Twitter scam nets British MPs
Last Updated: Friday, February 26, 2010 | 7:46 AM ET
The Associated Press
British politicians were among those caught up Friday in the latest Twitter-based scam, which hijacks users' accounts to send out sexually explicit messages to friends and followers.
British energy minister Ed Miliband, seen here in 2009, denies sending a sexually explicit message through his Twitter account. (Bob Strong/Reuters) The micro-blogging website has been hit by a wave of so-called "phishing scams," which lure users to a bogus site where they're enticed to part with their passwords. The compromised accounts are then used to distribute rogue messages to other users.
Those tracking the Twitter account of Ed Miliband, the British energy minister, were surprised by a message carrying an unusually direct reference to the politician's sex life.
"Hhey, i've been having better sex and longer with this here," the tweet read, the United Kingdom Press Association reported.
"Oh dear it seems like I've fallen victim to twitter's latest 'phishing' scam," Miliband said in a message posted shortly afterward.
He wasn't alone.
On Thursday, House of Commons leader Harriet Harman told lawmakers her account had sent a bogus message to opposition lawmaker Alan Duncan.
She didn't say exactly what the content of the message was, but she left British lawmakers wondering when she told them: "I wouldn't ever send a tweet like that."
Other prominent politicians and journalists have also received the rogue messages.
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