MySpace Stalkers: How to Get Rid of Them

MySpace stalkers read your MySpace comments religiously, contact you from various accounts when you block them, are on your page more than you are, and sometimes they even make up new pages with your pictures on it. They make you want to close your page altogether, but why should you have to? Here are a few steps to try to eliminate some of the MySpace stalkers and keep your page.

The Crank Visitors: So far I've had one. He contacted me to tell me I look like a receptionist from the VD clinic he went to and gave me blow-by-blow details of how horny he was. I sent him to my junk mail filter blog, and he contacted me again debating about how he was just trying to hold a conversation. He sent me another message talking about how bored and horny he still was. Blocked! He started a new account and contacted me again. I reported it to MySpace using the Report Abuse link at the bottom of the page. MySpace closed that account, and he started another one doing the same thing. If you deal with someone like this, just come to the realization that there will always be idiots out there and ignore them. There's no limit on how many users you can block on MySpace. Use it. Whenever you put yourself out there publicly to the Internet, get ready for everybody else to do the same. If it really bothers you that much that someone is contacting you, start a new page and just don't put any personal information or pictures on it. It will make it harder for them to find you. Or, make your page private and don't put your picture in the default section. Absolutely don't put your real name in your user profile.

Identity Theft: One very strange guy bought my novel through PayPal. For those of you not familiar with PayPal, you can sell and buy merchandise like it's a marketplace, and you have the option to mail the items yourself. But this guy not only bought bought one of my books; he put my photo and my book cover on his page without my permission and linked my work to another author's page. Then, he contacted one of my MySpace friends to go out with him and had me in his top list, which I didn't approve. He posted me through HTML, not the regular Add Me As A Friend way. She assumed I knew him and figured he must be an okay guy, but then later contacted me to get the scoop on him. I had no idea he was trying to get dates through my page and linking my book to another author for exposure. I was livid. I contacted him repeatedly to take it off and reported it to MySpace. He ignored me, but then when I pointed out that I had his mailing address where the book was to be sent, taa daa! Book and my picture were deleted. If someone is posting information about you on their page and you know them, look at that as the opportunity to share information about them as well. If MySpace won't do anything about someone posting your information on their page, make your own page and dedicate it to the person who is posting information about you. Clarify what's right and what's wrong and send the link to everyone on that person's friends list. Yes, it's time consuming, but the only person who can represent for you is you so I think you're justified in doing so. In my case, I lucked out because the guy didn't realize I could see his mailing address on the book he bought, but if he hadn't, I would've started a page clarifying that my friends should not contact him.

Stalker Ex Boyfriend/Girlfriend: I haven't dealt with this guy yet, but I sympathize with those who have. If you have a boyfriend/girlfriend who reads your comments more than you do, lays up on your page more than you, memorizes every single photo in your MySpace profile, and is forever sending you messages, please block this person and make your profile private. Some people make their profile private just because they don't really enjoy strangers contacting them or want people to see what's on their page, but you definitely should if you feel like your safety is being compromised just from having an innocent webpage. (Note: If you're trying to cheat on your boyfriend/girlfriend, it is absolutely not a good idea to put the other woman/man in your top list and definitely don't approve the flirtatious comments they send. It will only get your significant other even more amped up and ready to stalk your page.)

Lonely Folks: This person will constantly badger you into dating them regardless of whether your page does not say that you're looking for serious relationships or dating on MySpace. He/she will probably try to convince you that they're an exception to the rule, and you should give them a shot. I'm not knocking persistence. There are plenty of people who play hard to get. But, if you're really not interested in this person, send them a message making that perfectly plain, and be firm about it. Don't give them any room to think that there is a possibility. If they still continue to bug you, mark their messages as spam. If it goes on after that, block them. I've found the most efficient way to handle people who do this is to create a blog about it. Whenever someone sends me a message about relationships or dating and my page is perfectly clear about only wanting to do networking, I send them to my MySpace Junkmail Filter Blog. 80% of the time, they won't respond again. If they do, that's when I click the block key. Some of the lonely folks got hip to deleting their message boxes so you can't find it on their page to block them. MySpace made it even easier for you to block people because now you can block them directly in that message and you don't have to go to their page.

Music Stalker: I don't know where this hidden memo is, but in the four MySpace pages I've had, I've come to the realization that a gigantic amount of people on MySpace are there to promote their music. I'm not knocking that idea, especially when I'm promoting my product too, but it gets extremely aggravating when you're constantly getting automated messages to check out someone's music, add them as a friend, tell your friends about them, rate the songs, visit their webpage, come to the club they're at, blah blah blah. I wish there was an option on MySpace that you could check so musicians would know who is interested in rating music and who is not. One way that I got those music listening adds to calm down was by going to Account Settings, Privacy Settings, and click the boxes next to the groups you don't want to send you Group Invites or Event Invites. Also, check the box that says Friend Invites-No Bands. This way, you can stop the serial invites from rappers, rockers, and other musicians who send you invitations and haven't read a word on your page. I'm all about mutual networking though. If I find a musician and I'm genuinely interested in their music as much as they're interested in my book, that's an automatic add. But if it's a me-me-me user, blocked!

Password Hackers: Tom has put up various alerts about MySpace phishers. Please read those. They're important. Subscribe to his blogs. They're very informative, and they give you the latest updates on what has been done with MySpace. In addition, take his advice. Do not click on links and then re-log in. You should never have to re-log into MySpace from clicking on a link. If you have to re-log in, type in www.myspace.com again in your Internet browser. Don't approve of any websites that will automatically put things on your page just by putting in your password. When you give them your password, you're giving them permission to put whatever they want on your page. If you don't know how to add coding yourself, ask one of your MySpace friends. There are plenty of techies on here. If I can help you, feel free to ask me directly. But the ringtone and purse bag comments have got to stop. One of the people on my friends list had her page hacked into, and the person cursed out every single person in her friends list. Don't lose friends to hackers. Change your password periodically.

We can complain about the faults of MySpace, but we still have to remember that this is a free site, so technically Tom or the staff don't have to do anything to help you with your page. Hell, Tom has 185,625,203 friend who are probably running into the same issues, and that's not even including the folks who deleted his automatic add when they joined. You can always leave MySpace. MySpace chooses to do help you with abusive isses because the more users they have, the more advertisers that will come their way. Although MySpace Customer Service still sucks, help MySpace out a little bit by not making them do your extra work. Take advantage of the options that they've given you to make your MySpace experience a little saner.

Reminder:

• Use the blocked user option. (Click on that person's profile, in the message box, click the option on the right-hand side or click Block User directly in the message)
• Take advantage of the privacy settings. (Click Account Settings, Privacy Settings, and put a checkmark next to each thing you are not interested in)
• Report Abuse (In the bottom of each profile, there is a link to do so and explain why you feel this page is abusive. Definitely report harassment, hate speech, or inappropriate content if you see it.)