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Got new friends? Facebook spammers target cyclists & you may be your REAL friend’s worst enemy

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FB Facebook Fraud Request

Has your online social status been blowing with friend requests lately? Requests from suspicious characters like a male Triathlete named April or someone that just made friends with 46 other people? Are you or your friends getting spammed with ads for things like cheap sunglasses? If you or your friend(s) are, it’s likely due to someone accepting a friend request from a cyclist spammer.

Check out some of the culprits (from my personal experience), and see what you can do to help eliminate this…

FB Facebook Fraud Request 2

Since cyclists are such a chummy bunch (and we all kinda look alike when suited up), Spammers are posing as cyclists and targeting real cyclists by sending them friend requests. Many of these are from overseas, but regardless, they’re finding their way into our online social-circle and posting spam on our timeline. It’s an almost impossible thing for Facebook to police before it’s happened and reported so it’s going to be up to us and our actual friends to be more aware.

Here are some things you can do, and PLEASE… spread the word! (especially to those “you know whos” you keep seeing accept the fraudulent requests).

  • Screen your requests by checking their stats. Most are pretty easy to figure out… especially if you’ve never met. If their profile was just set up, or their profile pic is a different person than the rest of their pics, this is a dead giveaway.
  • Call your friends out! If you notice the spammer has a mutual friend, let them know because it will otherwise spread like wildfire. (repeat offenders should owe you a beer)
  • Report them. Yes, this is tiresome and calling your naive friends out is way more fun, but it’s a means to an end to clean things up.
  • Change your friend request settings to “friends of friends”. This will make it so that only people who are friends with one of your friends may send you a request. It’s not bullet proof, but it will cut down on most spam requests.
  • Hide your friends list from everybody including your friends. If one makes its way in, this will prevent your friends from falling victim… and you getting called out.
  • Make sure your timeline and photo privacy are set to “friends” so it’s harder for spammers to know you belong to the cycling community.
  • Change your profile & background photos to a non-cycling subject matter. I know you may have just died a little on the inside, but that is how they find and then friend-attack you.

 

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Tyler Durden
Tyler Durden
8 years ago

A different solution altogether: Delete your Facebook account, make real friends, and ride your bike!

Fred
Fred
8 years ago
Reply to  Tyler Durden

Amen! And get ride of your smartphone while you’re at it!

Smitty
Smitty
8 years ago

If they don’t have a KOM/QOM then they are dead to me…

Frank
Frank
8 years ago

Are there people who will “Friend” any request? I’ll only accept people who are friends IRL, not some rando’s.

myke2241
myke2241
8 years ago
Reply to  Frank

oh heck ya! In the myspace days there was only one “Tom” now everyone who is on FB have a few Tom’s there are trying to out Tom each other! i have had a few spammers try to friend me already. Never thought about reporting them.

Hey Tyler i have a bunch of client that use FB messenger. it is very useful. So not everything about FB is bad

Scudder
Scudder
8 years ago
Reply to  Frank

Hey! We may ride old, heavy bikes, laden with gear and light up like a christmas tree, but Randos can make for good friends on the 600k homestretch.

Quickie
Quickie
8 years ago

Frank, if it’s a hot chick (or a dude posting pictures of a hot chick and claiming to be her) the answer is “yes.”

obv
obv
8 years ago

Can confirm.

john hansen
john hansen
8 years ago

if I follow those “rules” I will only have about 3 friends

Dylan
Dylan
8 years ago

I haven’t had a problem on my own profile, but get plenty of spammer requests to join a local mtb trail group I manage. The typical profile will have only recently been created, have very few or no friends, and be a member of 20+ groups.
Some of the recommendations in the article will work against you if it’s you trying to join a group like the one I manage. If your profile picture isn’t bike related, I can’t see any of your friends, and can’t see any of your posts, and you don’t have any friends in the group, you’ll just be blocked, even if your profile otherwise looks legit. Sorry to say I also profile based on nationality and language…this is a small town with a very small international population, and if neither you nor your friends have an obvious local connection, you’re out.

Mike D
Mike D
8 years ago

Even having request permissions set to ‘friends of friends’ isn’t always a good roadblock, as it seems there’s always that one friend that will mindlessly accept the friend request, ha.
Anyway, here’s the name of my little spam buddy (3rd request now): Arnould de Motalembert

Thanks BR for giving a heads up on this!

Allan
Allan
8 years ago

I’m happy to report I have no idea what any of this means ^_^

Westie
Westie
8 years ago

I had a FB account for 1 hour and then deleted it ! What an intrusive waste of time ! Go ride your bike instead of posting %$# about what you ate or where you are at !!!

Bob
Bob
8 years ago

Bike Rumor is as close to social media as I will ever get. Even as a business owner I easily get by without any of them. It blows me away how much time people spend checking the FB, Tweet, etc.

DJ
DJ
8 years ago

NO FB = Fewer complication of modern life

Jose Ramirez
Jose Ramirez
8 years ago

That’s me on the picture in the right!!!!

griffoyle
8 years ago

Yeah have had a surge of fake account request recently. 5 or 6 in one day and my FB privacy settings are locked down pretty tight. Really annoying to be rejecting multiple requests each day.

Memphis Rider
8 years ago

Our club has like 35 weekly rides and we have a group for each. We get random people /spammer request all the time. We reject and report when we can.

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