FB question/concern

1987 Views 17 Replies 14 Participants Last post by harrysmom, Aug 15, 2010

CrystalAndZoe

Discussion Starter · Aug 12, 2010

Today when I logged on FB I saw on the right side of the screen, something about Zoe & Jett. So I clicked on it. It is part of a sentence I HAD in my profile info before FB's format change. These are the 2 screen shots I have. When I went back to my home page, it gave me another option from a sentence I HAD in my profile info before the FB change. When FB's format changed, a bunch of my info was gone. But apparently it's still there somewhere for this to be coming up. The reason I'm concerned is that now 4 of my friends have sent me links to things (and all there other friends) that they have not actually sent. So I'm guessing their account got hacked. It's just making me very nervous and I'm a little uneasy about being on FB now. Does anyone know anything about this?

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njdrake

· #2 · Aug 12, 2010

Crystal, my email address has been hacked before but in the past few days I've had several emails from me to me. I put my own email address in my contacts so if something like this happens I'll have a way of knowing. The hackers emails are things I wouldn't send out :w00t: and even emails that look like I put in a personal message saying I found this great site and wanted to share it. Anyway, I sent emails to the people in my contacts (I sent you one) and have had a lot of replies. Everyone of them telling me this is happening because of my FB account and it happens all the time. I do have FB but I'm hardly ever on it. I have no idea if FB is the problem or not but its making me crazy and I'm trying to find out what I can do to stop this. I hate to change my email address but I may have too.
Here's a couple of the articles friends have sent me after they received my email about my high jacked address.

Hacker claims he located ?scary? privacy issue on Facebook - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

Privacy on the Internet: What information about you is on the nets?

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CrystalAndZoe

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 12, 2010

Thanks Jane. I did get your warning email, but no other ones. But I've had 4 FB friends who posted on my wall sharing a link, but they really didn't. So far no direct emails of this type of stuff, thankfully. For me it's just been on FB.

I just found it disconcerting to have a link with 2 of my 3 dogs names from a sentence I had written in my profile, provided for me like it was a site being constructed. Has this not happened to anyone else?

mfa

· #4 · Aug 12, 2010

Crystal&Zoe said:
Thanks Jane. I did get your warning email, but no other ones. But I've had 4 FB friends who posted on my wall sharing a link, but they really didn't. So far no direct emails of this type of stuff, thankfully. For me it's just been on FB.

I just found it disconcerting to have a link with 2 of my 3 dogs names from a sentence I had written in my profile, provided for me like it was a site being constructed. Has this not happened to anyone else?

that info should not be there at all!! maybe check your settings?
i have not had this problem or any others on fb...wish i could be of more help.

mom2bijou

· #5 · Aug 12, 2010

Yes Crystal...go look through my friends list. It actually says Benny and Emma, Being a good wifey, Driving with the convertible top down....etc etc etc. Anything I put in my interests pops up on my personal friends list as an interst. Strange right?

Try to change your password every few months on FB. Not sure how true it is but I"ve heard that helps keep hackers at bay.

sones

· #6 · Aug 12, 2010

It's just a new setting they recently added (couple months back). It's called "pages" where people can "like" their friend's interests and create new pages (much like fan pages) for their interests and get their friends/other people to like them as well. Sort of like sharing interests. It doesn't directly harm you or your account but I think its normally for when people put things like categories or things in their likes/dislikes. For example. Favorite Movies: Transformers, Toy Story and Twilight. Then each individual item will either match up with other FB user's interests and link you to a single page where people can post on the wall and share their love for the movie or not. But when you put sentences like: "I like to watch funny movies that have action in it too" Then it will either use that whole sentence or cut out some parts of the sentence to create a "fan page" because it thinks it can be a common interest. Some of the kinks in facebook but definitely will not harm you or your account if someone clicks on it.

I suggest if you don't want a page made up on something like that to just keep your keywords brief or not put anything at all (which is what I have done). I have also blocked everything on my facebook to only where friends of mine that I have approved is able to see.

As for your friends who have gotten spam posted by them that is not actually by them, tell them to change their password and potentially their email login name if they have a spare email. But those links are semi contagious as if you click on it, your account can potentially get infected too.

(I know all this because the new privacy settings have caused quite a controversy at my University as well as the net

)

Hope this helps!

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Snowbody

· #7 · Aug 12, 2010

I think that I have just about nothing in my profile on FB and like it that way

I have fairly high privacy settings too as to who can view what. I also don't friend many people. As many here on SM know I really haven't accepted friends because I only use FB for my family and work colleagues. It all gets to be too big a world out there and too many ways to infect an account and I like to keep things separate. After having my e-mail account severely hacked and my business bank account emptied by forgers in the early 2000's I've grown leery. As I said about e-mail accounts, a good first entry to use in your address book is something like [email protected]...just make up something before the .com, it usually stops the hackers from cycling thru your whole address book.

Nikki's Mom

· #8 · Aug 12, 2010

I deleted a lot of pages and friends from FB because I just don't want my entire life displayed there. If I've offended someone by deleting their "cause" or their "store" page, please don't take it personally. I'm just not going to continue to put personal stuff out there. My blog post comments from 6 years ago are still showing up on Google searches, and it really pisses me off. I really like the internet, but there are some things about it that just infuriate me.

jenniferhope423

· #9 · Aug 12, 2010

I just went to my FB after reading your post and mine has the same thing! It has a sentence that I have in my profile just like yours did. If you find out what is behind this please let me know.

pinkheadbaby

· #10 · Aug 13, 2010

My daughter says this has happened to her & her friends & that if you just change your password on FB then it stops. I don't really know much about it.

Orla

· #11 · Aug 13, 2010

oh 2 links like that are on my fb now!

Bailey&Me

· #12 · Aug 13, 2010

sones said:
It's just a new setting they recently added (couple months back). It's called "pages" where people can "like" their friend's interests and create new pages (much like fan pages) for their interests and get their friends/other people to like them as well. Sort of like sharing interests. It doesn't directly harm you or your account but I think its normally for when people put things like categories or things in their likes/dislikes. For example. Favorite Movies: Transformers, Toy Story and Twilight. Then each individual item will either match up with other FB user's interests and link you to a single page where people can post on the wall and share their love for the movie or not. But when you put sentences like: "I like to watch funny movies that have action in it too" Then it will either use that whole sentence or cut out some parts of the sentence to create a "fan page" because it thinks it can be a common interest. Some of the kinks in facebook but definitely will not harm you or your account if someone clicks on it.

Sones described it well...I read your post and was trying to figure out how to explain it...but yes, its a relatively new feature in Facebook. They took all of the things you typed up under "Interests" and other things in your profile into separate pages. So for example, under "Movies" I listed that one of my favorites was The Prestige. So that became a link, and if I click on it, it shows me all the other people who also listed it as a favorite movie. There's obviously a glitch in FB that tries to make separate pages out of everything you list in your profile, even sentences. For example, it also tried to make a page out of "anything with Patrick Swayze in it" which is also something I had written under my favorite Movies. I don't like this feature much either.

Hope that makes sense.

pinkheadbaby

· #13 · Aug 13, 2010

I'm not quite getting it. You mean fb purposely made something that makes people think that there account has been hacked? As I understand it, you get a message with a link to something from someone you have listed as a friend. Then you ask your friend 'why did you send me that link?' & they say they did not do it. This is what my DD tells me has happened to her.
I have learned to not open a link in an email that I didn't ask for since it may let a virus enter your computer. Seems like getting a link on fb could do the same thing.
Am I all mixed up???

Bailey&Me

· #14 · Aug 13, 2010

No, the fake links are something different...that is not done by FB itself, but by hackers.

What I was describing was what Crystal initially posted about...things she listed as her Interests ("And my dogs Jett and Zoe" showing up as a "page"). That is just a glitch in the system and not related to hackers or viruses. Crystal, are you able to go in to click on the page and delete it since it was created from your profile? if not, send FB a message.

The fake links that are being posted on people's profiles are definitely viruses. I'm talking about the links that appear as though they are from one of your FB friends, but look generic, like "Hey, check out this video." Don't click on those. I got a message in my inbox a couple of years ago to view a video from a friend that turned out to be a virus. Well, the same link went out "from me" to a bunch of my FB friends...so now I'm careful about what links I am clicking on. Just don't click on anything that looks suspicious.

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harrysmom

· #15 · Aug 14, 2010

I don't post anything on facebook that I wouldn't tell
everyone anyway... but it still makes me nervous that
hackers can get anything I do choose to post. Here's a good
article about facebook security that I just read:

5 tips to protect yourself on Facebook - Computerworld

beckinwolf

· #16 · Aug 15, 2010

I usually just play the games on facebook. I hardly do anything else. I highly doubt a hacker would be interested in how many chickens I've raised! As far as the internet, well I figure its pretty much a public place, so don't post stuff you wouldn't post in public.

MalteseJane

· #17 · Aug 15, 2010

Well I am kind of p.. off at FB and will not let pictures I upload to show friends stay there more than a couple of days now. The setting for my photos is "friends only". Yesterday evening when I went to FB I found one of my pictures from the album displayed there (same place Crystal mentioned) with a caption asking something like "do you know who that is ?". I have now deleted any picture in my album containing people and Alex. I deleted also some friends that I never saw posting anything. I am also hiding all the games people on my list play. I don't play the games, I go there to keep in touch with people who are not on the forums anymore.

harrysmom

· #18 · Aug 15, 2010

MalteseJane said:
Well I am kind of p.. off at FB and will not let pictures I upload to show friends stay there more than a couple of days now. The setting for my photos is "friends only". Yesterday evening when I went to FB I found one of my pictures from the album displayed there (same place Crystal mentioned) with a caption asking something like "do you know who that is ?". I have now deleted any picture in my album containing people and Alex. I deleted also some friends that I never saw posting anything. I am also hiding all the games people on my list play. I don't play the games, I go there to keep in touch with people who are not on the forums anymore.

I don't play games either, but I found that the games that my friends
played were listed under applications that I allow, so I went and disallowed
them all. The article I posted the link to in an earlier post in this thread detailed where to look for the games and applications you supposedly allow.

I have gotten the picture thing too, asking me if I know the people, and most of the time they're my (adult) children and I didn't even post the picture.... they did.... so I don't trust Facebook. I never tag anyone in my photos and I untag myself if I'm tagged, too.

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