Social Media Spam & Fake Accounts Beware

In the last few years, as technology of communication across the world has become a lot easier with transmitting information instantly across the world with just a single submit, post, or publish button. The world has come a long way with all that and it is incredibly amazing where technology has taken us. Some for the good, and some for the bad. The bad part about social media, e-mails and accounts are spam and fake ones.

I am sure some of us or if not all of us have encountered people saying “If you follow me, you can get instant thousands of followers back”, and then you see these accounts with fake usernames with so many numbers and a name with it like “Joy34342432456” or profile’s with suspicious fake photos, and then they try to add you as a friend, but you don’t even know them. After they send you e-mails saying “Hey, I saw your profile, you look great, and I want to get to know you and some sort of stuff” I am just getting so tired of all these bot’s and fake accounts that are circulating the internet.

I think the most important priority for these social media website creators, and those who work for these social media companies especially the IT, Security and safety teams, should really begin to clean out fake profiles. I know it is easier said than done and sometimes these fake profiles, hackers and everything made it so complicated to tell, but I can tell right away if it is a fake account.

So many things to look at when dealing with a spammer and fake account holder. here is my list:

– They only have 1 photo of themselves or they don’t have a profile photo and they put a picture of a unicorn or something. That becomes suspicious

– When they do not post anything on their profile pages.

– When you hashtag *#* or write about a certain thing on Twitter, an automatic bot will detect people’s status messages and retweet, like and follow you.

– They spam people to look at adult content videos

– They tag you in potential virus content that will mess up the security of your computer that will steal your passwords, and personal information.

– When they say, follow me and you get thousands of followers

– when there are e-mails that are like this “3535serger345gvdrgererwaefqw@swewed34325435fsfsada.com”

and so much more.

You must be so careful on what you add, who you add on your social media accounts.

I am going to begin to set up a petition online for these social media, and e-mail companies to really start cracking down on fake accounts, bots, and spammers to delete, remove and clean up the internet. Instead of focusing on new layouts, exciting new features and updates on these social media outlets, They should really be focusing on and managing security and safety of all the other users, by making it a little harder in the beginning when signing up for an account to ask several questions, to “I’m Not a Robot” or some sort of captcha, number to type down before creating a site, and go through extra steps to ensure safety and security of us all.

We should also be helping out these social media outlets. If you do see something that is not right or if you feel that you are being followed by robots or whatever, tell your social media outlet, report it, send an e-mail or whatever the case maybe, and they will investigate it and deal with it. There are millions and millions of accounts on these social media outlets and Facebook has over 1 billion people worldwide using it, so it can be quite difficult to combat all these accounts, so we as account holders should help them out and report these fake people or IF we can even call them that to them. It is so important.

Do not be discouraged of joining the social media world, just because of these things that are happening. Social Media outlets are awesome and it can be a fun, enjoyable and great place to keep in touch with loved ones, share photos, status messages and everything. I am not deterring anybody from this age in technology, I am just merely suggesting and advising people to really be so careful on who you add, and everything. If you do feel that it is suspicious, please report the account and delete and block it.

Have you been a victim of social media spam? What have you encountered?

Best wishes always, and remember to make wise decisions when Spammers and Bots come to you. best thing to do is to ignore, delete, report and then block. The social media outlet will see that it happened, as everything is on file at their end. Just be safe and enjoy social media.

Interviewing Myself About My Social Media Journey

A few people have been asking me questions lately about my Social Media journey, and what empowered me to start being active in this whole new way of communicating to the world instantly. Well, here are questions that I am going to be interviewing myself with:

1. How many years have you been active in Social Media?

In May of 2000, I joined AsianAvenue.com, Black Planet, Migente all around that time. Which is about 15 years and almost 2 months, that I have been active, then couple of years later, I joined Myspace.

2. How did you educate yourself in Social Media?

When I began to be educated on what Social Media really is. I began writing, changing my layout of my pages in Asian Avenue, Migente, Black Planet and Myspace. I had hours of fun changing pictures, writing short stories, shout-outs to people, putting avatars, symbols HTML, Style CSS codes. That is when I began to really enjoy myself, and then that is where I launched myself into the Internet world.

3. What was your very first Blog Site to write in? (+ Other sites)

LiveJournal was my first website that I started to write in, then I went to Blogger from Google. Now in present day, I have been on WordPress the longest.

4. What have you been through to get this far to Social Media today?

Well, as a lot of people in Social Media and blogging begin to think in the beginning, ask a lot of questions and inquire on How are people going to engage into my postings? How Can I get out there to be noticed? What do I need to do to be successful? Well, I went through so much to get to where I am today. I began to do extensive research online about how to attract readers, and amongst how to get through the challenging aspects of it all. I then began to learn to tag my posts, so it can be seen by so many people, then I began asking questions and getting feedback from others who are in the same boat as me and who have gone through it all. Soon after I began to get comfortable with it all, I was in a whole new world of communication. It was not easy. For months I did not receive any comments, readers, and those who were engaging into my site. So I put it into action and began to make friends all over the internet, and then my journey officially began.

5. What would you say was the most struggling aspect of your Social Media Journey. Does it still apply to you in present day?

Well, the most struggling aspect of social media, is that right now there is just so many bloggers, so many people in social media and they all want practically the same thing. To be noticed, for people to engage, share, like, and comment on posts. I must say the getting noticed part is the most difficult aspect of it all and which audience you want your content to be available to.

6. Does your family and friends support you in your journey through Social Media?

Yes, definitely. Without the support, foundation from my family and friends, I wouldn’t be where I am today, and I wouldn’t be here conducting this interview for myself. I thank them very much for standing behind in what I love to do, what I am pursuing in all of this, and as well as inspiring the world with my writings, talents and so much more.

7. What do you like to write about?

I like to write about various things such as travel, tips, advice, inspiring stories, stories that have happened to me, promoting others, recipes, causes, and much more.

8. Did you ever have writers block?

Yes, several times. Sometimes as a writer, My mind freezes up and do not have anymore capacity in my brain to come up with new topics, and what to do next. Then after a few days go by, things start coming back to me, and begin to write again.

9. What advice do you have for aspiring and up and coming social media activists?

Just to take your time with social media. Do not rush into getting so much viewership, and engaged readers. It takes time to establish yourself. Well, not all the time. Also to always make sure your site is searchable, to add keywords, tag posts and engage in other peoples social media journey as well.