Endless "friend requests" on Facebook from Swedish women!

[Mr Allen]

Fortunately I know from a previous voluntary job not to accept random requests even if they have mutual friends, but this is getting a bit weird, been having a massive flood of "friend requests" all week from various female members, when I check their page to see exactly who they are they're nearly all Swedish females.

Has my account been compromised? Should I change my password?

I know about Google, I use it constantly.

Also, on a similar note, I kind of signed up to what I thought was a free "dating site" yesterday (yes, I am an idiot, they're the worst out for "scams"!) and since yesterday afternoon I have been inundated with emails from women who have looked at my profile and even had "private messages" on my account, which I can't read because to access the full features of the site you need a "VIP" account for about £8 a month, I can't spare it.

The site is called "Horn Hub", I don't know how to block the emails on Gmail or block the site itself in Chrome browser.

In the likely event nobody responds to this, I marked the latest message from "Horn Hub" as spam and tried to unsubscribe from the emails, whether it'll work I don't know.

 

[Catana]

On gmail, just mark them as spam and the system will learn to recognize them and automatically put them in the spam folder. I wouldn't be surprised if the "Swedish women" are bots. It might be a good idea to remove all your info from Horn Hub and then close your account. If there's no way to close it, mark any emails from the site as spam -- same procedure.

 

[Bikutoso]

What I think happened is the "dating site" sold their email addresses of their registered users to somebody with Facebook bots, that sends friend requests to you and probably all your friends if they can be viewed publicly.

I would recommend going to Settings on Facebook and make changes to avoid doing this in the future. Some notable settings are "Who can send you friend requests?", "Who can see your friends list?", and "Who can look you up using the email address you provided?"

And it would be wise to create a new email account for registering sites that you do not trust.

 

[Mr Allen]

What I think happened is the "dating site" sold their email addresses of their registered users to somebody with Facebook bots, that sends friend requests to you and probably all your friends if they can be viewed publicly.

I would recommend going to Settings on Facebook and make changes to avoid doing this in the future. Some notable settings are "Who can send you friend requests?", "Who can see your friends list?", and "Who can look you up using the email address you provided?"

And it would be wise to create a new email account for registering sites that you do not trust.

Thanks for the tips, but I know now not to sign up to stuff I don't trust in the first place.

And as a precaution I changed my password on Facebook.

I'm still getting messages from the Hub thing, but they're going straight to my spam folder.

I don't think it's possible to stop them completely, I spoke to my Brother in London this morning on the issue.

 

[Judge]

I'm afraid this reflects an online dynamic that can potentially happen with any subject as opposed to just sex sites like Horn Hub. One I learned innocently signing up for daily financial tips pertinent to the stock market through what I thought was a very honest and reliable source. A source that has links to cancelling such emails, but surprise-surprise! The process they provide just doesn't seem to work. Where my email inbox began to fill up at an alarming rate, and not just isolated to financial information.

Just too many predatory entities and individuals out there trying to capitalize on matching perceived demand with the supply of this or that. Bots, bots and more bots...all cross referencing our precious email addresses to weigh us down with solicitations we never intended to deal with.

A problem that forced me to simply migrate my legitimate email concerns to another host. I keep the old email host simply to avoid anyone attempting to impersonate me through that address. But otherwise it's just a spam-box and little else.

As for Facebook...I suppose such problems cannot be so effectively filtered out short of an entirely new and very private account. Even then, these days who knows? But then I've posted many times, "Just say no to Facebook" on general principle. Bottom line? If you post that you're looking for love or other things, there's just too many out there who want to make a buck off you.

It isn't where you post anymore so much as what you post that you have to be concerned about.

 

[Mr Allen]

I'm afraid this reflects an online dynamic that can potentially happen with any subject as opposed to just sex sites like Horn Hub. One I learned innocently signing up for daily financial tips pertinent to the stock market through what I thought was a very honest and reliable source. A source that has links to cancelling such emails, but surprise-surprise! The process they provide just doesn't seem to work. Where my email inbox began to fill up at an alarming rate, and not just isolated to financial information.

Just too many predatory entities and individuals out there trying to capitalize on matching perceived demand with the supply of this or that. Bots, bots and more bots...all cross referencing our precious email addresses to weigh us down with solicitations we never intended to deal with.

A problem that forced me to simply migrate my legitimate email concerns to another host. I keep the old email host simply to avoid anyone attempting to impersonate me through that address. But otherwise it's just a spam-box and little else.

As for Facebook...I suppose such problems cannot be so effectively filtered out short of an entirely new and very private account. Even then, these days who knows? But then I've posted many times, "Just say no to Facebook" on general principle. Bottom line? If you post that you're looking for love or other things, there's just too many out there who want to make a buck off you.

Well I've closed my account several times before now, but always gone back eventually because I have a few friends I talk to regularly on there who I've known offline for years.

 

[Judge]

Well I've closed my account several times before now, but always gone back eventually because I have a few friends I talk to regularly on there who I've known offline for years.

I know what you mean. It's just ironic- and unfortunate that some of the most problematic security issues I have to be concerned with are those accounts reflecting family and friends in real-life. The ones you can't just cut off and ghost.

Strange to recall how innocent pre-Internet and early Internet contact with others was...once upon a time! Before bots....let alone even a firewall.

 

[Mattymatt]

I actually closed my Facebook account 4 months ago because it was only making me depressed. I found myself comparing my life to that of my friends and I only saw how successful they are and how unsuccessful I am. From a psychological standpoint this just is not health at all. I also did not like all the politicking and advertisements. I grew weary on the whole affair.

 

[Gracey]

Strange to recall how innocent pre-Internet and early Internet contact with others was...once upon a time! Before bots....let alone even a firewall.

Agreed
I quite liked the dial up tone to AOL and being informed “you’ve got mail”

From people I chose to keep in touch with.
I was in complete control.

Nowadays it’s enough to give someone paranoia.

 

[Mr Allen]

Agreed
I quite liked the dial up tone to AOL and being informed “you’ve got mail”

From people I chose to keep in touch with.
I was in complete control.

Nowadays it’s enough to give someone paranoia.

AOL were one of my first ISPs back in 1998, I hated them, the speed was terrible, even on a 56k modem I was getting about 28 kb/s if that, that's if the connection didn't keep dropping out which it often did.

 

[Gracey]

AOL were one of my first ISPs back in 1998, I hated them, the speed was terrible, even on a 56k modem I was getting about 28 kb/s if that, that's if the connection didn't keep dropping out which if=t often did.

Speed and stuff didn’t bother me Rich, I only used it to get excited on receiving an email

I haven’t got much of an idea about computers and the web. Not really.

Bit old-school. Handwritten letters with a fountain pen.
Knock on someone’s door if I want to ask them something.
Old-school

 

[Mr Allen]

Speed and stuff didn’t bother me Rich, I only used it to get excited on receiving an email

I haven’t got much of an idea about computers and the web. Not really.

Bit old-school. Handwritten letters with a fountain pen.
Knock on someone’s door if I want to ask them something.
Old-school

Hey, it works, don't knock it mate.

I still get "excited" when I get an email, shame most of what I get's spam.

 

[Gracey]

Hey, it works, don't knock it mate.
.

You’re absolutely right, and Royal Mail or my legs don’t depend on service providers.

We don’t bottom out as frequently.