Spamming of FT members on FB for self-promotion
 

I'm not sure where else to post this, so I'm asking the TB.

Something needs to be done about this individual member of FT using the unofficial Facebook FT group and the private message feature to blatantly campaign for votes on TopFlyer.

(link removed as it does not seem to work - but the group is FlyerTalk on Facebook and carries the FT logo)

Many of us joined this group back in the early days of FB as a way to find each other on the social networking site. But now this site, using the name FlyerTalk and the FT logo is being used to spam FTers in an attempt to gain votes for it's administrator.

I do not appreciate this abuse of the FT brand and while the site now carries a warning that it is an "unofficial" group and by being a member of it, we are giving the administrator permission to message us, I will associate this action with Internet Brands and FlyerTalk.

It is entirely unfair to violate the trust and goodwill over over 1,100 FT members who joined that FB group long ago, in good faith, to be able to find other members of this community. It reflects poorly on the management of this site that it is allowed to operate under the FlyerTalk name and logo.

I completely agree ^^^ (and fwiw, there is no way one can turn off the message feature [or one that I can find] for the F/t group on FB)

Not cool at all :mad::mad::mad::mad:

Internet Brands is running the TopFlyer competition. I will bring this thread to their attention.

I do see that there are two FlyerTalk groups on Facebook. The official one, used by Internet Brands, is flyertalk.com. The FlyerTalk group now makes clear that it is an unofficial group. It is possible to leave it by clicking the "leave group" in the lower left hand corner.

SanDiego1K
Community Director

THANK YOU!

Can you provide a link to the "official" group? I'm assuming I'm on the non-official one as I'm getting this junk as well.

I guess it isn't a group per se, but a page you "like" - then you are subscribed to their messages. Put flyertalk.com in the box at the top and it will bring up this page. At the moment, there are more people in the unofficial flyertalk group than there are who "like" the flyertalk.com page. I suspect that's an issue of longevity of each.

Hi all,

I too have been receiving these messages on the flyertalk.com FB account, and a handful of complaints about the "spam" invitations to like his posts for the Daily Question contest.

The contest itself has become enormously popular because it is very easy to enter and a daily $300 hotel prize is pretty awesome. At the same time, people can be zealous about their participation and this member has edged close to the line.

A simple remedy is to view one of his messages, click the blue "report" link, and then click SUBMIT (the "block user" checkbox is checked by default); you will no longer see messages or comments by that user.

For everyone's info, campaigning for votes is a technique that many Daily Question winners have been using, most of whom are longstanding, well-respected members of the FT community with thousands of posts. It's a big part of the game. While I get that it's annoying to get spammed with FB messages from someone you don't personally know, hopefully the simple remedy of blocking him will put the issue to rest. Please let me know if this is in some way unsatisfactory.

Paul O'Brien
Community Manager
FlyerTalk

I've received a couple of SPAM messages via FT Private Message as well.

Thank you both, Carol and Paul, for addressing this members' complaint so promptly. ^

When you get the message you can report is as spam. That's what I did, I clicked on every one of them with "Report Spam".

Don't know if it "reports" but it definitely makes them disappear.

I wouldn't have been so offended but the person in question had the gall to claim that if we didn't want to see these messages we could unsubscribe from all messages from that group.

Uh - I want to see real messages from real people, I just don't want to see your spam...

Can IB protect it's image by having the name of this group changed and/or not allowing the user to use the FT logo as his photo? I thought Facebook had rules about non-company individuals claiming a company brand and that there was a way to force an end to this? While I took the time to investigate and write, there are 1,100+ others who may associate this spam with you, as I initially did!

I will be leaving that group - but I am certain that few of us knew it was unofficial until we started receiving spam supposedly from "FlyerTalk" in our private in-boxes in FB.

Hi again,

This "official"/unofficial confusion may result more from an understanding of how Facebook groups work than by the way this member is using them.

Anyone who belongs to a FB group can send out a message which will be received by all members of that group. This is a function of Facebook that is unrelated to FT or the flyertalk.com FB group. It's the way their defaults are set up on Facebook, and you must specifically change your settings if you wish the site to function differently for you. Just because you receive a message from a group member, doesn't mean there's anything official about it; it's just a regular member's privilege to message the other members.

As to the logo, I believe that any message coming to you from a group that you belong to comes with the logo of that group; if you decided to send a message out to the group, the same FT logo would appear. If you actually open his message, you will see that he has his own personal photo as his profile picture.

I hope this clears up some of the confusion; if not, please let me know and I'll try to clarify.

Thank you!

Paul O'Brien
Community Manager
FlyerTalk

All I have to say is I am impressed with fast and direct response by the CD and IB.

Thanks! ^

I agree with goalie and techgirl. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who found it rather annoying.

Yeah, me too. I got spamming from FlyerTalk and I have to deleted it. If you try to deleted the message or report spam on facebook accounts. Don't talks with other guys who spamming you. Don't answer emails or try to reports it immediately.

Hooray ! At least I wasn't the only one !