When Twitter came out, it was a bit refreshing.
You could contact people directly through the system and chat back and forth about things.
It was nice because it's not like email where at times there are a few good messages hidden in piles of spam and junk mail.
It seems as though Twitter has changed a bit.
As the service has become more popular, it's become a source of spam itself.
The direct message feature is a way of one user to contact another user which is pretty much exactly like sending an email.
The problem with this is that this box gets full of messages that contain links to products to purchase whether you wanted this or not.
There are a few ways of keeping your Twitter account cleaner from this type of problem.
The first is to make your profile private.
This means that people in the system won't be able to find your account or to read your tweets while searching Twitter.
Only people that you approve will be able to see what you are doing on the system.
The second strategy is to not follow those who send you messages that you don't want.
If you keep getting hit with direct messages from them, unfollow and do what you can to block out those messages just like with email.
It's sad to say it, but spam whether it's email, Twitter, or any other internet service is something that will probably always have to be dealt with.