Spam: It's Not Just for E-Mail Anymore

Back in the days when e-mail was new and exciting, we all learned about spam--not the canned mystery meat from Minnesota, but the canned mystery messages from anonymous schmucks who want to sell us everything from weiner enhancements to "patented" get-rich-quick secrets. 

Now I've learned that the spammers are no longer limited to e-mail.  They, like me, have gotten wise to the role of social media, and they are Twittering up a storm.  In the last few days, I've received nearly a dozen messages notifying me of new Twitter followers whose names I don't recognize.  It turns out that many of them are spammers whose accounts have been suspended by Twitter for "weird activity."  A few of these sleazy Tweeps (that's Twitterese for Twitter people, I'm told) managed to dodge the Twitter cops (Twops??), but when I checked their profiles, it was clear that I would want no association with them, so I blocked them.

Unlike e-mail, Twitter makes it very easy to block any communication from an undesirable source.  When I receive notice that a new Tweep is following me, I check the person out. If he/she is legit, no problem.  If not (and it's easy to tell from their profiles and previous communications), I just click on "block" and I'll never hear from them again.

I guess everybody is trying to sell something.  Twitter is a place where people go to pitch their ideas, services, products, whatever.  But that's OK, as long as I have the power to decide whose pitches I'm willing to catch. Wow, I guess that makes me "the decider."  Cool.