Twitter Targets Financial Scams With Its Latest Policy Update

Twitter is cracking down on the financial scams that plague its platform. The company published a policy update today specifically about this issue, detailing the exact types of financial scams that will result in actions from the company, including impersonating people or banks, offering fraudulent discounts, operating phishing schemes, and more.

Financial scams are very common on Twitter — anyone who views a tweet from a major account, such as a celebrity, entrepreneur, or similar account will be familiar with these scams. They often use the name and avatar from a known account, offering things like in-game currency, cryptocurrencies, discounts, and more in exchange for personal information or money.

In an update on its policy today, Twitter detailed four specific types of financial scams that are forbidden on its platform:

- Money-flipping schemes

- Fraudulent discounts

- Relationship/trust-building scams

- Phishing scams

Examples of these activities include using stolen credit cards to offer discounts or trying to get users' personal banking info by pretending to be a bank or similar institution. Twitter users can report these scam tweets when they see them, alerting Twitter's system to review them and take action.

Accounts that violate the company's financial scam policy will face different potential actions, such as being forced to provide certain info or solve a reCAPTCHA before being able to use their account. Twitter warns that it may temporarily lock accounts and delete the offending tweet for first offenses, giving the user a chance to correct their behavior before facing a permanent ban.

Permanent bans will also be issued in cases of 'severe violations,' including accounts where most of the activity is in violation of the policy or where the accounts were created to replace or imitate an already suspended account.