CYBERSPACE — Sure it’s fun and seems harmless, having descended from a longstanding source of amusement in the real world, but security experts warn the “porn names” game currently trending toward the top of the hot-topics list at micro-blogging site Twitter could be a phishing scam in disguise.Although the game — in which players combine various bits of personally identifiable information to create a pseudonym — may be nothing more than the nontoxic waste of time it seems, it also may represent a particularly clever example of social engineering. By encouraging Twitter users to type their responses with the tag “#pornnames,” phishers can collect answers to the typical security questions — like first pet’s name, elementary school or mother’s maiden name — often used for account verification at e-commerce, banking and other secure websites.

Security watchdogs encourage anyone who has played the game to delete their related Twitter posts, change their passwords at secure sites and select new security questions to which they have not revealed the answers in public.