Scammers Move In: Facebook Getting Sketchy
from the movin'-on dept
While it was definitely interesting to look at the reasons why Facebook was able to crush MySpace in the social networking world, it's also true that there are more and more questions about the sustainability of Facebook. We recently wrote about the claims of a potential toolbar scammer being one of Facebook's top advertisers, and while Facebook denies the company has ever advertised with them, others claim they're still seeing those very ads. Either way, a new research report suggests that scammers are increasingly targeting Facebook -- with some level of success. It appears this may quickly become Facebook's next big challenge. Historically, Facebook was more immune from scams and spam due to its private nature. However, as the company has continually pulled back on privacy and pushed people to open up more, it's also allowed in all sorts of openings for spam and scams.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
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grammar
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Yeah. Bad job on my part. Fixed. Not sure how that got through.
Thanks.
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CBMHB
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comment
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The Race to the bottom
If you had a brain, you realized a year ago that any Facebook link that starts with take this quick survey to see that story is a scam.
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Re: The Race to the bottom
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I use Facebook to keep in touch and connect with people. I turned off 3rd applications and I haven't noticed anything missing.
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Facebook quote from the article
What does this mean? They are trying 110%? Or is the extra 10% false positives.
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Re: Facebook quote from the article
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The Companies Worth Less Than Facebook
EMC – $47.2B
Bristol-Myers Squibb – $45.1B
France Telecom – $42.5B
Target – $42.5B
BMW – $42.4B
Grainger – $42.3B
Nike – $41.6B
Morgan Stanley – $41.4B
Dow Chemical – $39.9B
UnitedHealth Group – $39.4B
News Corp – $39.2B
Colgate-Palmolive – $39.1B
Eli Lillly – $38.9B
Nokia – $38.0B
AIG – $37.3B
Halliburton -$36.7B
VMWare – $36.6B
BlackRock – $36.3B
Walgreen – $36.1B
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Re: The Companies Worth Less Than Facebook
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~$4 USD per year, per user, with 700 million users this time next year. Do the math.
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Facebook statistics
Revenue projections 2011
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Oh that is right Wall Street from the same people who gave the world the best years in the last decade.
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This year (2011) facebook will average out 550-575 million users with about 2 billion in revenue. Again thats about 4 USD per user, per year.
Their growth will begin to slowing sometime between the end of 2011 to mid 2012. It will reach some percentage of the people online, and future growth will be based on the number of people coming online.
I hope that explains where the number came from, and where Facebook is going.
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That value can't be real.
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50 billion still seems too much, especially given how horribly short sighted investors and share holders seem to be about profits (looking in from the outside)
10 would be believable (pays for itself in five years if you bought it) and i suppose there's a bit of wiggle room for the possibility of finding other ways to make money of it....
but yeah, i mostly think it's bogus valuing based on not having a damn clue....
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Re: Re: The Companies Worth Less Than Facebook
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Looking at you Edgar Bronfman Jr(ex-Vivendi’s former vice-chairman and current chief executive of Warner Music) and Jean-Marie Messier(ex-Vivendi's, Now head of Messier Maris et Associés) and Guillaume Hannezo(ex-Vivendi’s finance director).
I just couldn't resist to put this out there.
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Does anyone actually like Facebook?
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Re: Does anyone actually like Facebook?
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Re: Does anyone actually like Facebook?
it's like a new form of class struggle:
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Re: Does anyone actually like Facebook?
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If, as you said, "Facebook is hurt because someone is hurting users in their name" then that is called "fraud" and there are plenty of laws and legal recourse to such behavior.
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Facebook is a prime target because the system makes thing move organically and without check, similar in nature to spam mail without having to keep sending it, because the victims send it on for you.
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Huh? Not true at all. What gives you that idea?
but doesn't the idea of scammers hurting facebook help people understand the role of property? If everyone hates facebook, that's one thing, but if Facebook is hurt because someone is hurting users in their name, shouldn't Facebook be allowed to sue them?
Sure. I'm all for laws that prevent fraud. Why do you think otherwise?
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Denture cream, discount stores, eggs, bandaids and even ketchup. Facebook pages all around, and TV spots with a little "follow us on facebook and twitter" tag shoved in the end.
Marketers are trying to be "hip" or whatever the kids say today, and this might be encouraging a somewhat less computer savvy group of people to use these sites. Not that we are talking about fools, its just that without experience it is easier to fall into the "allow this mystery application to access your facebook to watch this video" or "Sign in to Cutecatvideo.ru.scam.trap with Facebook!" traps.
And where there is an increase in prey, there is an increase in lowest-level predators. Like the way spam became the criminal money making engine it sorta is After more people started having email accounts and home computers.
And like email, we will start to see more actions on the part of the service providers to screen these attacks, filter them out of our consciousness.
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This year (2011) facebook will average out 550-575 million users with about 2 billion in revenue. Again thats about 4 USD per user, per year.
Their growth will begin to slowing sometime between the end of 2011 to mid 2012. It will reach some percentage of the people online, and future growth will be based on the number of people coming online.
I hope that explains where the number came from, and where Facebook is going.
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