back to article One million Facebook users' names and email addresses: $5

Name and email addresses of Facebook users are available online at prices as low as $5 per million. The dodgy trade was uncovered by Bogomil Shopov, an internet marketeer and blogger in the Czech Republic. Shopov said he approached the social network about the problem. He said Facebook asked him to forward and then delete the …

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  1. pewpie
    Mushroom

    Sympathy vacuum.

    Anyone who signs up for a site that should really be called www.lookatme.com deserves to be raped in every orifice by fraudsters on a daily basis.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sympathy vacuum.

      Anyone who uses their real details deserve it. However, I use a misspelt name, with extra names I do not have, fake address details, numbers and date of birth. I am 87 years old....... Well not really.

      But this goes to show that there are allot of people like me, doing the same thing so advertising, should I say targeted advertising is a waste of time.

      No to mention my alter ego account in the name of my dog. He has more fun on Facebook than I do.

      1. Mike Flugennock
        Thumb Up

        Re: Sympathy vacuum.

        Join the club.

        Facebook thinks I'm a thirty-five year-old woman living in Tripoli. No schools, interests, workplace listed.

        You oughta see the ads in the right-hand column of my newsfeed page. All in Arabic, for cosmetics 'n'shit. Smart advertising, my ass.

      2. Big-nosed Pengie
        Headmaster

        Re: Sympathy vacuum.

        "But this goes to show that there are allot of people like me, doing the same thing so advertising, should I say targeted advertising is a waste of time."

        I'll allot you a space in my "illiterates of the month" list.

    2. LarsG
      Meh

      Re: Sympathy vacuum.

      There are a disproportionate number of Facebook users born on the first of April. Does our Mark really think Facebook advertising works?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sympathy vacuum.

        "There are a disproportionate number of Facebook users born on the first of April".

        That may actually be true (based on the people I know who use it as intended)...but that is being cruel.

        According to facepalm I (or one of my accounts at least) was born at the beginning of time (Unix time that is) - my birth was the start of a new Epoch (in computing).

        I think there is probably a lot of other people also born on 1st Jan according to facepalm - as it is normally the quickest date to select from drop down lists. Are there publicly available stats on birth date distribution for fp accounts?

    3. Pinkerton
      Facepalm

      Re: Sympathy vacuum.

      Time to make an attention-seeking post pointing out how smart I am by not signing up to attention-seeking site Facebook.

      See what I did there?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sympathy vacuum.

        @Pinkerton

        1. Except where the post is 'anon'.

        2. Not attention seeking...just smug :-)

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sympathy vacuum.

      Downvoted for wanting people to be raped, no matter how metaphorical. Pillock

      1. pewpie
        Mushroom

        Re: Sympathy vacuum.

        Only an attention whore ratio of 6:1? Come on people - don't let me down. It's lunchtime.

        1. pewpie
          Thumb Up

          Re: Sympathy vacuum.

          4pm. Less than 4:1.. Quite frankly I'm pleasantly amazed and relieved.

          I thought it would be at least 20:1 in favour of the attention whores in these days of celebrity nothing worship, x factor and reality television.. I can see why the city boys are getting worried about lookatme.com.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Sympathy vacuum. @ pewpie

            Two replies in quick succession to your own post?

            When it comes to attention whoring, the poster doth protest too much, methinks.

            I'd also suggest that with your casual and easy, off-the-cuff use of words like 'rape' and 'whore', you don't spend much time with women, if any.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Users don't realise the consequences of their actions

    Any Facebook app can obtain your details if you use it. These details are allowed to be kept by the applications author by Facebook. These can be used for marketing purposes.

    I don't allow any apps to run in Facebook, it's just not worth it. I wonder just how many Facebook users' details Zynga have.

    1. BillG
      Thumb Up

      Re: Users don't realise the consequences of their actions

      Do what I do:

      - Block 3rd party cookies

      - Never use a Facebook app or sign up for a Facebook game.

      - Block 3rd party cookies

      - Never click on an email link from a Facebook "partner". I keep getting these emails from 360photo

      - Block cookies, JavaScript, etc. from Zynga.com.

      - BLOCK ALL 3RD PARTY COOKIES!!!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    are these @facebook.com emails

    you know, the ones that Mark assigned you all? that you don't use, and don't work?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    People use their real details?

    Who knew? Personally, not a single solitary bit of my data on Facebook is correct (including my name).

    1. Nigel Brown
      FAIL

      Re: People use their real details?

      So why be on there then?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: So why be on there then?

        Some people already know who their friends are and want to share info/chat etc with just those. They don;t need to give real information to do that. The only time you need to do that is if you want to be FOUND by others.

        Also, you sometimes need to have an account just to view some of the other people's information - again why create a real account for that.

        I have 4 facebook accounts - none have ANY real information in them.

        PS. You may also have noticed that the commentards on El Reg are a mixture of 'probably real names' 'psudonyms/obviosus fake names', and 'anon'.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I have 4 facebook accounts - none have ANY real information in them.

          Ahh, the ones you use for perving with girls ? You do know thats wrong dont you?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: People use their real details?

        "So why be on there then?"

        Some organisations have followed the trend and moved to FaceBook for a major internet presence. Even with apparently public data a login is sometimes needed to see things on their pages. One of the organisations I support has a closed group just for team members and sponsors. So I have a login with full privacy settings that is used very infrequently. It has a pseudonym that the organisations recognise as indicating my online alter ego.

  5. Nigel Brown
    WTF?

    This is probably small beans compared to the number of emails I have sent, clearly showing my name and email address, that have been forwarded onwards without stripping the senders details.

    Some people make mountains out of molehills.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      So...

      What is you e-mail address Nigel?

      Never mind...I'll spend $5 and same you the trouble of replying.

      1. Nigel Brown

        Re: So...

        It's call_me_mr_pig@hotmail.com

        Feel free to disseminate this as you see fit.

  6. Mondo the Magnificent
    Meh

    Not just Facebook but Telcos too...

    A friend of mine Pete got a "Friend Suggestion" (not request) on Facebook. he sort of knew this person as his daughter went to the same school as my mate Pete's daughter. But they weren't friends and had no shared contacts either. Non of the girls were on Facebook as they're both very young (8 years old)

    So, Pete decided to investigate how Facebook managed to make the connection

    Pete then relaised that his daughter had attended a kiddy party at this person's house and he had called him to RSVP and also to let them know he was en route to collect his daughter on the day of the party

    So, through the association of two mobile phone calls, Facebook made the connection.

    Not leaving it at that, he dug further and found out that his Telco has the right to sell their call logs to third parties, as outlined in the fine print of the T&C's of the mobile contract.

    So, somewhere along the line, his CSP had flogged Facebook the call logs and as Facebook demands a contact number nowadays, the Zuckbook database made this very vague association..

    It seems that any orgranisation that has heaps of personal data will indeed sell it off or mine it to improve profits. After all, a spreadsheet full of names and email addresses is prime commercial property in this day and age.

    I guess it's up to the individual to be viligant when entering any info into any social media site and also to take the time to read the fine print.

    1. Benchops

      Re: Not just Facebook but Telcos too...

      Seems more likely that the other guy had a facebook app on a smart phone, which is allowed to slurp your entire contacts list (indeed, has been known to make changes to your contacts list to make the @facebook.com email the primary one), which may have automatically included Pete's number from the logs.

    2. JetSetJim
      Stop

      Re: Not just Facebook but Telcos too...

      > Facebook demands a contact number nowadays

      Demands, but does not get (from me, at least), I just click thru whenever I see that screen. If you must have a personal FB account, only stick stuff on it that you are happy for absolutely anyone to have access to.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "...security personnel who take aggressive action on reports..."

    Sums up their stance perfectly.

    They do not take aggressive action on the personnel responsible for letting the data get out, or the people who decide their policies, controls, etc but WILL get aggressive on 'reports'...i.e. to try and get them removed from public view, spinning responses, discrediting sources and DMCA takedowns, etc.

    Grammatical slip maybe...but possibly a Freudian one.

  8. M Gale
    Trollface

    I wonder...

    ...how much the usernames and email addresses of several thousand Reg commentards are going for these days?

    (Oooh, I'm such a naughty feller)

    1. Benchops

      Re: I wonder...

      I bought them for $2.30. Well, I say "I" but this username isn't me, naturally.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I think Facebook is bloody useful for letting the extended family know what I'm up to without having to go through the tiresome effort of travelling or having to put up with long boring phone calls with Auntie June or cousin Jim, who between you and me likes the odd drink a little too much for my liking!

    Just don't give Zuck any sensible data as his pet company are bigger marketing scumwads than Google, and they'll sell your details in the next extraction batch after you sign up. At least Google are up front and they tell you they're harvesting your details for cash, Facebook give you a load of bollocks about being a friendly site for sharing fun with others, then bend you over and sell you off!

    1. M Gale

      How much more useful is Facebook compared to, say, a CC/BCC email list?

      Then you own your own damned contact list. Hardly an inconvenience. "Ohai, I want to send this mail to..." *click each user name or select groups/all*

      I'm pretty sure people used to use these things called "email clients" that did something surprisingly similar to this at one point, before Facebonk decided to get a whole load of suckers (Zuck's words, not mine) signed up.

  10. Colin Millar
    Alien

    Ominous feeling about this

    "Likes and followers can be ...... translated to monetary profit"

    And there was me thinking that it wouldn't be possible to find something even more ephemeral than monopoly money credit to use as the basis of the global economy.

    My ghast is flabbered by the sheer chutzpah of it all.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: Ominous feeling about this

      You don't like?

    2. Dan 101

      Re: Ominous feeling about this

      The bit they don't tell you is the translation of a Facebook member into profit involves a very large blender and a bottling plant.

  11. Antoinette Lacroix
    Meh

    This Facebook thing is getting way too much attention.

    Back in the 80s, almost everyone subscribed to some sort of BBS. ISPs offered free home pages , i.e Geosites and suchlike. People have accounts at MSN, Yahoo, ICQ . . , millions participate in forums. Since 30 years, private data is shared, for everyone to see. If you share too much, it'll eventually bite you, simple as that. It's true, FB makes it easier for the bad guys, but it's not as if fraud was invented after FB went online. It's not that interesting anyway. I could think of a lot of sites better suited to shady activities.

    1. M Gale

      Re: This Facebook thing is getting way too much attention.

      "Back in the 80s, almost every rich geek or geeky kid with rich parents subscribed to some sort of BBS."

      Fixed it for you. Anyway, "ISPs" weren't really around in the 80s. Neither was the Internet as we know it today.

  12. tempemeaty

    ...third-party developer....

    Another one in India or some other country where people don't live by the westerner ideals about ethics perhaps?

    1. Mike Flugennock
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: ...third-party developer....

      Another one in India or some other country where people don't live by the westerner ideals about ethics perhaps?

      Westerner ideas about... ethics?

      Y'mean, like dishonestly, thievery, greed, vanity, sociopathy?

      1. M Gale

        Re: ...third-party developer....

        Really, don't go there. The "west" might not be perfect, but compared to a fuckload of other places it's a goddamned paradise.

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