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Holtz Communications + Technology

Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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Is Facebook spam a growing problem?

I suppose it was inevitable; an online service gains momentum, its popularity and usefulness increase, and the opportunistic vermin who have corrupted every other aspect of the Net flock to the venue determined to ruin a good thing.

Among the four or five friends requests I get daily on Facebook, there are now at least two or three like this (often with the same ads):

Shel Holtz

I expect this will get a lot worse and, as we had to do with email spam, blog comment and trackback spam, and wiki spam, we’re going to have to deal with it using our own resources. I don’t think it’ll take long for the stain to spread to other networks (Ning comes to mind, as do the Ragan and Melcrum communications networks and any others that serve other niches).

Bastards.

 

07/26/07 | 2 Comments | Is Facebook spam a growing problem?

Comments

  • 1.This might be more of a question for Dan York, but do the providers of these "walled gardens" such as Facebook not have more ability to purge and block spammers than those administrating more "un-walled" places? Is there no increase in security and privacy that comes with having to register? Is there at least a potential for it?

    Francis Wooby | July 2007 | Kingston, Ontario, Canada

  • 2.Hi, Francis.

    The registration process for Facebook requires a name, an email address, and a birthdate. You can get free email at Yahoo! with a first name, last name, and gender. In other words, anybody can create these accounts without being identified with a real person at all. Go to Yahoo! for free email under a fake name, then Facebook to get an account under a fake name. If these are taken away (for TOS violations, for instance), just go get new ones. So no, there's no improvement in security or privacy that I can see.

    Shel Holtz | July 2007 | Concord, CA

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