Tuesday, February 20, 2018

VOICES FROM BEYOND...

...or, in this case— BEYOND THE FIREWALL L



One of the many perils of the internet, like the rest of life’s realms, are the fakers, thieves, hackers, and spammers.


About six weeks ago they sort of crossed a boundary, at least for me. Someone hacked into my father’s Facebook page and “friend-requested” myself, my kids, and no doubt others.


My father’s been gone from this world for eight years.


All righty, then. No real harm done. But I. Didn’t. Like. That.



DD sent me an amused screenshot of the request. DS sent a somewhat alarmed question about it. Otherwise, no progeny was harmed in that ill-intentioned maneuver. But it got me thinking about the too many fake “friend requests” I’ve been fielding for the last few years.
You know they are fakers when you have nothing in common professionally; you don’t know them; the photo is generic and often meant to get through your otherwise discerning eyes.

I’ve had plenty of such from “young men serving our country in Iraq.” You want to be thankful for service to our country, no?

And then the handsome middle-aged men looking lovely with some island vacation spot in the background. Looking for a special friendship, honey-babe? Never mind that I’m married and wouldn’t think of it, but if I were, I’d prefer real people ;)  

Because my first name may gender-confuse some of these hacking engines, I’ve gotten a smattering of scantily clad deep cleavaged young females with their tongues sticking out in what some imagine is unbridled lust, who mysteriously need a friend and don’t have any. Anyone will do, I guess.


But now they have to resurrect a dead relative?


So if you think this is just an annoyance and maybe mildly funny, let me suggest it is less banal than that. These are attempts to get into your contacts and have access to what your friends post under the privacy layer of “can be seen by friends of friends.” Everything I do on Facebook (save personal chats on messenger) is completely public. There is nothing they can get from my posts that they won’t see even if we are not friends. Mine is an Author Page, not a private friendship page. But some of my Facebook friends do use layered privacy settings.


If you have been tempted to accept any and all, please consider protecting your friends and deleting these malicious requests.
Back to the Great Beyond, I still want to hear from my father in heaven. But I know he wouldn’t ---EVER—do it on Facebook.

14 comments:

Vonna said...

That is appalling! Did you report it to fb?

Vijaya said...

Always learning, Mirka. But I'm sorry.

Barbara Etlin said...

Ugh. This isn't even slightly funny and it could have been upsetting if the death had been more recent. I'm not sorry that I've avoided FB.

Mirka Breen said...

Yup. Though I never feel this makes a hoot of difference. When you "talk to Facebook" you are not talking to anyone, really. We are on our own in that jungle.

Mirka Breen said...

Thanks, Vijaya. There's no substitute to being mindful.

Mirka Breen said...

The others are not much better, and I'm referring to the social networks frequented by trolls and now we learn, agents of foreign governments... We must pay attention.

Kelly Hashway said...

I get a lot of weird friend requests. I don’t accept any of them.

Mirka Breen said...

I have some weird friends I cherish. But weird friend requests? Not so much ;)

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

I've been getting so many of those! Military photos. Widowers. All meant to be appealing. And right off I delete the request and mark them as spam. I agree. These are phishing attempts to get your data.

Mirka Breen said...

It's a wild unruly digital world out there.

Donna OShaughnessy said...

What's frustrating is the lack of control we have. We learn how to set FB "walls" and the hackers get around them. I use my personal FB less and less but understand it's a digital world so as a writer I still have to play ball.

I miss Post Cards for communication :)

Mirka Breen said...

Postcards... They'll come back in some "retro" fad.

janlcoates said...

Disturbing and off-putting for sure. I like FB for keeping up with people I rarely see who aren't close friends, but sometimes I'm pretty sure I could survive without it...

Mirka Breen said...

I could survive without it just fine, but why should WE have to vacate because of the slimers? That's why I prefer vigilance, up to the point where they take over...