Beware the spammer within

Yesterday, while playing around with Facebook’s most popular application, Super Wall, I apparently  sent an image of two half-dressed college women kissing while perched atop beer kegs to SEVENTY-SIX of my valued friends. The caption read, "COLLEGE: The only place where ... like this happens!"

I say “I apparently sent,” because I have no memory of sending any such ridiculous or embarrassing “greeting card” — to anyone, let alone everyone.

Still, the episode was a textbook example of what's been happening to Facebook lately. (I have a pair of examples, really: I was also hoodwinked into mass-posting an image of a crying baby captioned, “Please mommy, no more peas.”)

No doubt I clicked the wrong button at some point — failing to realize that the application, lying in wait for me to do just that, had automatically selected dozens of my friends as recipients for the "accidental" mega-spam. Checking out my own Super Wall, and those of friends, it's more than clear that I'm not the first to take this new form of bait.

Until recently, Facebook has provided a largely spam-free environment. It's difficult for spammers to operate, since there are no e-mail addresses. Likewise, installing apps is an exclusively "opt-in" process — you can never be inundated with applications or solicitations because you only get what you sign up for.

But apps like Super Wall and FunWall seem engineered for frivolous mass-messaging. At their core, they've improved on Facebook's original Wall by allowing users to post video, audio and photos in addition to text messages. These new Walls have devolved, however, by not only making it easy to spam dozens of your friends with one errant click — but also making it hard not to. 

Take a look at the average Super Wall . You're likely to see it plastered with chain letters, annoying images and even clever trick-spam. If you don't agree that a message titled "click forward to see what happens" is clever enough to fool you, look around: You may be in the minority. I was.

-- David Sarno

Comments

[Asim]

David just because you were careless with your password does not mean that the application you use is bad. Learn not to throw away your passwords.