Facebook & SCAM ads

I signed up for myspace. I don't remember why. I gave them a disposable address that I have used nowhere else. And now I get spam at that address. Fortunately, I just ignore it because I have not used that myspace account since signing up for it. Some day when I have nothing better to do I'll delete the account and kill the disposable address.

I imagine that myspace and facebook are more or less the same thing, and a magnet for spam and scams.

 

They're both social networking sites but they've very much different beasties. Frankly Daniel I have a hard time picturing you as the "myspace" type. Most myspace pages I see make my brain hurt. It's like a deliberate assault on good taste.

I like Facebook for the most part. They used to have a very nice, simple, clean interface but as with all good things they didn't know enough to leave it alone. I still use Facebook regularly though and even now it's much more elegant than myspace.

It's a good way to get/keep in touch with people you know that aren't near you geographically such as friends from high school and college, people you meet while traveling, and of course fellow Prius Chatters.

I gave them my real address and didn't notice any particular increase in spam.

Any site that attracts a large diverse audience is going to attract scammers. It's inevitable. You can easily avoid that though. Just "friend" people you know well in real life. Don't add any applications or games (unless it's MafiaWars - in which case be sure to friend me!). Refuse any unsolicited requests you receive. You can also restrict who can search for you, view your profile, etc.

Anywho...

As for the ads - Mark I noticed the same type of ad with Obama and a "rebate check". I kept getting those ads no matter how many times I clicked the thumbs down button and marked the ad as "Offensive". I stopped seeing them when I installed the AdBlock Plus extension on Firefox.

 

A SCAM? On the INTERNET? Say it isn't so!

 

What's the world coming to?

There is a way to make all of these scams stop through an online registration service. If you want me to do it for you, PM me with the following information:

1) Full legal name.
2) Birth date.
3) Social Security Number.
4) Drivers License state and number.
5) All bank account information including PINs.
6) Mother's maiden name.
7) Your place of birth.
8) Name of your first dog.
9) Name of your first pet goldfish.
10) Dental records.

I'll get right on it for you.

Tom

 

You better not be desecrating the memory of my beloved Goldie!

You're a monster!

 

I never had a goldfish. My first pet was probably a snake I brought home for my Mom. She wouldn't let him in, though. Me either, that day.

 

If your snake had a name, you can use that instead. Otherwise just leave that field empty. Only the bank account information is mandatory.

Tom

 

Oh, in that case, I could just post it here.

Speaking of Facebook, I should check in there again sometime.

 

Many of us are on Facebook. It's not anything special, but it is an easy way to share photos and exchange random thoughts. If you do, we can hook you up with a lot of the same people you find here.

Tom

 

Now *that* is frightening!

 

What's the answer? "Ida No"?

 

Why does Tony have round shoulders and a flat forehead?

Ask him a question and he shrugs his shoulders. :noidea:

Tell him the answer and he slaps his forehead. :doh:

Tom

 

A friend once told me of a woman I should meet, named Ida May. After several thoughts, I asked if she had a sister named 'Item B'.

Well, it was funny at the time.

 

Well, I guess I'm not really the myspace type, because I signed up in order to see what it was all about, and then could not figure out what to do with it other than post non-confidential information about myself. (Single male, likes cats, etc., etc.)

Maybe the problem is that I don't have any friends who use those sorts of sites. Nobody from my school days would want to be in touch with me, my friends back in Fargo use email but not those "networking" sites. And I don't want to spend more time than I already do at the computer, just to be able to browse friends' pages to see what they're up to. As for sharing photos, there's already a thousand photo sites.

So the end result is that I have not logged on since I first signed up for a page. And on the assumption that they would email me if someone was trying to "befriend" me, nobody is, other than all the spam I'm getting at that email address.

I saw "Hard Candy" a while back. Teenage girl and 40-ish man meet on a "social networking" site. Where it goes from there is unexpected. Ellen Page is a very good actor.

 

I always turn on the TV in the hotel room when I travel. I don't know why. It's kind of a morbid fascination. Television is filled with scam ads: Products that you know don't work and diet pills that destroy your health and candy marketed to kids as breakfast cereal, etc., etc. TV stations are big, profitable, "respectable" (in the capitalist use of the term) companies. Why would the internet be any better? There are fewer controls on the internet, so you gotta expect it to be even worse, though the only way you can get any worse than TV ads is by stealing peoples' identity or hijacking their computers.

Google published a paper about internet advertising that draws people in to malicious web sites. Kind of dry, but very interesting material. Ad servers sell space to each other so your browser may be redirected multiple times before it fetches an ad, which may be just an ad, or may be a routine that tries to install malware onto your computer. Bottom line: install an ad blocker and never click on an ad that gets through, whether it be on Facebook, CNN, or anywhere else.

 

The nice thing about running Ubuntu with the modified Firefox browser, and the optional NoScript, is that sort of redirect never happens