Keeping Your Facebook Wall Free Of Spam

My Facebook Friend Chris Ellsworth gave some good advice today: ‘If you receive something that says forward to your friends, or you aren’t my friend, it’s a chain letter!’

‘If you receive a story, and are told that if you don’t pass it on, you’re evil, or will have bad luck, it’s a chain letter!’

Chris went on to explain that if people simply deleted this garbage, and warned their friends not to send it, it will just go away. I don’t know about the trash going away, but it will certainly reduce it.

Facebook, Myspace, Bebo and so on are online communities.

Just like offline communities, if community members start looking after their environment, it will definitely change the situation.

Following on from my comments over the past few days about the message about Facebook being over populated, and deleting members, I thought that I would have a crack at another myth!

The Hacker!

You know the one – if so and so tries to add you, don’t do it because he’s a hacker – and if you let him on your list he’ll figure out your computer address and hack you, your friends, and destroy the whole space/time continuum!

The one I received today concerned a young guy called ‘Kurt’. He’s a real person – I did a search on him, and sure enough, he’s on Facebook, with no friends – as my kids would say, ‘totally Nigelated’.

Previously, the culprit was bm_tnoo7(at)hotmail.com, making his appearance on Facebook in September of 2007.

This was obviously a reincarnation of dont_ask(at)hotmail.com in 2004, who again was a reworking of Sandman way back in 2000!

Further, the Mark Zuckerberg hoax that claimed that Facebook was dangerously overcrowded is actually a reworked version of one about Hotmail in 1999/2000! More Here!

If Facebook starts deleting accounts, it definitely won’t be because of overcrowding!

Someone asked me a question about a message that they had received today, which said that ‘…hackers are cloning our profiles…’

I pointed out that a) it had no official heading and, b) it was unsigned!

As was posted on the Facebook blog yesterday, if a message has to be sent out, they will send it – they will not leave it to their members to do it for them.

It will be sent by the Facebook team, and will be official! It would include their letterhead and contact details!

If someone sends chain letters, or warnings that are designed by the original author to cause upset or panic, ask the person who sent it not to do it again, and delete it!

At the very least, delete it, and don’t send it on!

If it keeps happening you have the option of dropping them as a ‘friend’, or reporting it to the site.

I believe that it is up to members of online communities to take a bit of responsibility – as my friend Chris said – keep the Funwall for fun, not this sort of trash…!

Please note that apart from being a member of Facebook and other sites mentioned here, I am not an employee or spokesperson for any of them, and make no claim to act on their behalf!

These articles have been written in an attempt to alert people to this situation. If you have any concerns about hackers, chain letters and so on, please contact the site concerned!

This post was published on December 20, 2007, and was checked and updated April 22, 2016.

Allan Cockerill is a writer for hire, and is available now.