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Beliebers on Twitter Beware!

For many Beliebers, having Justin Bieber follow them on Twitter would mean everything. “I would do anything for JB to follow me” one fan (not me) tweeted.

Should the Biebs decide to follow a true fan (like me), that fan will treat that day like a second Christmas and maybe even frame a screenshot in his or her Bieber shrine (yes, I have one). And if he hasn’t followed you yet (he hasn’t followed me yet), then you keep tweeting in the hopes that one day, he’ll finally open his eyes and see that what he’s been looking for has been here the whole time. Never say never (especially to Taylor Swift).

Well, there’s been a scam circulating around Twitter. Its targets?  Me and my fellow Bieber Fever companions. ): Last week, if you tried tweeting something about Justin Bieber, a Twitter account would respond, “Wouldn’t it be cool if Justin Bieber followed you? It can be done!”  If you clicked the URL that followed, you’d find yourself at a page telling you that “the secret to get Justin Bieber to follow you” was there. 

The page (which still exists) goes on to tell readers:

“It is never easy to get a celebrity to follow you on Twitter. Imagine how it feels for someone like Justin Bieber with literally thousands of people begging for you to follow every minute of every day. There is a secret method reporters use when they want to get close to a popular artist which will definatley [sic] work when you’re trying to get someone as huge as Justin Bieber to follow you.”

But (even with the spelling error) it’s not that simple! Before you can get Justin Bieber to ‘follow’ you, the page requires you to finish an ‘IQ Challenge’ (that actually just wants your phone number).  

And why does this page need your number, you might wonder?  Only to sign you up for a mobile subscription, of course! If you’re subscribed to this scam, you’ll have to pay $10-20 bucks a month.  Such a small fee to have Bieber following you, eh?

And then you realize that it’s a scam, that it doesn’t work, that the true Justin Bieber would never do something like that and that JB still isn’t following you.  (Boo.)

“We’ve seen all kinds of things, but we hadn’t seen [a scam like] this before,” said Todd Mumford, an attorney of the Biebs in an article on Forbes.com. Having a page like that is “cheap and slimy,” says Mumford. “[Justin] doesn’t need that for his fans.”  (Our relationship is beyond that level.)

Twitter has shut down the Twitter accounts promoting the scam, but will it ever resurface?  Belieber or not, what are your thoughts?