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January 15, 2008
The Social Networking Dream Has Died: Facebook Spam!!!
I logged into my email this morning to find five Facebook Wall posts from old friends -- many of whom I haven't spoken to in a while. "Hm, what is this spontaneous outpouring of love? How is it that so many have been moved to reach out to me this morning?" I clicked on over to my Facebook account, only to find --
I'D BEEN SPAMMED!!!
Actually, I was the spammer, and every single one of my Facebook friends had been subjected to one of those "chck out fr33 ringtonez now!!111!!!! dudez!!!!!" ads. Some of them said only, mysteriously, "did you get them???" Even worse, a bunch of people had already emailed me or responded to point out that I had spammed them, as if it wasn't clearly indicated all over my History Board or whatever the hell that thing is called on your profile that lets everybody know what you're up to. THE SHAME!!!
But after the initial embarassment wore off, the whole thing started to get funny. And then I started to feel like some sort of social networking pioneer! Might I be the first person to fall victim to the Free Ringtone Scam -- so common on MySpace, but as of yet unheard of on the smugly secure Facebook? A quick Google search revealed that spam has actually been creeping into Facebook for a while now, in all of its various Nigerian scam and "OMG Press alt-F4!!!!) iterations. Don't press Alt-F4, by the way.
Another unexpected benefit to the whole business is that the novelty of Facebook spam has brought out the snarky side of my friends. Everybody is messaging me to politely-yet-humorously decline my offer of free ringtones :"I'm actually quite happy with my current ring-tones Carrie, but thanks for offering." "Dude, Carrie, I get all excited I got a message, and it turns out to be an advertisement. Where's the love, Carrie? Can't you love? You should be French."
So...has Facebook actually communicated for me? Is this the future of social networking -- you don't even have to do anything to keep in touch with your friends anymore? The brain inside the computer will just send out cryptic-yet-concise messages for you? Facebook will actually do all my networking for me? I'm not sure if I'm ready to give my social life over to a malfunctioning Dell.
Will frequent spam destroy the Facebook experience? (Unless you believe it's already going to hell.) Part of the whole attraction was that it offered a more cloistered membership than MySpace ever did -- but have all those god damn third-party applications tolled the death knell for Facebook user-friendliness and security? Will a social networking site ever get it right? Or does the emperor have no FunWall?
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Carrie - It's really ironic but I was actually BANNED from Facebook for a whole day last week for contacting people on the marketplace. Which I did do, but to buy FURNITURE. Facebook sent me a warning at like 11:33 and at 11:34 I was banned. They said I contacted too many people in a close span of time. I thought I was being efficient because I found what I wanted and copy and pasted a message to people about their item asking for more information. And ONE FRIGGIN MINUTE. I wrote Facebook back telling them I was a real girl and not a spammer and then had to wait patiently for them to decide my fate. It felt equally funny and tragic. I am starting to think Facebook is no better than the rest of them. Dammit.
I'll admit it, I was spammed by Carrie.
Lucky! I wish Carrie would spam me.
I guess its inevitable. Unless you want to hassle your users with all kinds of human authorisation ie. when you Digg something or similar.
I'm sure Facebook will loose a lot of users if that was implemented.
I guess we just have to get used to spammers finding their ways to all our favourite sitesl.
I'm glad that you documented it though ;)
Oh and congrats on being the first Facebook-spammer =P
btw this post is hilarious carrie...great write up!
Yup - Carrie spammed me, too!
I've got to say, Carrie, I was intrigued when I saw you'd written on my wall. It's been a while, and I could only imagine what you had to say. Alas, I keep my phone on vibrate. I hope you're well, and I was glad last week to learn we were blogging colleagues.
it all started with those damn applications.
at least it wasn;t another damn Carlsberg or traveling bear or jumping dog.
Wow, I spammed some of the leading citizens of this city! That's awesome.
I AM PIST OFF AT FACEBOOK! I HAVE BEEN SENDING LOTS OF MESSAGES TO MY FRIENDS. GOTO WWW.FACEBOOKDISABLE.COM TO POST YOUR RANT AND PROBLEMS WITH FACEBOOK
I AM PIST OFF AT FACEBOOK! I HAVE BEEN SENDING LOTS OF MESSAGES TO MY FRIENDS. GOTO WWW.FACEBOOKDISABLE.COM TO POST YOUR RANT AND PROBLEMS WITH FACEBOOK
I've written a desktop app that lets users receive and send Facebook messages from a regular email client (www.fblocalmail.com); handling messages in this way would also let users leverage whatever tools they have for spam filtering and information management. I'm yet to include notifications (I'm developing it in my spare time), but support will be there eventually.