Twitter has announced that it’s busy rolling out a feature that would let users of its social network receive Direct Messages (DMs) from any other user on the network. Until now it’s only been possible to receive a DM from somebody who you follow – and DM conversations could only take place between to users who follow one another.

Given how the social tool has been widely adopted by companies, who use it to interact with consumers, it seems like a smart move. It’s often the case where a company’s support account would offer assistance to a user, and ask the user to DM their contact details. Previously this would have required a corporate account to follow every user asking for help – and we don’t pity the community manager running the account, who now has to sift through thousands of tweets for all the users being followed.

With the new option, corporate accounts can still get DMs from users in need, but there will be an unwelcome side effect.

The Twitter network is known for its spambots, and it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. Users are currently getting spambot replies when using certain trigger words – try talking about Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, or any other trending topic and see what happens – and those who have the new DM option enabled might soon find their inboxes flooded with spam.

It’s unlikely the option will be turned on by default, so don’t worry about it affecting you when it becomes available. Just don’t go and enable it and wonder why you have so many new friends.