The Sword and Laser discussion

Anyone else getting a ton of obviously fake and Russian friend requests? I’ve had at least a dozen over the past couple months.

These people — which are probably bots — have no books read, have no photos and few details, and are obviously phony. One, named something like “AnneJones202”, even had Cyrillic in its information fields.

What could their goal possibly be? I assume there’s some method to steal our private information, but I don’t know how that would work.

I dunno what they're trying to do, but yeah, I get them too.

Yup. I've had a few. I just ignore them. Is there a way to report them as suspected fakes/bots?

Update: I just added a challenge question for friend requests. Perhaps that will filter some bots out.

Got one recently that linked me to a site where I could get free book downloads - presumably illegal ones!

They had taken the time to personalise it, in as far as it referenced a book I'd recently rated / reviewed.

Maybe they're trying to get Goodreads users Amazon credentials? I don't know if some people have the two accounts linked. *shrug* Either way it's dumb.

I added questions as well. I was getting a ton of request myself. I added one by accident, but going back through my friends list, it seems as if the account has been deleted.

I get a bunch of these. They all say you can get a free copy of this book here: and give a link. The funny thing is they are always books on my read list which I already own legally. I just Block them all.

Nope ... I obviously don't meet their target audience criteria;

*sigh*

So said Eeyore...

Paul wrote: "Nope ... I obviously don't meet their target audience criteria;

*sigh*

So said Eeyore..."

That was my first thought. No fishing bots want to be my friend. I'm sad.

I had one guy join Vaginal Fantasy trying sell herbal boner pills. Some people have no shame.

Sean Lookielook wrote: "I had one guy join Vaginal Fantasy trying sell herbal boner pills. Some people have no shame."

HAH!

A long time ago I had a guy who seemed to be looking for an American woman who would marry him so he could become a citizen - that was funny.

I haven't had the Russian bots, I don't think. I don't get friend requests that often and I generally just hit okay and forget about it. Now I'm going to have to look through them.

And...looks like I have a couple - recent, no books. Interestingly, one has a picture, 3 are "from" Brooklyn, NY, and all of the accounts were created years ago but not active until now.

Two of them had this - еrоknіgі.afsx.xyz - in the "About Me" section.

There is a link on the friend request to report them to Goodreads. Lower right I think.
Such a pain.

I had one this morning - but when I went looking for details on the person (bot?) making the request it had already disappeared. It seems likely that someone had already reported it and Goodreads had taken it down.

I have been getting a few a week. All of the 'free' books they mention are things I have already read so the bot or programmer is obviously not very smart.

I was feeling left out but... I just got my first one!

Michele wrote: "I haven't had the Russian bots, I don't think. I don't get friend requests that often and I generally just hit okay and forget about it. Now I'm going to have to look through them."

This.

I just got some religious spam on VF, but the account had been sitting idle since 2012. I'm guessing someone's sold a batch of fake accounts for the purpose of spamming the forums. These accounts may also target your DMs if you friend them.

I've received several of these fakes as well. I forwarded the first one to Goodreads, but it took me awhile to find a way to do so, and I don't recall exactly how I did it. I did get a response thanking me for alerting them to it and that they blocked the fake account.

I've received several since then but haven't bothered to alert GR again.

Sean Lookielook wrote: "I just got some religious spam on VF, but the account had been sitting idle since 2012."

Yeah, I was waiting for you to see those posts. ;-)