SPAMMERS GONE WILD

THIS forum is dedicated to massage and bodywork, and I think it's relatively safe to assume we all have that in common.

There are a lot of folks on this site who are also overlapping friends on Facebook. I just posted this rant there yesterday, and my cohort from NC, Felicia Brown, has also posted a similar thing in the past couple of days. I'm going to repeat it here, and if anyone wants to jump in with their opinion, feel free.

It all started for me a month or two ago when I visited the FB page of a very well known CE provider, whom I had previously respected. Lo and behold, there on his page were my niece, nephews, cousins, friends who have nothing to do with massage or anything related to it...I was shocked. It was very apparent that this person, whom I will now refer to as a moron, had gone through my friend list and indiscriminately added everyone on it. I could not believe it. (Incidentally, he is also on this site, and I have un-friended him here as well.)

You may be saying to yourself, "well, they had to accept." And that's true; they did. However, after chatting with most of them, I found out they accepted because they thought the person was in fact some dear friend of mine that they just hadn't met yet, or had perhaps met and forgotten. They all unfriend-ed him after I enlightened them to the truth. I had actually never met him myself, but since he is a fellow MT, I had accepted when he friended me, because I viewed him as a colleague. I can now say, after seeing his method of operating, I wouldn't attend his class if he paid me to come.

The same thing happened again today, only this time it was a massage franchise place that did it, and no, it was not Massage Envy. I got an email from my 80+ year old relative wanting to know if that was my business because they had sent her a friend request and she wanted to make sure before she accepted.

It is incredible to me that anyone is so desperate for clients, attendees at classes, or sign-ups for their MLMs that they would do this.

I use FB for pleasure and for business, and I rarely turn down anyone who sends me a friend request unless they are blatantly advertising sex or something equally stupid. A lot of the people on my friend list are MTs I have never met, who have read my books, blogs or articles and have friended me for that reason, and I don't mind that at all. And I can promise you, I am not going through THEIR lists looking for my new crop of students.

I think if you cruise someone's friend list, and you see someone you actually do know, or you share the common interest of massage or underwater basket weaving, it's okay to send them a friend request.

However, I don't think for one minute it's okay for me to go down your list of friends and add everyone that's on it. Your mother doesn't give a rat's *ss about me, and why should she? Of course she'll accept when I send a note along saying "I'm _______ friend, and she suggested I add you." That is so far out of integrity it isn't even funny, it's just pathetic.

That's my sermon for today.