Facebook: Is Everyone What They Seem to Be?

Facebook has been a wonderful invention in so many ways. Old friends, entire families, and lives have re-connected through the incredibly popular social network. The social network has enjoyed such an amazing reception by consumers that, not only have businesses taken to an online presence, so have the criminal-minded. Are people on Facebook always what they seem to be?

Facebook friend adds can be a great reminder of kinships and times of laughter, or an invitation to malware hell. The first rule of thumb to remember is simply to not add friends who have no reason to be friends-even on Facebook. Wolves-in-sheep's-clothing are bad enough in the real-world of the day-to-day. Online, they're just that much more deceptive.

Far too many Facebook profiles aren't even "people." This isn't to denigrate those business profiles, with a product or service to offer. What this means is there are profiles built up on Facebook, which are bought and sold. A stroll through freelancer.com will eventually confirm this with readers. Profiles are built up with 100-200 friends from around the world, and are sold to other business/spam interests.

Some friend add requests, sadly, are individuals trying to "triangulate," and claim to be you later, requesting other "friends" they've started, help themselves confirm a reset password on your Facebook account. Strangers with some mutual friends, who are also strangers, are the real danger here. Just one successful account hack may spread a never-ending worm.

But not all oddball online friends are nefarious, some, are just weird. Not only have we all had that "one" weird friend, many of us have been that "one" weird Facebook friend. Where most folks go wrong in the online world is failing to understand most text doesn't carry the same verbal tones to every reader. In fact, any verbal tone at all in text, needs to be "read into it," by the reader. Not knowing the mental status, health, or frame-of-mind of any particular reader, often results in a "comical" social catastrophe.

So, it's okay to remove any and all Facebook friends who arise any sort of suspicion. Heck, sometimes it's even okay to de-friend family. Block anyone who hassles you for doing so, and just keep them out. Being yourself freely on Facebook, means knowing you're really around friends.

Originally published on Wikinut.