Watch out for predators

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Replies

  • EveryDayisDay01
    EveryDayisDay01 Posts: 13 Member
    Note for the Men: go away and we are not here for you and no matter how polite you speak during your uninvited conversations are, you’re gross and deserve no place around here around any of the people that dislike your presence 😂
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,349 Member
    Sooooo many scammers, pretty much every friend request I get it just another one. They're not just dudes looking to hit on women, they're scammers too.
  • chris_in_cal
    chris_in_cal Posts: 2,546 Member
    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    Sooooo many scammers, pretty much every friend request I get it just another one.

    I guess one good thing about changes MFP has made, MFP "Friends" are now not really functional. We can remove all of our friends, never add any new ones, and this current MFP experience will be identical.

    Sad, but MFP "Friends" no longer adds anything for us users.

    Sorry to hear you getting targeted....I wonder if it is a bot, or a illegal company, rather than one individual person.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,617 Member
    chris_in_cal wrote: »
    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    Sooooo many scammers, pretty much every friend request I get it just another one.

    I guess one good thing about changes MFP has made, MFP "Friends" are now not really functional. We can remove all of our friends, never add any new ones, and this current MFP experience will be identical.

    Sad, but MFP "Friends" no longer adds anything for us users.

    Sorry to hear you getting targeted....I wonder if it is a bot, or a illegal company, rather than one individual person.

    It's pretty much a pandemic, across all social networks, in my experience. Yes, there are whole companies organized to run such scams - the catfishing or other monetizable ones.

    Here, and some other places, some of the creeps are real people, usually false identity, seeking sex chat or in-person sex.
  • megd44
    megd44 Posts: 155 Member
    That is the BEST @Alatariel75 I accepted the first one without a thought then wow. Accepted a couple of others just to see and it is amazing what they come back at you with if you give a three word answer. They all seem to be American widowed men working in the middle east to improve the lives of their teenage daughters.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,349 Member
    megd44 wrote: »
    That is the BEST @Alatariel75 I accepted the first one without a thought then wow. Accepted a couple of others just to see and it is amazing what they come back at you with if you give a three word answer. They all seem to be American widowed men working in the middle east to improve the lives of their teenage daughters.

    Yes, that was this guy! Working in Gaza, teenage son in boarding school back home. Funnily, for someone who was working half way around the world from his home, he seemed to have no understanding of time zones...
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,655 Member
    I got a weird one asking for pictures of my lats 😳🤣
  • anxietyfairy
    anxietyfairy Posts: 36 Member
    I think I got that exact message from someone, which is funny because I don't have any pictures of myself on this account.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,617 Member
    megd44 wrote: »
    That is the BEST @Alatariel75 I accepted the first one without a thought then wow. Accepted a couple of others just to see and it is amazing what they come back at you with if you give a three word answer. They all seem to be American widowed men working in the middle east to improve the lives of their teenage daughters.

    IME, looking across various social network sites, there seem to tend to be a lot of military or retired military (generals, often but officers for sure), engineers, doctors. :D

    Couple of niche regular guy sex chat types on here, though . . . one seemed to want me to lift weights and send pics of it or something like that, and the other asked if I wanted "to wrestle". :D:D:D

    Catfishers and other scammers seem to be more smooth-typing and wordy (even though I suspect English isn't always the first language), the sex-chatters sometimes barely literate.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,617 Member
    edited December 21
    claireychn074 wrote: »
    I got a weird one asking for pictures of my lats 😳🤣

    @Claireyychn074: It wasn't me. ;):D
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,655 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    claireychn074 wrote: »
    I got a weird one asking for pictures of my lats 😳🤣

    @Claireyychn074: It wasn't me. ;):D

    🤣🤣
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,679 Member
    claireychn074 wrote: »
    I got a weird one asking for pictures of my lats 😳🤣

    Laughing so loud my husband just came from downstairs to investigate what’s so funny!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,307 Member
    edited December 21
    Though personally I think the lat pictures in question would look awesome I suspect I may get glared at for saying so in context! 😎

    I can, however, provide turkey neck and deflated balloon tummy pictures with the best of them... and that makes me quite happy, in fact! 👍😎
  • SurferGirl1982
    SurferGirl1982 Posts: 480 Member
    I don't know how to block them without accepting their friend request. I get a lot of them too. But, all I see is accept or decline. I always hit decline. And, I would imagine most of their photos are not of them, but are stolen from other social media sites. It's disgusting!
  • SurferGirl1982
    SurferGirl1982 Posts: 480 Member
    Oh, I guess to report them, you can go to help and "Submit a Request"?
  • SurferGirl1982
    SurferGirl1982 Posts: 480 Member
    I have a question...I use the web version and on the homepage, it lists "Recent Forum Topics". How come topics like this are not listed on the homepage. It seems like it's almost the same five forum topics daily. Hmmm?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,617 Member
    SurferGirl1982 wrote: »
    Oh, I guess to report them, you can go to help and "Submit a Request"?

    Or email them at emailing support at support@myfitnesspal.com. Note that they may not tell you what they did, but in my experience they do take action, like I've seen the badly-behaved profile suddenly disappear, and I think they may also investigate what other nonsense the ID has gotten into, though I'm less certain of that.
  • SurferGirl1982
    SurferGirl1982 Posts: 480 Member
    @AnnPT77 Thanks! I came back to say that I haven't actually received messages from these people. But, I get a lot of friend requests (always from men). I even think the same man keeps coming up with a different user name. And, it usually says they joined MFP just a day or two before.

    Did you see my question about why discussions like this are never listed in "Recent Forum Topics"? It seems like it's almost always the same discussions. To me it gets a bit boring. I am using the web version. I have some issues with my eyesight and using my phone is a bit difficult.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,349 Member
    SurferGirl1982 wrote: »
    @AnnPT77 Thanks! I came back to say that I haven't actually received messages from these people. But, I get a lot of friend requests (always from men). I even think the same man keeps coming up with a different user name. And, it usually says they joined MFP just a day or two before.

    Did you see my question about why discussions like this are never listed in "Recent Forum Topics"? It seems like it's almost always the same discussions. To me it gets a bit boring. I am using the web version. I have some issues with my eyesight and using my phone is a bit difficult.

    OH, I've noticed this - there was one the other day about removing the 'adding friends' stickies etc because having friends is now pointless without the feed, and it wasn't coming up in the recent list despite having new responses.
  • SurferGirl1982
    SurferGirl1982 Posts: 480 Member
    edited December 21
    @Alatariel75 Yep, I don't understand it. If there's a discussion you like, all you have to do is bookmark it so you can find it again. It would be nice to see the other recent discussions without having to search for them!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,617 Member
    SurferGirl1982 wrote: »
    @AnnPT77 Thanks! I came back to say that I haven't actually received messages from these people. But, I get a lot of friend requests (always from men). I even think the same man keeps coming up with a different user name. And, it usually says they joined MFP just a day or two before.

    Did you see my question about why discussions like this are never listed in "Recent Forum Topics"? It seems like it's almost always the same discussions. To me it gets a bit boring. I am using the web version. I have some issues with my eyesight and using my phone is a bit difficult.

    I'm sorry. I saw your question, but I don't have any idea what the answer might be. I never use that. I skim the forum topic areas to see if any new posts interest me, and use the notifications bell icon to see what updates there have been on posts I already posted on, commented on or bookmarked.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,679 Member
    SurferGirl1982 wrote: »
    I have a question...I use the web version and on the homepage, it lists "Recent Forum Topics". How come topics like this are not listed on the homepage. It seems like it's almost the same five forum topics daily. Hmmm?

    Do you have your search set to “category” or to “discussions”. Categories puts them order of type of post, like welcome, nutrition, getting started.

    Discussion lists them by most recent post. Some of the chit-chat posts get tons, so if it’s set that way, you may be getting the same few threads with a lot of “fluff”.

    Just a thought. I never use the web version so I don’t know if you can set your search type.
  • SurferGirl1982
    SurferGirl1982 Posts: 480 Member
    @AnnPT77 I don't necessarily use that feature either. But every time I log in it's right there on my homepage. It's hard not to see. But, there's posts on there, at times, that haven't had any activity for weeks. Then, I started looking at the forum topics and realized that there are so many more recent posts. I just think if there's going to be a section saying "Recent Forum Topics" that they should be recent. I think it would be a nice feature. Oh, well!
  • SurferGirl1982
    SurferGirl1982 Posts: 480 Member
    edited December 21
    @springlering62 On the web version you don't really have an option to set your search options (as far as I know). The "Recent Forum Topics" is on my homepage and then if I click "Community", the categories show up. And, to the right, I can click on my bookmarks. It also has a notification bell. So, if someone posts to one of my bookmarked posts or mentions me, it will have a red number. It's probably just me...technology 😕

    Now that I think about it, the few discussions that I've been involved with never show up in that list. It would be an ever changing list.

    Thank you all for your help!
  • chris_in_cal
    chris_in_cal Posts: 2,546 Member
    SurferGirl1982 wrote: »
    I don't know how to block them

    This is a great point. Nearly all current social media platforms have 'muting' and 'blocking'

    For instance if some MFP user constantly is a 'reply guy' to nearly every post, a good social media platform would allow me to simply block them, and mute any replies.

    I don't want to be constantly pursued here by a user who comments on nearly everything I write. I know I can be chased away and just leave (and sometimes I do leave for awhile) but @SurferGirl1982 even better and making all of us more safe would just be a simple button that allowed me to mute another account.

    Nothing more onerous than just clicking a button.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,617 Member
    chris_in_cal wrote: »
    SurferGirl1982 wrote: »
    I don't know how to block them

    This is a great point. Nearly all current social media platforms have 'muting' and 'blocking'

    For instance if some MFP user constantly is a 'reply guy' to nearly every post, a good social media platform would allow me to simply block them, and mute any replies.

    I don't want to be constantly pursued here by a user who comments on nearly everything I write. I know I can be chased away and just leave (and sometimes I do leave for awhile) but @SurferGirl1982 even better and making all of us more safe would just be a simple button that allowed me to mute another account.

    Nothing more onerous than just clicking a button.

    You can Block them in the DM function, unfriend them after blocking them, set them to "Ignore" in the Community. That may not be all of the effects you might hope for, but it seems like it's some of them.

    Doing that stuff without reporting their bad behavior to MFP just leaves them free to bother other users.
  • DiscusTank5
    DiscusTank5 Posts: 503 Member
    megd44 wrote: »
    That is the BEST @Alatariel75 I accepted the first one without a thought then wow. Accepted a couple of others just to see and it is amazing what they come back at you with if you give a three word answer. They all seem to be American widowed men working in the middle east to improve the lives of their teenage daughters.

    I would have clicked the laugh button if MFP had one.
  • SurferGirl1982
    SurferGirl1982 Posts: 480 Member
    edited December 22
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    You can Block them in the DM function, unfriend them after blocking them, set them to "Ignore" in the Community. That may not be all of the effects you might hope for, but it seems like it's some of them.

    Doing that stuff without reporting their bad behavior to MFP just leaves them free to bother other users.

    @AnnPT77 I actually joined MFP just to log my food, weight, etc. I'm not much of a social media person. I only have one friend on my friend's list and it is someone that was in a discussion I was involved with for a while. After posting for months, she sent me a friend request and I accepted. Other than that I've always declined friend requests.

    I really don't know what the DM function is and I have no idea how to set someone to "Ignore". I'm not totally ignorant, but I'm just am new to the social media thing. I don't even have a Facebook account.

    After getting a few unwanted friend requests on MFP, I set my profile to private (I think). If I have anymore problems, I will try to report them to MFP.

    I really appreciate all of your help. If you need your OS updated or hard-drive replaced, I'm your gal 😀 But, the social media thing is a bit over my head.

    I think I'll just go back to logging *LOL*

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