Based on this post on Wired.com, I believe we have a new breed of spammer roaming the Internet. This one is working Facebook. They’re hired to build the friend count of client companies so that their messages can be shared with larger audiences. I may have seen at least one of these attempts on my account.

Why do I think this is spam? It’s sending people a message without their permission. If a person or company is completely disconnected from you, is there any reason they should be your Facebook friend? Not really. Next, it’s being done for financial gain. The reason they’re adding friends is for overt promotion.

I think this may violate the Facebook terms of service for personal profiles. If anyone has facts on this, please comment and enlighten everyone.

Spam avoidance is one reason the fan pages are such a great setup on Facebook. Pages can only promote through existing fans (who made the decision to join) or with paid Facebook advertising. Advertising isn’t a personal intrusion, and you can also tell Facebook if the ads are relevant to you or not.

Is this spam a new wave? Possibly. On many sites the admins can be slow to catch up to the bad guys, especially when they’re trying to police users numbering in the millions. The good news is these hard working admins will keep getting better at eliminating the bad apples and tweaking the terms of service to ban dubious practices. In the meantime, watch your inbox for any unusual “friends.”

Image credit: contri