Well, that didn’t take long. Facebook had their IPO (or equivalent), opened up their API to other developers, allowing them to make annoying little “applications” that let my friends spam my Facebook page with requests for zombies, tic-tac-toe, gaming, jedi knight battles, and other random stuff which I deny (nothing against those who sent it you understand, just not interested).
Today I got this email:
[This guy I know] just gave you a 2 GB iPod Nano. Finally gifts that have value on Facebook. You can say thanks later, but right now you need to claim it. [link to some facebook app]Click here to claim it[/link].
I emailed him of course, asking if he know what this was, and saying that I was pretty sure that clicking the link wasn’t going to make a new (real, not image of) iPod Nano appear at my door without me either signing up 10 of my friends, or selling my personal information and possibly my soul (which I am not able to do, as Iambe sold it years ago for some gaming credits on TPL (was that it? temple of the purple lemur or something like that?).
Anyway, turns out it’s a combination, give all your personal information and sign up for a credit card, and sign up 10 of your friends. Only US though as he found out after the fact. Oh well, a good try nonetheless.
Anyway, my point is here is another place that is relatively well controlled against spam email, banner ads (via firefox and ad-block plus), and now it’s been invaded by a company doing the same things as the givemeafree[ipod|ps3|xbox|etc].com sites, giving stuff away if you sell your personal information and that of your friends.
Not only that, but this practice (which I personally consider a scam) has been approved by Facebook for their directory of applications. I suppose technically it’s no a scam, though a couple of investigations show that it’s basically a scam.
Bah humbug. I’m going to hide back in my cave now k?