Imagine the time, money and bandwidth we could all save if our gullible friends would stop buying everything they read in a MySpace bulletin.
Having an ounce or so of common sense and a little know-how about how things work goes a long way. It’s time to set the record straight on the most widely passed around and annoying MySpace myths.
Number 1: Tom is getting rid of MySpace!!!
Tom isn’t going to delete your MySpace if you don’t repost this. Tom doesn’t post that crap, and chances are Tom has never personally deleted a profile anyway. Tom won’t charge for your stupid MySpace account, either. What I find most appaling about this trend is that it’s lasted for so long. I’ve had a MySpace account for almost 4 years now and yet I’ll sign on to see a bulletin about Tom deleting MySpace profiles. I only have 70 friends, which means people are falling for it over and over again. Some would say “better safe than sorry”, but this is where some of that common sense and Internet know-how comes into play.
Reasons Tom is going to delete MySpace/MySpace profiles are as follows:
“Server Busy” errors are occurring because there are too many members. Tom will delete those members that don’t repost this garbage as “TOM IS SERIOUS” (Internet shouting is the only way to show you mean business).
Tom is in debt, so MySpace will now charge $22.50 per month for use; however, if you pass on this bulletin, you’ll receive 2 months of MYSPACE 2 for free. Yes, supposedly the bulletin is “tracked” and that’s the petition. This bulletin was to be reposted as “MySpace 2” and you’d get the code for MySpace 2 free access in your message inbox.
The newest craze in the “OMG PLZ SAVE MYSPACE” is really, possibly the dumbest yet. Since the bottom of the site reads “©2003-2007 MySpace.com”, that means Tom only has MySpace “reserved” for that many years. After that time, the “MySpace contract is over” (I’m paraphrasing, can you tell?). This bulletin goes on to explain that Tom wants to see who cares, so he’s tracking who sends this bulletin, and if over 100,000 users repost, he will renew the “contract”.
You’ll know one of these scares has just gone down because on your Home page on MySpace, there’ll be a little box from Tom, written in poor English saying he isn’t going to delete MySpace. Some say poor Tom, I say poor me.
Number 2: Click here to get your own free MySpace tracker!
Once upon a time, there were roundabout ways to see who was viewing your MySpace profile. They were rudimentary at best, and they only worked for a limited time as MySpace would quickly put the kibosh on them. Nowadays, the only kind of MySpace trackers that exist are trackers that can be used anywhere that give you location, IP, that type of stuff. They don’t and cannot give you a friend ID or a picture of who viewed your profile. While there are some that claim to be able to do so, they will only track people who have signed up for that same tracker, and with all the trackers of this type out there, it’s really a total crap shoot. If you really care about who is on your MySpace that much, maybe it’s time to see someone about it. It’s just MySpace.
Number 3: Hackers
This one is fairly new and I think easily figured out if you take the time to not panic and repost.
The bulletin instructs you to edit your friends, and from there, you’ll see some profiles that no longer exist. These can’t just be people who deleted their profiles, or maybe even a system glitch. No, nope, they’re hackers and they’ve hacked your account. Mean hackers who evidently didn’t do anything of real damage, they just friended some accounts that don’t exist anymore.
Immediately wig out, repost the bulletin, delete them all, change your password, get a new email address, move out of the country and change your name.
Number 4: Virus Profiles
This is an old faithful one, too. If “so and so” asks to friend you, DO NOT FRIEND THEM. Adding them causes a VIRUS.
At the risk of repeating myself here… common sense, anyone?
Friending a person will not give you a virus. It’d be hard to get a virus by visiting a profile. Just calm down and friend away, you popular little cupcake.
You would think though, that something positive would come out of mass MySpace hysteria, but it does not. Just last summer people were getting phished like mad, and not a soul on my friends list posted a bulletin about it. I finally stepped in and yelled at them to change their passwords, as several had gotten phished, and their accounts were being used to post more phishing links. One server was being used for all the links I saw, so I contacted the company and told them. They had no idea.
Simmer down and just go with it, knowing your MySpace account will be safe and secure as long as you use your head. Think of others before posting a bulletin that sounds like garbage and for goodness sake, if your MySpace account does end up deleted or stolen, I think you’ll be just fine.
