Clearing out the Myspace fake profiles
If you’ve spent any time on myspace you’ve probably seen the spammers and fake profiles. I’m guessing that it won’t be long that the ratio of fake profiles to real ones will reach 1:1. It’s actually pretty easy to pick out a fake profile and report it. Before writing this up I went through and reported a few profiles and within a few days i received this email.
Hello,
We have received and reviewed your report of inappropriate content. This content has been removed.
We thank you for your support in helping to keep MySpace a safe and fun community!
MySpace.com
So now that i know the effort is actually worth reporting these profiles here’s what to do. On the top menu click on “Browse” and do a search for profiles within 5 miles of your zip code. Here are the profiles that say they are 18-68 and live within 5 miles of my zip code. (Click the thumbnail to see a larger image.)
There’s Emily who is 20, has one profile picture, an affiliate link to an ebook site and then a bunch of videos and tips on picking up women. So i just click on the “Report Abuse” link at the bottom of the page and write a few lines about the profile (and add a link to the profile just in case their reporting feature doesn’t tack on the profile you were visiting at the time).
Scott and Alberto have the same profile picture but different names. Well, let’s give him a chance – my name is Ryan but i also go by Zieak. But in both profiles he only has one profile picture and in his about me section…
I just like to have fun and make money. I am a single man now… lovin it. I am a Business/Marketing major and I make A LOT of money taking online surveys! I guess thats about it… Peace..
Followed immediately by an affiliate link to a survey site. This one takes it the extra mile and makes it look like he has 109 friends but using the Greasemonkey script that strips out profile customizations you will see that the profile has 8 friends (including Tom).
Next is Paige who has only Tom as a friend and a bunch of images with links to various myspace glitter graphic sites and other BS. This goes on for the first three rows (i have my search settings to show those newest to myspace) until the 4th row of the page when i actually find a real person. Do your part and help report spammers.
- Posted in: Links
i’d love to try… but, you know if the page loads then i get an error.
Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred.
This error has been forwarded to MySpace’s technical group.
This profile is undergoing routine maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience!
I found your site when I did a search on “routine maintenance.” As if we don’t have enough trouble with The Patriot Act and Big Brother in general, we now have wannabe-vigilantes with too much time on their hands going around policing MySpace.
Look, fella…on the issue of friends and MySpace: not everyone is on MySpace to have a mega-friend list or even one friend — period. Some of us are there for pure voyeuristic entertainment, and would actually be embarrassed to tell our “real” friends we have a MySpace account.
I was on vacation in Europe for a month when my account was hijacked by a “faker.” I don’t have an umbilical chord to MySpace, so I’m not on the site 24/7. UNBELIEVABLY, I felt no desire to even see a computer while I was traveling. You probably can’t relate to that.
Sure, the hijacking pissed me off, and I got some grief from MySpace because they thought I was the bozo spamming their community with porn. It took a while to get things cleared up, but I’m wondering if my troubles were a result of a good Samaritan like you who had nothing better to do than perform random searches in an attempt to oust MySpace spammers.
For what it’s worth, I have more respect for hijackers and spammers than I do for mongoons like you who get some kind of sick thrill trolling profiles based on faulty deconstruction in an attempt to make a cyber-citizen’s arrest.
Joan,
Uh – if you’re on myspace for “voyeuristic entertainment” then it might be nice to be peeping in on real people instead of a spam bot. All of my myspace friends are real people that i know. I like it that way. I also happen to live on a small island with 3,000 people in a tiny corner of Alaska so when a bunch of fake profiles populate my zip code it is annoying. If you like those fake profiles feel free to collect them. I suppose you also love reading through all of your spam email and listen to every telemarketer to the end. I assure you that no “cyber citizen” like me hijacked your profile. It was simply your own mistakes in internet use that made you fall for a phisher’s scheme. Enjoy your spammed corner of myspace and stop berating those of us trying to keep it a place for people and not bots.
I’ve noticed that the majority of the fake profiles are all Single, Gemini, and Don’t Want Kids. Why is that I wonder?
there are alot of people out here in cyberspace pretending to be MINDFREAKS CRISS ANGEL on myspace yahooo excite aol and just recently a youtube profile was made of him what can we do do stop this especially to kids as young as 10 use the internet to check out criss angels offical website and there are alot of criss angel impersonators out there im so afraid some one is gonna get hurt online
its not safe out there and these kids will be sorry
lmfao, who gives a fuck about criss angel?
Agreed.
Yeah myspace url is http://www.myspace.com/sen5elessfreak69, and Im currently writing through my spouse’s myspace. I would like to know WHY THE HELL IS MY PROFILE GOING UNDER THIS BULLSHIT IF IT ISN’T FAKE. It really makes me mad that stupid people go reporting “fake profiles” without knowing! I wasn’t able to access my myspace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how long is this going to take?