Remember when spam ruined email?
Welcome to Facebook, 2011. And why, some day, people mightn’t be joining it if spammers begin making up a larger proportion of the membership.
I have received two odd friend requests, and since there was no way I knew these people, I asked them what our connection was.
There’s no way to report these people. The closest I found was to block them, and claim to Facebook that they are guilty of harassment. It’s not really harassment, unless I lived on a planet where people had a heightened sense of drama and self-centredness. What I really want to tell Facebook is that they are most likely scam artists, a variant of the dating spam that usually winds up on Bebo.
But since Facebook has no means of providing feedback, unless it’s an IP infringement (which they have been very good about), I’d imagine these are going to become more commonplace.
I am meeting more and more people who have deleted their Facebook profiles now, and wonder if it’s a sign of things to come.
As for these scams, that makes two in four days. I won’t tell you publicly what tipped me off (beyond their responses!) because I don’t want them changing their MO, but people certainly shouldn’t connect to folks that they don’t know. I’ve had Nigerian 419 scams before, and I’ve also seen dating scams, but the coincidence of having two so closely timed now make me wonder whether Facebook is the scammers’ latest medium of choice.
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Yet another reason why I am glad I fled Facebook. They might not bother me if I had stayed, being married for 12 years now, but in my experience, scam spammers have bothered me regardless of what details I have given.
I still have to be on there to promote our work sites, but I can foresee a day when folks won’t be using it. My relationship status, as far as I know, isn’t visible to strangers—so you’re right, these scammers simply target men, regardless of availability.