Reporting on the Twitter issue, Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with Sophos, says the site that the messages point seems dumb, in that it not actively test the user credentials entered into it.
"This is suggesting that it might be created simply to scoop up users' login details. Hmm.. that smells worryingly like a phishing attack to me", he said, in a weekend security blog posting.
"Further investigation finds some small print on the Twtfaster website that suggests that they plan to use your account to advertise their service – but I wonder how many people would read that before eagerly signing up for more followers", he said.
According to Cluley, one bit of good news is that TinyURL appears to be currently blocking links used in the campaign, but of course that's not going to stop the people behind this latest outbreak from using alternative URL shortening services.
So far, Infosecurity understands that, apart from using member accounts to generate adverts for its service, the Twitter account credentials have not been further abused.
So, says Cluley, if you've found out that your Twitter account has been sending messages advertising how to get more followers, I would recommend that you change your password immediately.
"And next time a third-party website asks you to hand over your username and password for Twitter, steer well clear", he said, adding that it possible that the accounts that are spamming out the adverts for Twtfaster have not signed-up for the site themselves, but have been compromised in some other way.
"As I've discussed before, you should always exercise extreme caution before signing-up for a service which offers to increase your Twitter following", he explained.
"Unfortunately, as the popularity of Twitter grows and the desire for more followers deepens we can expect more and more users to fall for scams like this", he said.