If you are getting messages to the effort that adding someone to your list of friends will result in your computer being taken over like some badly made 1950's horror movie, you can relax it ain't going to happen! What you are being drawn into when you pass these messages on is what's known as 'cyberbullying’ (or what one geek has termed 'Social Network Abuse')
Here's one example of how Social Network Abuse can and often does work...Bill has a problem with Ted Bill and Ted share social networks and use many of the same on-line applications like MySpace and Facebook, including some chat rooms. Almost every social media application has some sort of ‘flagging’ option. Bill ‘flags’ every single one of Ted’s posts, and gets his friends to do the same, despite whether Ted’s posts are inappropriate or threatening violence. Bill is trying to get Ted automatically banned from the service which will be triggered by the flag count reaching a certain level whether Ted is guilty or not! This is a form of personal Denial of Service (DOS)
Another example of a personal DoS is email abuse. Bill can send out an anonymous email to everyone stating that Ted is a hacker and that he should be blocked on all services. This type of email plays on fears that media escalate about the supposed danger of the internet, so it can turn viral quickly. Its having the message passed to as many people as possible which is the aim of the cyberbully.
On Facebook and MySpace be on the look out for something reading a little like this: “If somebody called XXXXXXXX adds you to their facebook/myspace/bebo etc account/invites you to be their friend DON’T accept it because it’s a hacker. Tell everyone on your list because if somebody on yours adds them, you get them on your list and he’ll figure out your ID computer addesss. So copy and paste this message to everyone even if you don’t like them and fast..because if he hacks their mail, he hacks yours”
This then gets passed around sometimes for years eating up resources and generally worrying people who are not tech savvy. Its practically impossible to access your social network accounts with this way. I say practically because if you post sufficient information about yourself; invite lots of people to view that information; and use some of it as the basis for passwords etc then you could be in trouble. Anyone who uses their telephone or birthday as their password and posts that information to their account is looking for trouble! But of course you don't...?
Facebook is rife with these so called warnings and the wise user ignores. Don't forward them however much FB encourages you to do so. Its a waste of time and may one day result in a court case or two...
You have been warned, but don't tell everyone?
