And don't you know it, that sage advice applies to the digital world as well.

A recent version of an old scam recently crossed my desk on Twitter. When doing a Retweet of someone else's post (like we did with the SocialMedia411 Facebook scam), a stranger saw my Retweet, used the @USER_Name function to get my attention, and only included a link that was shortened using one of the URL shorteners that you see regularly on Twitter (Bit.ly, TinyUrl, etc). Because it was a shortened URL, there was no way to tell where the link was going.

As it turns out, the link was to a site claiming I won a prize if I filled out some information.

Behind the link, of course, was malware for my computer, and if I would have filled out the info, I would have simply given personal information to thieves.

So, going back to Mom's advice, don't talk to strangers online, especially if all they've done is sent you a link.

-Posted by Mike