What's happening with these friend requests?

June 24, 2013 10:32 AM

Facebook is adding friends that I've never met and giving the message saying that I've requested the friendship (as in: "So-and-so has accepted your friend request"). To the best of my knowledge, I have not. In both cases these were recently created profiles, but unlike spam profiles I've seen in the past, these are both related to some friends that I actually do know in real life, and aren't obvious scams with super model photos. This happened two days ago, and yesterday.

No other strange virus-like behavior on either my profile or my computer. I haven't tried changing my password yet.

posted by codacorolla to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Have you accidentally clicked something that allows Facebook to access your contacts?
posted by MuffinMan at 10:39 AM on June 24, 2013

Install "unfriend finder". You'll need to dig around for it as Facebook managed to get it removed from several websites.

It won't solve your problem but it will show you what friend requests you have pending that you don't know or have forgotten about.
posted by mr_silver at 10:42 AM on June 24, 2013

Do you recognize these people? Like, is it possible you were viewing their pages linked off of one your mutual friends' pages? The friend request button doesn't require any sort of confirmation, so it's possibly that you clicked it by accident and didn't notice that it changed state.

I would suggest changing your password just in case. Facebook also lets you see where you've been logged in from (Active Sessions, under the Security menu item in Account Settings)... go there and take a look if there's anything weird going on. (Note that if you use a mobile phone to access Facebook you can get false alarms from this page... it gets confused and thinks my phone is in Maryland sometimes.)
posted by Kosh at 10:44 AM on June 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I thought about adding an app that may have done it, but I can't think of anything I've authorized recently.
posted by codacorolla at 10:44 AM on June 24, 2013

Is it possible that you left your account logged in on a computer and a friend mistakenly friended them using your account?
posted by jetlagaddict at 10:45 AM on June 24, 2013

Response by poster: I don't think so. The only shared systems I've been on recently have been lab computers at the University, which (so far as I know) erase session data after you log off. Also, the people that these new friends intersect with are people that I don't see on a regular basis.
posted by codacorolla at 10:47 AM on June 24, 2013

Facebook doesn't just magically start adding friends for you.
Check here and make sure there isn't any oddly active sessions: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=security&section=sessions&view
posted by mulligan at 11:00 AM on June 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

There is a thing where a third party can "suggest" that two people become friends, and supposedly if you're on Facebook mobile that can look to one person like the other sent an actual friend request to you. Perhaps this is something similar--have you checked with the friends you share with these people to see if any of them have suggested you become facebook friends?
posted by needs more cowbell at 11:13 AM on June 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I thought about adding an app that may have done it, but I can't think of anything I've authorized recently.

You can check which apps are authorized by going to Settings [gear icon in upper right] - Account Settings - Apps. Worth checking to see if you may have inadvertently authorized something (e.g., clickjacking) or if someone/something else may have authorized something if your account was compromised.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:28 AM on June 24, 2013

i had this happen recently. i knew i hadn't requested the friend as we were already friends. it was a duplicate account created by someone posing to be my friend. he started messaging my real friends' friends, posing as him and requesting money for a fundraising effort. thing is my friend is a pastor and this guy said he was trying to raise money for a trip to africa to help the poor. i happened to notice the loser's URL had a different name on it on the fake page he created. hopefully it was the poser's real name and he got busted.

so, unfriend this person immediately and notify whoever he is masquerading as so they can have his fake account deleted. definitely also let fb know about this. probably a good idea to change your password as well.
posted by wildflower at 3:21 PM on June 24, 2013

Nthing that a friend suggestion at first glance looks a lot like a friend request, especially in the streamlined mobile version.
posted by Jacqueline at 4:35 PM on June 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I'm almost positive that it said they'd accepted my friend request, and in fact there was nothing for me to confirm (it was just a notification, not a decision). I talked to the friends who were mutual contacts, and apparently it was one of their moms, so I'm not too worried about a virus at this point... just very confused.
posted by codacorolla at 5:23 PM on June 26, 2013