My friend the pyramid scheme

[feng_shui_house]

If you've been friended by denask and aren't happy about it then report it to LJ abuse. http://www.livejournal.com/abuse/report.bml

You can only make abuse reports if you are directly affected, so this is the first time I've filed one. I wonder what will happen. I know advertising journals are allowed, but I don't know if they're allowed to friend journals that didn't contact them first, and I don't know if they're allowed to advertise thinly veiled pyramid schemes at all (It says everyone who signs up after you earns you money).

Comments

[jekesta]

Oh, I hadn't seen because there wasn't anything in their journal when they friended me. I've banned them from my journal now, which stops their name showing up in my userinfo and means they won't be able to comment or link me to anything at least. I'll be interested to see what livejournal say about the pyramid scheme bit of it, though.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I didn't ban them yet, because I'm insatiably curious.

[quarryquest.livejournal.com]

No sign of them turning up on mine as yet, but when they do I shall remember your advice. I went over to their journal and couldn't see anything (I presume its because they haven't friended me yet) but I DID see a lot of mutual aquaintances got hit so I presume I need to be ready.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

When I first looked last night, the only names I saw were all ones I knew, so it looks like the 'seed' was definitely on my flist.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I've been friended by them, but they haven't commented or anything. Does that count as abuse?

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

If what they're doing violates the terms of service, you report it to abuse (it doesn't necessarily mean they 'abused' you). I THINK the rules for commercial journals are different & *maybe* they're not allowed to friend people first. One of the rules is that a journal is not to be used for anything illegal- and I *suspect* promoting a pyramid scheme is illegal.

[alinewrites.livejournal.com]

Pyramid schemes are illegal in France. I am absolutely certain about that.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I just have to wait to see if LJ feels that way. It is thinly disguised as a 'work at home' scheme, but the 'work' consists of getting other people signed up.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

That's weird because I've had two random friendings in the last couple months. I haven't reciprocated because one is a parody journal and one is an account that was created _this_ month.

Something ain't right herebouts...

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I hadn't had this happen before. I friend rarely; I think yours is the first journal I've friended in several months.

Anyone can friend, of course, but I *THINK* the rules are different for commercial journals. I suspect they're not supposed to randomly friend journals that haven't friended them first. And I'm pretty sure promotion of pyramid schemes is not allowable usage.

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

I haven't yet. But looking at their friends list there are a couple of people on my flist that are on there so I guess I'd better beware.

Thanks for the warning.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering how they found me/us.

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

Could be many ways. Maybe through one of those large communities that one of us belongs to perhaps?

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they searched interests?

Most of denask's friends have friends denask hadn't friended. Of the two that didn't have any non-denassk friends, one has 'pyramids' and 'success' listed as interests.

I could imagine a pyramid scheme operation using either or both of those as a 'seed' to grab a journal at random, and then grab friends from them.

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

That's a possibility. There are many ways to do it

[alinewrites.livejournal.com]

I banned it too - since I made my lj friends only, he/she/it could not comment or read, anyway.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I haven't banned it yet, because I'm waiting to see if they'll post more evidence I can use against them.

My feeling is that they're so dumb, they're using it just as an ad & aren't going to comment on our journals & don't read them either.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I've not yet been {cough} honoured...

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

It's bemusing when it happens. I can't really see the point of it- but then, I never saw the point of scam spam, either.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I reported them. I got another LJ which spammed communities deleted, so the system works. At least they'll look into it, which is what I asked them to do.

At first I thought they were a fan who just wanted to read B7 stuff since they friended my character LJs too; licky I didn't friend them back. I only do so if there's a journal to read and I find they have things in common, or interesting posts.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I friended them for about half a minute because I thought they were B7 fen & had a friends only journal. When I discovered their only post (at that time) remained invisible, I defriended, but waited to ban them until I saw what the point was.

I usually don't friend without either a) a recommendation from a current friend I trust, or b) them having commented on my journal long enough for me to know them or c) they friend me & I read their journal and find we have things in common.

[hooplasugarlump.livejournal.com]

How does it work, then? They friend your journal and then get you to friend back, then post adverts for things in your flist?

I am not worthy, apparently...well, we students are a lowly lot.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I don't know what they intended but so far it looks fairly pointless. They friended 41 people pretty much at once, and after a while posted an ad for a pyramid scheme on their journal (giving a website URL- which I googled and had my impression of SCAM confirmed without actually going to the website itself).

Only one person has friended them back, so the only 'benefit' they have is that some of the journals friended (not many as a lot of them were inactive RPGing journals or multiple journals owned by a person) would have seen the ad.

[nautile26.livejournal.com]

It will be interesting see what response you get from LJ. And also if the offending account adds any more 'friends'. Really, I can't see much point to it at the moment. I suppose with any spam/scam, the senders only expect to get a small number of responses.

My email account, that I only use for LJ, has had a lot of 'Russian' entries of late.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I suspect the denask thing is a test, to see how quickly LJ will boot them off. Otherwise, what's the point of friending a measely 41 journals?

Russian SPAM! I'm jealous. (not very, though. ;^)

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

I don't get Russian Spam, but I DO get Russian journals friending me. What's the point, when I can't read their journal anyway? I've never understood that.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

It's got to be an automated friending system- a 'bot' has no way of knowing what language a user knows. It's like regular spam- millions of exhortations to increase your virility are wasted on women because the 'bot' doesn't know anything.