Facebook worries

michelefauk

Hi, I wonder if someone can help me. Yesterday I received a message in my Facebook inbox form someone I don't know, he is not one of my friends, when i checked his profile he has no friends, neither is he on any network.
the message read

"Hello dear XXXXXXX,

I hope you don't mind me saying what lovely photo's you have, how young is your daughter?

I have recently moved around xxxxxxxx (in here he wrote my town) area from Bolton and looking to meet friends which I notice you are not too far from me?
I have recently been divorced so finding it hard to adjust to the single life, I have a 2 year old boy XXXX & looking to meet people to socialise and help me settle in.
I would love to become friends and get to know you better

hope to hear back from you
XXXXXX

Needless to say it has scared the pants off me. I have blocked him and reported it to facebook but am still worried. I have no idea who this man is, how has he been able to contact me and more worryingly look at my pictures? I thought that nobody could access your photos unless you added them as a friend? My photo album settings are "private, only accessible to friends". I have not heard anything back frm Facebook and am very concerened over how this man has managed to make contact with a total stranger, even more so the comments about my children.

sporedude

Thats a really strange one, Sometimes it could be put down to spam. Did he have your real town name in the message?

michelefauk

yes, my real town name, which is different to the network I am under. Also my real name, spelt correctly too.

cymrugirl

I question the whole private settings for photos - though not 100% sure - if your friends comment on your photos then all their friends can then see your album...or at least the photo they commented on. If your friends then have their own profile set as public then it doesn't stop anybody else seeing it. I could be all wrong but I've noticed in my news feed that I can see pics from people's profiles that aren't public and aren't friends, all because my friends made a comment on them.

michelefauk

I see what you are saying, but the chap who contacted me doesnt have any friends . the only thing on his profile is his date of birth

fluffyb

That is odd
I know you haven't responded but if you respond then that person can see your profile for one month which I think is wrong.

Hope FB get back to you asap

cymrugirl

michelefauk wrote: »

I see what you are saying, but the chap who contacted me doesnt have any friends . the only thing on his profile is his date of birth

He doesn't need to have friends - if your friends have public profiles and make comments on your photos then it's there for everyone to see - as well as any wall comments that you make on their page. On the flip side, he may well have friends - it's just his profile settings won't let you see them perhaps?

Just to add - I don't know if it's still the case, but a while ago, I noticed that adding things like apps would change the profile settings from private to public. I don't think this is a problem any more but I usually do a quick check that none of my settings have changed.

michelefauk

Thats is worrying indeed. Why would he target me though?

TotallyBroke

It's true using apps does change your profile. They also keep changing apps names. One has turned into 'Speed date' and I was constantly bombarded with messages. Check to see what apps you have and delete if you have speed date now. Sorry that I can't remember what it was formerly.

deity_2

First off, you have no guarantee he has actually seen your photos - he just says that he has. It may just be that he's messaged *everybody* with a certain hometown setting (check whether you've restricted this to private) with the same message.

Facebook photos aren't the most secure in the world. There's a couple of ways of skipping the security on them, but most of these apply only to the caching servers and require a bit of guessing to work out the various reference numbers.

So I'd check your security setting to make sure your "Basic Information" is set to "friends only". Also get rid of any rubbishy applications and don't install anymore...

aliEnRIK

Yeah ~ I certainly wouldnt panic about it.