Twitter takes action against financial scams

Twitter on Monday announced new rules aimed at prohibiting financial scams.

The use of the platform “to deceive others into sending you money or personal financial information via scam tactics, phishing, or otherwise fraudulent or deceptive methods” is prohibited under the new rules, which specifically cite relationship or trust-building scams, money-flipping schemes, fraudulent discounts and phishing scams.

Punishments for financial scams include URLs being blacklisted, tweet deletion, account locks and permanent suspension for the most severe cases of fraud.

The new rule adds onto Twitter’s platform manipulation and spam policy from March.

That policy did not specifically define or outline consequences for financial fraud.

Claims related to the sale of goods, disputed refunds or complaints about goods will not fall under the scam umbrella, Twitter said.