I usually send them a message and ask them how they think they know me. I connected with a cousin this way (my uncle’s son). But otherwise, I tell them either they have the wrong BeepKillBeep or just no.
Recently, I had a person from Nigeria contact me recently to have me help them get into the university where I work. I told them that wasn’t something I could do, they need to go through the normal admissions process. Then the personal questions started, but you do work at the university right? What country do you come from? etc. He said he just wanted to have a friend here when he arrived. I told him, if you get admitted to the school when you get here drop by my office and I’ll give you a tour of the city. Clearly, a scam or attempt at identity theft so needless to say I didn’t add him as a friend. So he sent the friend request again, and I blocked and reported him to Facebook.
Nope. As another poster said, I sometimes friend (or accept requests from) people who I’ve “met” through online channels, but otherwise, no.
To take it a step further: I’m careful to check out requests from people I do know, as spoofing happens sometimes. I occasionally get requests “from” people I’m already linked with. I have at least one request from someone I knew years back and have zero desire to link up with (we have no friends in common so I have no clue how FB suggested me as a contact to her).
There’s a group for people from my high school class. Someone who moderates the group somehow got tricked into approving someone nobody knew. No clue what was up there but when I spotted the name, I contacted the moderators and he was gone within a day.
Nope.
As a few others have said, I’ve ignored requests from people I did actually know, but wasn’t friendly with IRL.
I’ll accept LinkedIn connections from strangers if we’re in the aviation industry together and their profile looks professional. But if their profile looks like a barely-conscious high school student filled it out, I pass. I’ve got better things to do than try to decipher someone’s atrocious spelling, grammar, and lack of punctuation.
My avocation is jazz singing, and working musicians are the only strangers I’ll accept friend requests from (if we have enough “good” people in common). I know that they’re mostly just looking to spread the word about their gigs, but I’ve decided that any potential networking along those lines is worth the additional event invitations. I haven’t had to unfriend any of them yet.
Outside of music, though, I definitely have a “we must have met in person at least once” rule. And I’m picky about who I send requests to.
No, I tend to keep my friend list trimmed to people I genuinely want to keep in touch or keep up with. I don’t have any reason to invite strangers into my news feed. Maybe if I were into Facebook games, where having more friends can help with that, but that’s not really my thing either.
Nope, with a couple of exceptions. If they are mutual friends with friends in the same profession as me, I will generally accept the request, even if I don’t know them personally. And maybe a half dozen times I’ve accepted friend requests from internet-only acquaintances.
Hell, I don’t even accept friend requests from some people I do know.
If I have no clue who you are and your only mutual friend is one of my more gullible ones, nope.
If I look at your feed and all you post are gifs, memes, and reposts from your own political agenda (right or left), nope. (this applies if I know you or not)
If I knew you in high school and junior high and thought you were pain in the patoot then, probably nope now.
If it’s someone I’ve never met, but I recognize their name and we have mutual friends, I will accept. I’ve made some good on-line friendships that way.
I will sometimes accept requests from strangers so long as they aren’t the obvious hooker/troll type–young hot girls with only men in their friend lists, offering links to pictures, that sort of crap. I look at the person’s profile, see if they have mutual friends or might be a potential client. I also have a pretty quick trigger finger on the “unfollow” button if they post annoying stuff regularly.
I just remembered/realized that I’ve made exceptions for one or two Dopers: folks I’ve interacted with here in a meaningful way, but haven’t met IRL yet. So I guess it’s more of a guideline than a rule.
I haven’t had to unfriend any of them yet.