Occasionally, some hot young babe will friend me on Facebook. Since I don’t know them, they don’t know me, and I ignore them.
I’m not opposed to HYBs, but come on. What do they want with me, right?
So I get one a while ago, but she’s got 3 mutual friends with me, all guys from high school. Her join date is yesterday, but I figure she’s someone’s daughter just building numbers, or something, I don’t know.
I accepted. 10 minutes later, I get a message from her. She can’t talk right now, but text her my number and we’ll chat.
Riiiight. I un-friended her so I don’t have to deal with her, but I’m still curious.
What’s the deal? I’m sure there’s a scam somewhere if I start texting some chickie, but what is it?
Yeah, these kinds of ‘too good to be true’ things are generally information miners.
Enough people are aware of the dangers of using credit cards on untrustworthy sites that many scammers are turning elsewhere. As Joey P mentioned, often they’re looking for something less obvious like a phone number that they can sell to someone else. A popular alternative is the ‘like-harvester’, a page with some cute image which you are encouraged to like; once enough likes are gathered, the owner sells the page to some semi-scammy company that will turn it into an advertising page with a pre-made reputation.
I’m surprised they still exist. I haven’t gotten one since Facebook started punishing people who add people they don’t have any way of knowing in real life.
If you’re wondering, I think it works as follows: If you add someone and they decline, they must either be in your email contacts, have friends in common, live nearby, or otherwise be in your “people you may know” list. Otherwise, you’re account will be locked and you will have to go through several prompts promising you’ll stop adding people you don’t know. If you don’t comply after that, your account will be banned from adding friends.
I’ve never heard of that. You’re telling me that if I request you as a friend on facebook (or a new work friend or new girlfriend etc) that I’ll get ‘punished’. That’s news to me.
What? You mean if I friend a person I knew in high school, and they decline the request (probably because we haven’t spoken in 15 years, or they don’t remember me), I get punished somehow?
When you decline a friendship there is a second step that asks if you know the person IRL or not. I suppose if the person responds “Yes, I know them in real life” you are not punished (or, no flags go in to your “Will be punished” queue.)
I’ve declined people I know IRL before, and was honest that I know them. Hopefully others are too.