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The live streaming of kids’ sporting events certainly is easier than ever and can be popular with family members. So of course it was only a matter of time before we see spam live streaming links.
Those spam live streaming links are annoying at best and hurtful at worst. Because what if you click on them and that click leads to some kind of negative activity – like a virus install or the stealing of other personal information.
In this article, I discuss how to spot spam live streaming links and how teams can make sure their families know what links are the right ones.
Where do we see spam livestream links?
These typically show up in comments of sports teams announcing their games and game times. They also show up in the comments of actual livestreams.
Often they look like this:
Or this:
Of course, they try to look legit which is why they’re trying to insert themselves into a conversation of genuine accounts. But they also exhibit a number of warning signs that spam usually has:
- Strange looking links
- Typos in the post
- Strange looking usernames
Of course, not all of those always apply and some of the usernames look relatively legit. And typos can also happen by legit accounts. Also remember that spammers get better and better at camouflaging their true intent.
How to avoid spam live stream links for your sports team
On Twitter, sports teams can restrict who can actually respond to a tweet. So that’s one way to limit the spam. When you compose a tweet change who can reply to that specific tweet. The options are:
- everyone
- people mentioned
- accounts you follow
Another tactic is that people can report and hide the spam links. On Twitter that usually means to click on the three dots next to the tweet.
On Facebook, hold the comment and perform a similar action.
Teams can also be crystal clear of who is actually live screaming games. Send an email or message from the main account and let people know that this is where livestreams actually are happening. Or if there are no live streams let people know that too.
Livestreams could happen through GameChanger, or a dedicated Facebook or Twitter account. Or all of the above through multistreaming.
The ease of live streaming kids’ sporting events is fantastic and more and more common. Of course with that comes the opportunity for spammers. Just make sure you know who is in charge of live streaming your games and don’t fall victim to a malicious link.