"I Was Just Friended By Myself On Facebook (And It Only Gets Weirder From There)"

wfgodot

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A cautionary tale re: social media.

I Was Just Friended By Myself On Facebook (And It Only Gets Weirder From There) (Huffington Post)
I got a friend request from Bianca Bosker on Wednesday night.

I’m Bianca Bosker, one of just three on Facebook, so the notification took me by surprise.

What followed spooked me: When I finally scoped out this new Bosker at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, I found myself staring back at me.

Someone had created a Facebook profile under my name, with my picture, and with all my personal information -- and then immediately friended me.

This new Bianca had the same cover photo as the old Bianca (aka me); an identical list of jobs, schools and affiliations; and had “liked” the same pages I’ve “liked” (...) Even more disturbing was the fact that “Bianca Bosker’s” most recent status update was word-for-word, period-for-period, my most recent status update.
---
and, as Ms. Bosker writes, it only got weirder from there; the story at the link, with pictures
 
that is weird...

i have gotten weird emails from someone with my exact name...i always deleted them being afraid of god-knows-what?? viruses, financial snoopers etc. and the fake me was sending emails to my family and friends...turned out to be just garden variety scams...they finally went away...guess no one fell for it and they moved on...lol

facebook is becoming stranger by the day...i spend a lot of time pondering the possible ills of facebook and wonder when a new "thing" will arrive on scene to replace facebook..i guess im looking for a way or a reason to delete my account....jmho
 
I've just never "gotten" Facebook (possibly because I'm old and set in my ways). Advertising oneself to anyone who just happens along? Invitation to trouble. (I'm sounding more like my parents every day.)
 
I've just never "gotten" Facebook (possibly because I'm old and set in my ways). Advertising oneself to anyone who just happens along? Invitation to trouble. (I'm sounding more like my parents every day.)

but that is the truth of it...and these young kids do not understand. i dont know what i would have done with all of this technology when i was a teen or younger.

facebook has more power to it than most give it credit for imo...one of these days a war will break out over something said on facebook. i can just see it now...and the spying potential from governmental institutions is just off the charts...its the american stazi...lol
 
I think people impersonating someone who is famous (the article said the author had 220k subscribers) is pretty normal. Not to say it's not weird, but I would be more creeped out if it was a completely ordinary person.
 
i do have my fb on lock down, lol, but i still have friends who have friends etc.. and fb continuously changes its privacy terms...that was seen during the arab spring...

i dont understand these people who have wide open pages and 1000+ friends...but we see it here all the time, its one of the first things searched for when a person goes missing...jmho
 
I got off the site, and I won't ever go back. JMO.
Not a part of Twitter, or Piniterest, or any other " social network" stuff.
I want control over how I connect on the internet more than the social media sites give. Anyone can be anyone on the Internet, as this proves.
Facebook makes it CLEAR that mutual friends can see all of your friends list and so forth. If a person is from a small town or lives in a small town, it's probably worse privacy wise than being from a large city. The site needs to go away, it's served it's purpose, IMO.
 
I got off the site, and I won't ever go back. JMO.
Not a part of Twiter, or Piniterest, or any other " social network" stuff.

I want control over how I connect on the internet more than the social media sites give. Anyone can be anyone on the Internet, as this proves.

so you just stick to email and thats it? just curious, because im seriously thinking of dumping it all too...
 
I almost deleted my Facebook after I friended myself. Although it wasn't me, and the picture was not of me, the woman did look very similar to my mother, I look very similar to a younger version of my mother...therefore, she looked somewhat like an older me. She had my name, including middle and birth month and day, although the years were 21 years apart. She had many of the same likes and interests that I did, including things that were local to my area. Her area, such as city or even state/country, weren't listed. She sent me a frieqnd request and a message that made it sound like she didn't know we had all the similarities we did. Now, my name is not that uncommon on Facebook (at least my maiden name) but that was quite frightening to me. I never responded, I just left the request pending and deleted the message she sent.

I'm gonna screw up my courage and read the rest of the link now.
 
I can't read the huffpo on this computer but I can comment on facebook. I generally hate it, but I use it. I've deactivated my account before, but I always reactivate it (I think FB is kind of like the hotel California -- you can check out but you can never leave. Is that the lyric? I'm not an Eagles fan.)

I do like keeping in touch with my friends as I live quite far from where I spent my teens and twenties. It is generally how I keep in touch with my Mom, as well. I am SO SO SO glad that facebook, twitter, texting, and camera phones, did not exist when I was a teenager. Wow. I did some stupid *advertiser censored* - lots of it - and I'm glad that there is no photographic evidence of it. I was also pretty angsty, so my status updates would have been pretty lame.
 
If this happens to me, I'll put myself on ignore...
 
I

I do like keeping in touch with my friends as I live quite far from where I spent my teens and twenties. It is generally how I keep in touch with my Mom, as well.
Exactly! And this is why the few should not ruin Facebook for the majority. I use Facebook as my primary way to keep in touch with nieces and nephews and extended family and friends from long ago. You just have to be discriminating in what you post and to whom... Basic common sense.
 
Just what the world needs, more FB pages, and cloned ones at that. This could pose a serious problem for some of our sleuthers.
 
I have a somewhat unusual last name and i found that there were where 5 other people with the same first an last name as mine. I sent them a friend request, explaining I wasn't a stalker but I though it would be cool to have friends which the same name as me.
So all 5 of us friended each other and think it is funny when our friends get confused over it because one of us (lest just say Jane Doe) comments and then the other 5 Jane Does chime in as well with their comment.It's pretty funny because if you Google my name, my name shows up as a marathon runner, a grand level Pokemon master and other interesting accomplishments, NONE of which are mine.
But OP, your story is alarming and scaring. I identity theft is everywhere. How frightening, you could very well being targeted by a stalker.
 
THat is freaky.

I do have a FB account, but I do think before I post anything. I have a couple of kids in the family, and I don't put anything up there that I wouldn't show them in person, and I'm also unemployed, so I keep in mind if a prospective employer looks at my page, there's nothing scandalous there. No politics at all. I even delete things that other people (Family & friends) put on my timeline, or tag me in. I will tag myself if I choose to, thank you very much. It's crazy the way some people post every aspect of their life on there.

Mostly I just use it for games or photos, and a little keeping in touch with people I don't normally see, like old schoool friends and faraway family.
 
Yikes! Sounds like a troll turned to stalker.:what:

If that is the case, whoever did this to her could have done it regardless of facebook in my opinion. In a way, facebook exposed the imposter and hopefully they will be caught and prosecuted. Hopefully soon!!

Someone who goes out of their way to create a page in this manner definitely has an issue with the person and has been stalking her for quite some time even getting a photo that she didn't know was out there.

Frightening.
 
Just what the world needs, more FB pages, and cloned ones at that. This could pose a serious problem for some of our sleuthers.

It may or may not. If a fake fb appears for a missing person, family and friends will nip it in the butt as soon as it's exposed in my opinion. Furthermore, there would be a good reason to track the person down. Who does that? Someone that is up to no good. Perhaps even someone who is a suspect or involved in the case. KWIM?
 
IMO most people aren't aware of all the security settings available for their facebook accounts. You can control who sees your page/photos/posts/friends absolutely - just most users don't seem to know to click and adjust those settings. Next time you go searching for a user with a common name - just note how many faceless pages appear in the search results - click on some of them and you will probably get a message asking if you know that person, but you won't see any info about some of them at all. They are the folks who have selected their settings carefully - you can even choose to have your name not appear in searches if you want.

I just searched for my own name on fb and it showed over a hundred entries with the same name as mine - only about 30 had tight security settings (and there is a chance that some of them may belong to people who have set up an account but not used/added anything to it - some people get talked into opening an account by kids/friends but never take it any further)
 

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