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Can strangers search for you in messenger and request to be your friend? - Printable Version

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+----- Thread: Can strangers search for you in messenger and request to be your friend? (/showthread.php?tid=94763)

Can strangers search for you in messenger and request to be your friend? by ricecrispies on 06-11-2010 at 06:05 PM

I dont use messenger very often so forgive my ignorance... Is it possible for people you dont know to search for you and send a request that they want to be your friend? Thanks


RE: Can strangers search for you in messenger and request to be your friend? by matty on 06-11-2010 at 06:06 PM

Not unless they know your email. If it is a pretty non-unique email address someone in theory could spam you but the chances are rare.


RE: Can strangers search for you in messenger and request to be your friend? by ricecrispies on 06-11-2010 at 06:24 PM

So if someone logged into their account and loads of friend requests pinged up one after the other, why would that happen? Would that only be the case if that person had a visible profile, that contained an email address?


RE: Can strangers search for you in messenger and request to be your friend? by djdannyp on 06-11-2010 at 06:48 PM

The friend requests coming up are most likely advertising bots just adding you.....they trawl websites for addresses, or in less advanced cases just try adding any combination of words, etc.

It is possible that the address was added by a lot of people if it was posted on a website, but it's unlikely


RE: Can strangers search for you in messenger and request to be your friend? by ricecrispies on 06-11-2010 at 10:20 PM

Ok so here's the deal... i'm trying to find out a few truths and feel a bit guilty for snoopin around. However let's put it this way, why would my boyfriend log onto his msn messenger account and each time have 10 messages ping up asking him to add them as a friend. Bear in mind he has accepted a few and they are genuine people. I also have an msn acct and it doesnt happen to me. Can someone explain the difference?


RE: Can strangers search for you in messenger and request to be your friend? by djdannyp on 06-11-2010 at 10:38 PM

They might not always be genuine people, they could just be bots that he's ignoring.

Also I've had it on occasion (not so much recently) that I log in and everyone I've ever deleted pops back up, seemingly trying to add me again (when in fact it isn't)

The easier way around it all would be to ask your boyfriend.  If you think he's lying when he answers then you obviously don't trust him and shouldn't be together....if there's a reasonable explanation that you believe, then it's problem solved.


RE: Can strangers search for you in messenger and request to be your friend? by ricecrispies on 06-11-2010 at 10:49 PM

That's very wise of you and I completely agree, however the reason I know this happens is because I caught him having a rather naughty conversation with someone online, during which numbers were exchanged. This conversation happened on skype (recorded in text) however it was clear it started elsewhere. His reasoning is that he gets lots of friend requests on msn everytime he logs in and once, when pissed, decided to see what all the fuss was about, after which point he got a bit carried away. So my question is why does no one else I know get 10 friend requests when they log in- unless this is somehow invited?


RE: Can strangers search for you in messenger and request to be your friend? by djdannyp on 06-11-2010 at 11:51 PM

There could be any number of reasons......it's for you to judge if any of them are valid or if he's just lying.  I think the first sentence of your message tells you everything you need to know though ;)


RE: Can strangers search for you in messenger and request to be your friend? by ricecrispies on 06-12-2010 at 12:11 AM

Thanks for your help mate. I work with animals where there's no such thing as black and white. I figured something as technical as computers could be easily explainable- press x and y happens. I'm not looking for relationship advice on this forum, although your comments are taken on board :0) I just need some hard techy stuff- these messages arent spammers, they're real folk contacting a real person. What gives another person access to someones details- can it be your msn profile if detailed enough, or a dating/ matching profile linked to msn? Dont be shy with this one yeah ;0)


RE: Can strangers search for you in messenger and request to be your friend? by Chrono on 06-12-2010 at 03:50 AM

quote:
Originally posted by ricecrispies
I'm not looking for relationship advice on this forum
right... :P

if it's real people, try searching for his msn address in google. Then you can find out if he has posted it in a dodgy dating website or whatever. Those sites are usually private though so you cant get the info that easily.
Most of the times those msn invitations come from spam bots, my father gets a lot of them all the time because he was dumb enough to post his email address everywhere back in the days. If you google for his email address you can find it in many places, hence it's an easy pick for bots.

You should realize that this has nothing to do with "hard techy stuff", this is you not trusting your boyfriend. Go and ask him directly, you wont get anywhere by asking us what's going on :P