP for another Wiltshire Constituency isn't going to be bringing them directly to my attention via Twitter, me thinks!

The "Really horrible blog about you, might want to read this ..." is, I have concluded, a Phishing trip. Once an account has been compromised, the phisherman and find a list of follows and send a message like this to each of them. Then as some of them bite the worm on the hook, further messages can follow. And the reall neat thing as far as the phisheman is concerned is that the nasty URL doesn't appear in the email - it's hidden within the short URL that we all get so used to, and accept without thought.

P.S. I have altered the short URL to avoid this page driving anyone there!

P.P.S. Just saw a new tweet come up:

"If you have received a DM from me linking to a blog, then please ignore. My apologies. My account has been spammed." ... and I think THAT is genuinely him!
(written 2011-10-14)

 G910 - Well House Consultants - Scams
  [78] Domain Registry of America - (2004-10-07)
  [178] Calling a spade a spade - (2005-01-15)
  [347] Frightening and from-friend viruses and spams - (2005-06-14)
  [860] Warning - false emails, said to be from Paypal - (2006-09-09)
  [1313] Tratum Technologies - (2007-08-21)
  [1342] Google, wwmdirectory, Freshwater, ATP - new scam? - (2007-09-09)
  [1680] Astroturfing - the online definition - (2008-06-17)
  [1772] Ken Palm, iTime, and Domain Name Tasting - (2008-08-25)
  [1795] What have iTime, honeytrapagency and domain listing center got in common? - (2008-09-12)
  [2373] Translation from Ghanaian to English - (2009-08-23)
  [2403] Hotel Booking Scam / Cost of calls to 070 numbers - (2009-09-12)
  [2524] An update on legal changes from the FSB? - (2009-12-03)
  [2690] The World Company Register - is it another scam? - (2010-03-23)
  [2895] Global Computer Maintenance Department - (2010-07-29)
  [2988] Not mugged in London! - (2010-10-08)
  [3222] Clickjacking - another way to get you to follow a malicious link - Facebook issue - (2011-03-29)
  [3291] Pay and refund scam - alive and kicking against Melksham businesses - (2011-05-16)
  [3859] Youve Been Selected for the 2012 Edition of the Global Registry - (2012-09-16)
  [4385] A booking that looks too good to be true? It probably is too good to be true! - (2015-01-05)
  [4651] Pressure selling in the fire safety business - (2016-02-19)

Back to Practical Extraction and Reporting - using Python and Extreme Programming

Previous and next or Horse's mouth home

Forward to Some thoughts in answer to some Melksham Campus questions

A Melksham Timeline - Domesday to present day
Canals, watererways in the Melksham area
Taking a boat down Caen Hill Locks
Some thoughts in answer to some Melksham Campus questions
Direct Message: Really horrible blog about you ... a clever phishing trip, said to be from an MP
Practical Extraction and Reporting - using Python and Extreme Programming
Testing your Python classes with the unittest package - how to
Choosing your Python GUI - wx, Qt, Tk or GTK?
Tkinter - an easy to use Python Graphic User Interface - introductory examples
Havant - Shop Frontages.