I had a conversation with a friend who simply has ZERO interest in social media. He’s never been on Facebook and doesn’t desire a Facebook account. So he explains to me that he’s getting email from people he actually knows requesting he add them as a friend. It’s not a case of generic spam email pretending to be a Facebook notification — it’s the real deal. People who know him request to be added as a friend, but it’s not really him. Interesting huh?
So, I look up the dude up on Facebook by name, and sure enough, there he is! No photo, but the location is correct — and evidently the email address is correct too because he gets notified that lots of people just can’t wait to be his friend. So who exactly is utilizing the information? If you’ve added this person as a friend THINKING it’s the person you know — his impersonator now has contact information for all your friends (phone and email at the least). And then, this fake can see the friends of your friends and ask to be friends. The fake’s list grows and grows…
A quick search for my name within Facebook yields 150 results — and right on the first page is another me that has my photo even! Who knows how many other ‘me’s’ are out there with no photo — or a generic photo (like the 4th entry in the image on the left).
While we all know about the Koobface virus spreading through emails and posts that appears to be messages sent by friends or contacts that include links to video — what the heck is going on with this other stuff?
And more importantly, what can we do about it?