heh… this is like the Snopes of Facebook. Thanks!

bullshit facebook compromising our privacy and tryin to cover it up with untrue statements like this….

hahahhaaaa,…thanks alot for this information,..i’m one of victims too…thax

Well personally I don’t believe YOU, the one who posted this. How then did these ppl appear when I typed automation labs? Some of the faces are downright creepy looking. Do u honestly expect ANY of us to believe these ppl are NOT monitoring ‘us’?I say BS, they are too monitoring us and this is your way to allow us to keep these ppl. Personally until I truly ‘know’ these are not monitoring me or my usage, I WILL keep on blocking them. Thanks for the cruddy response though, nice try.

I tried typing in my surname as suggested in the above article and got absoultly no other names….so I am not yet convinced.

I also viewed profiles of the names that came up when I typed in Automation Labs and a few of them had pics that looked like straight up mugshots…

OK>…well I just refreshed and tried typing in my name again as instructed and did get alot of people with matching names

Finally the truth……….just wish people would think a little more and not believe everything they read as gospel.

pmsl they have changed the wording, now they are paedophiles… if I was a member of automation labs, I would be pretty mad about now!
Despite my warnings, people are still forwarding this stupid round robin status and junking up my newsfeed!

This is not true. None of the people who came up had my surname - not one and there were about 30-40 that i have blocked. Most of the names did not even come close to mine and all started with a different letter of the alphabet than mine.

They may not be hackers but they created “Farming Extreme Managers” which is a “bot.” http://www.automationlabs.org/

Wendy…they may not have your surname, but instead they may have your name as a word in their profile. Say your last name is ‘Smith’, the profiles that pop up may be Jane Doe, but her occupation is Silversmith. Therefore, facebook found a match on the word smith. You won’t necessarily see her occupation if her profile is set to private, but it will still come up a match. This is the way search fields work, especially on a site as large as Facebook with thousands of various fields to search on. Or, they may belong to a group with the name of Smithville, again a match on the word Smith. Nothing evil behind the scenes going on, just a simple search bringing back results.

And no, I do not work for Facebook or Automation labs, instead I used to work in IT on for a Fortune 500 company on their website and order entry site, so I am familiar with searches, as well as misunderstandings regarding how searches work as well as how quickly internet rumors are created, spread and modified slightly each time it is passed along.

If you click on the Farming Extreme Manager result link in Google it takes you back to your own home page. That’s creepy.

Daft!! It’s just chinese whispers!! Peeps will believe anything!! LOL

If this where true, then would’nt everyone have the same list, some of my friends have had more or less than me, i personally had 34, i’m not yet convinced either!

Thanks!
I got this warning from a friend, and went blocking all, while I let my grey spin. I realized this had to be a hoax, so I googled around a bit, and the went unblocking them all
And, of course shared this blog post with my friend.
Go do the same all!

You all not noticed that recently it has been 34-35 people on everyboadys list more or less around that number, try argos try asda, hundreds of names come up or try you home town, youl eg (leeds) the top one on that is halo leeds are you telling me they are spying on us all ????? think about it for a second i tryed my surname my bros name came up first

Me and my sister both had a lot of similar names…I’m taking no chances. Maybe they work for facebook or something…all a bit strange if you ask me!

This article is not the truth. There is more to this than meets the eye. Automation Labs is a bot, or automation program, designed to auto collect FarmVille rewards postings. This essentially cheats game players from the ability to collect rewards from their approved FarmVille “Neighbors” or co-players of the game. The program is called Farming Extreme Manager, and it sidesteps normal game play to give it’s users access to millions of farmVille Neighbors without having to go through the process of making the social connection required to do it manually.

To stop this bot from accessing your page, you do follow the instructions above, search for automation labs, and block all the users on it. I play Farmville, and the rewards I posted used to disappear in 2 seconds…now it takes a LOT longer for all the available rewards to be taken.

Automation Labs is a bot designed to usurp the system…I suggest blocking it, this is not an Urban or Facebook Legend…it’s real.

There are some really strange thought processes at work in the comments above. The explanation offered makes sense, ticks all the boxes including the fact that the explanation steps can be followed and the results infinitely repeatable.

So what’s the problem? Well I guess a world with fewer conspiracy theories is a barren one for some people. I think Facebook could help us out a bit here. I am irritated with random conspiracy posts appearing ad nauseam on my news feed and I would ask Facebook to start monitoring these clowns. Why not start with some of the posts above. Write to them and tell them that unless they are attended by a responsible adult they should stay aware from complicated things like social networking sites.

Oh god I never thought I would say this, but some of your are actually more paranoid than I am.

@kate (and anyone else who is unconvinced) - I think in order for you to call BS on this post you would need to come up with your own evidence to refute it. Just by saying it’s BS doesn’t mean that it actually is.

This rumor was started specifically targeting this group because the name, ‘automation labs’, sounds sketchy and they are mostly programmers. ‘Puppies’ on the other hand is much less convincing and threatening but there is a huge list of people associated with that search term - go check for yourself. I just don’t think people would buy the story of puppy spies, but programmers… clearly much more effective.

It matters to me not who these people are, what group they belong to or anything else they are associated with. They were not invited nor should they have any access to my private account! If they want access to accounts there are all sorts of people or groups who i’m sure would be willing to share all their info with them, but they should have to ask for permission to do so, not just show up univited!!!

im not sure this has been explained very well

when you enter ‘automation labs’ facebook carries out a search and rturns results for people based on content on their profile, these people have no link to you profile at all and certainly no access

aitch

Yes there is a program that allows people to automatically get stuff, which is not fair to those who want to play the game. So if blocking sutomation Labs will work or not I do not know

http://www.automationlabs.org/index.php?rid=21

Well I have to say I am one of the ones that got the message did the name automation labs in my block and yes got 19 names appeared. So I clicked on the people that were listed to search them yes SOME have the name automation labs listed as there work place SOME had nothing as there work place and others had no mention of the the words automation or automation labs but they appear under the block? Can you explain this to me? I also typed in just the word automation to see what happen got a whole list of company names but not one had people attached to it like yours can you please explain this to me? Did a research again this morning to see if anything was there and guess what 19 new names have appeared. With the other companys if type in there name of the company you can block there company why cant we block yours? Once you block the peoples names automation labs came up empty until this morning? And one more question every feed that was posted on my wall and my friends has disappeared it is removed who did it and why if it was facebook they should have sent a email telling us and why they did it. Under all this tell me I don’t have a reason to be think there is something not right…..

Better safe than sorry! I blocked them. I don’t know those people, so they really shouldn’t be looking at my profile anyway.

If I were to type in IBM or some other organization would I come up with all people associated with that association? NO.

None of the people I had were even close to my name. Who ever they are and why they are there doesn’t matter to me. I blocked them anyway.

I saw this notification yesterday on a friends status update on Facebook, I followed the instructions & found over 50 people I did not know & blocked them, since logging in today I have blocked a further 30 or so, that’s over 80 people in two days.

Concerned I posted a message on my updates to warn my friends, today my message, the original message from my friends status & all the comments in the thread have been deleted, I didn’t delete my message - so who did? Sorry I am not entirely convinced that these people are not hackers.

While I understand that Facebook’s block option searches for the profiles that are connected to the name entered in to the block list, if Automation Lab/labs are a legitimate company why doesn’t it put itself on Facebook, instead of just it’s associates?

To D Yasick, thank you for posting this message, I will be trying this:- “If you click on the Farming Extreme Manager result link in Google it takes you back to your own home page. That’s creepy.” You are so right - it’s very creepy, so much for Facebook’s privacy.

If this is true, then who deleted my status updates about this and why? If it’s not true, then someone has access to my account and is deleting any post I’ve made with the word “automation labs” in it. I think I deserve a facebook message or e-mail telling me that my post was deleted and why instead of just removing it. I’ve seen TONS of other false posts and non of them have ever been removed! Why does it matter if I block these 20 people that I don’t know anyway and will never be friends with anyway…is it really that big of a deal?

WELL IF EVERYONE TYPED IN AUTOMATION LABS WE SHOULD ALL GET THE SAME RESULTS I.E THE SAME PEOPLE ON THE BLOCK LIST AND SAME AMOUNT OF PEOPLE ME AND MY FAMILY HAVE HAD DIFFERENT NAMES AND AMMOUNTS I THINK THIS IS NOT A HOAX

I can block all of them, except Isobella Milano. Asked around and no one else can block her either. Something dodgy if you ask me. What’s happening Facebook? No smoke without fire maybe?

*Waits for Isobella to now become blockable*

I have for the past 24 hrs been pulling up between automation labs and automation lab approx 100 people I have had inbox messages deleted regarding this not by me and also wall posts removed relating to this. Once you block a name it gives you the option to remove this block if you press on that it then says these people have access to your account even though they are not my fiends. I do not work for a computer company so do not have the savvy these people have how do I know what they are doing someone is fiddling with my site removing my post etc. and its not me!!!

For gods sake. Some people. Was any of you scared before you knew about this automation lab thing??? You didn’t have a clue. We are all being watched whatever we do, where ever we are. Don’t sweat it. If people want to find stuff out about you & you are worried, don’t put your personal stuff on there. SIMPLES

LOL! Been trying for ages to block her and couldn’t, so have a few others, neither could they. Now all of a sudden, after posting the message above, we can.

i dont buy this ..type in automatic, and watch what happens..i have HUNDREDS of people coming up and i think FB knows something is up. I deleted 200 this morning, and guess what? There are 200 more now. So, why didtn they all come up in the first place? This is too much> PLUS, when i looked for info. on google, the group that made automated labs has a link, and when i clicked on it, my norton antivirus popped up and said they had just blocked an attack on my system by that company.

At the end of the day this is nothing to do with facebook admin and if you dont already know facebook admin have a password to enter or look at and Edit ANY profile they want if they want, just like the admin of ANY other site your a member of, Facebook was initially designed to spy on the general public of U.S.A n now its global, why do u think Russian Hackers keep trying to shut it down, seriously some people need to grow brains!!! oh, noone can see ANYTHING on your profile unless you allow it, certainly not anyone doing a google search on you, its your own responseability to change your settings to ‘private’ Or ‘friends only’….

I have the same question as the user above, who is deleting these posts on Facebook with the keywords ‘automation labs’? The two posts I made last night have been deleted from my feed by someone and that someone was not me. That concerns me.

I have blocked over 200 names. I doubt this article has much correct information in it. I have been having a lot of trouble with my computer freezing while I’m on Facebook/FarmVille and as I started to block these people I noticed my computer is loading pages faster ….much faster and the freezing has stopped. If for no other reason this is a good reason to block everyone we can who is using these labs. Come on people, this is a GAME!!! Give everyone a chance to click on their own neighbors. ( I checked on guy out and he had ONE friend listed. Instead of getting neighbors he has a lab program doing the work. How can this be any fun?)

I’mn confused, if this is the case how do we all get different people?

“anon - February 3rd, 2010 at 11:42 am
Well personally I don’t believe YOU, the one who posted this. How then did these ppl appear when I typed automation labs? Some of the faces are downright creepy looking. Do u honestly expect ANY of us to believe these ppl are NOT monitoring ‘us’?I say BS, they are too monitoring us and this is your way to allow us to keep these ppl. Personally until I truly ‘know’ these are not monitoring me or my usage, I WILL keep on blocking them. Thanks for the cruddy response though, nice try.”

“Wendy - February 3rd, 2010 at 12:21 pm
This is not true. None of the people who came up had my surname - not one and there were about 30-40 that i have blocked. Most of the names did not even come close to mine and all started with a different letter of the alphabet than mine.”

“Facebook User - February 3rd, 2010 at 2:22 pm
If this is true, then who deleted my status updates about this and why? If it’s not true, then someone has access to my account and is deleting any post I’ve made with the word “automation labs” in it. I think I deserve a facebook message or e-mail telling me that my post was deleted and why instead of just removing it. I’ve seen TONS of other false posts and non of them have ever been removed! Why does it matter if I block these 20 people that I don’t know anyway and will never be friends with anyway…is it really that big of a deal?”

______________________________________________________

The stupidity of some of you people is breathtaking… Yes, of course the secret illuminati are watching over us all, and they’re taking over our lives through… Facebook! Christ, develop some common sense, and think for yourselves…
Heres another one for you, seeing as you believe everything you read - forward me £100 each, or you’re all going to die in freak yacht accidents. It must be true, its on Facebook!! Morons.

Ooh! But they’re a software company! FFS - try typing any software company and you’ll get a list. Try Microsoft or Apple and block every name you see there if it makes you happier, you silly silly people.

thought it was strange wen both me and my daughter had exactly same names on our lists!

automation labs!! catch a wake up and stop tryin to bullshit people. The reasons you give are absolute rubbish. if i type a name then the name is all or at least a substantial part of the source. not so here. also why did it mysteriously disappear from my profile????????????

I also had a question that I’d asked in my status about automation labs removed. All I wanted to know is WHAT is it? Now I’d like to know WHY it was removed. Also, a post I responded to was deleted. (And yes it was about automation labs, too….the original scare.)I guess I believe what is being said here, but, by the same token I am curious as to why the big deal on this one, and why are things being deleted from my wall about it? Why not delete the stuff about ALL the FB hoaxes that appear? Someone is obviously reading this stuff…..

The comment I made (that was deleted) was asking if this was something that people were jumping too fast to respond to like so many other hoax/scares that have shown up on FB lately (like the supposed virus which when you deleted some like you actually deleted your Boxes in your profile.) Like the Facebook User before me I am wondering WHY this one is anymore a big deal than the others??

I’ve gone into this block list at least three times, and each time have blocked more than 50 people. My update too was erased, not once, or twice, but three times.

if you type that circulating crap into the chat ..it will be blocked immediately by facebook recognized as a chain letter. i don’t know why people always start panicking and believeng every chainletter. thanks for the explanation above

If your statement is true, why is it that I put this apparent false message as my status. I logged out half an hour later I logged back in, my status had been removed along with all reference to this apparent false message. Only I am supposed to be able to remove my status. I didn’t happen to just myself it has happened to a few of my friends profile status also. Please explain how peoples status can be deleted when it isn’t done by the profile holder. Your explaination is a lie.

to the person above my post: well keep blocking 20-30 people daily…if that’s what you want. have fun

If you’re that scared… WHY use Face Book at all?? Or the entire Internet??? Lock the door and don’t let ANYONE in!
Booooooo

=0)

im starting to believe that it wassnt true. but what i dont understand is, if everyone is typing in the exact same words *automation labs* then why are people getting different amount of people come up…. surely it would be all the same !!

well ive done it i blocked over 30 n everytime i go back on ther more people come up again so i think its a load of bollocks i typed my surname in and loads ppl came up

Paranoia….get off that drugs people and stop thinking you’re so interesting that people would want to spy on you. So someone might find out how many ribbons you’ve got for shovelling dirt in crapsville, or might find out what pub you went to last weekend. If you don’t want people to know your stuff don’t post it on the world’s biggest networking site.

sirs i have typed in some of the names on the automation labs and the people do not exisist so i am somewhat cautious,
g.liddard facebook user.

Well the way i see it, whether this be true or not i dont know any of there people and will never want to come across them, so better safe than sorry as far as ime concerned no biggy to me that ive blocked em.

all u who believe we are being spied on, type in your bloody surnames and u will see everyone come up wi the same surname even your own family, so what u gunna think then that ur family are spying on u aswell

ur statuses are prob being removed because its like chinese whispers now people are saying that these people that come up are part of a peado ring, its not fair on the people that come up

Why get all upset because people choose to believe or not believe? My thought - if it makes you feel better then block away, if not then don’t. If you jump on people for “believing everything they read” then me thinks thou dost protest too much.

To all of you who believe that you’re being spied on: Really? You think that these 35-40 guys are spying on EVERY SINGLE PERSON on FB? Do me a favor and type in “spy” in the list. Then “sneaky”. Then “goat”. Block them all! They’re spies! Why else would their name come up when you look for spies (and goats)?! Either do that or stop being morons and go on about your day. Either way…

sounds dodgy……….il keep blocking them………..

LOL @ Lotta

i to was conned into beleiveing this but now know its all about that stupid game we all play called farmville. and yes i did try typing in a name and loads came up - try trying in the name smith lol you will get bombarded

I did my own name and it came up with heaps of people.. when i limited it to my surname same thing.. i think you’re all a bit too PARANOID!!!

I put automation and labs in different spots on my profile my wife tried exact same block search and I was there .I went back instantly to erase off my profile.My inbox had a rude message telling me to stay out of her(a strangers) FB.

Paranoia reigns the enemy win by default. It is easier to destroy a society who won’t work together. Privacy is an illusion if you vote, live at an address, have a bank account, hooked to electricity, gas or have a phone. Some must have an over inflated sense of importance if they believe that people could even be bothered spying on them.

If it’s all so innocent then Why is it just now coming out? Me i could care less if they are that bored they have to watch me play games, but I also post pics of my kids and if these people are seeing that then they have opened up a big can of worms they do not want I am worse than A tiger with her cubs!

OK for clarification type “facebook” into the block box rather than automation labs and see what happens. Lots of names - some that aren’t associated with facebook. I am an internet marketing expert and I know how search works, including how keywords work. This is a chain letter (there are so many at the moment) facebook will by now be automatically deleting anything that bares a resemblance to the message that has been in circulation as a) it is untrue b) automation labs could make a claim on facebook for not controling the rumours and c) I suspect it was started by an employee or an very clever marketeer who has successfully got automation labs name in front of a few hundred thousand people who no doubt have also visited their website to see what it’s all about
If you are worried about these types of things use your settings correctly in your profile to restrict access to your pictures etc. Emma

Good grief people. If you have your profile info set to share with only friends and not friends of friends or everyone, then you are ok!!!
People are so paranoid. If just a handful of people would google this stuff before they just copy and paste so ignorantly, these rumors would just die down. People just feed off the drama.

Errrrrrm hello, is anybody ther ?? Im stuck in here i cant find the DOOR !! pmsl

@Gary: you had a ever so BOLD AND TRUE point with the truh behind fb and the illuminati. but considering that there are more “blind sheep,” than there are knowledgable people like us, u need not be so harsh. obviously not many take to the advantage of THE OBVIOUS TRUTH. dont be so harsh.

on the same note KENDALL had a point. and a true statement. why didnt all the names come up at once? not to be so narrow, but it almost seems as if the people who appeard in his or her second search was to take the place of those who no longer had access to his/her information….hmmmm on a more SCARY level, i clicked the same link by the company and mii antivirus software popped up…. smh

@Ms. Bilal Hameed, although u portray ur intentions to be be good. i must inform u that u look very bad in the eye of the public MAJORITY, which includes myself. im just gonna guess that ur an admin to the beloved fb site which will give u the benefit of answering the question “why cant we block u???” but at a different stand point, that assumption STILL raises mii eyebrow because, if u WERE an admin, its givin we probably wouldnt be able to block u. BUT, so why when we couldnt do it back than, all of a sudden we can now….hmmmm could it be that ur trying to cover something up. make ur intentions look better than they REALLY are??? if anyone has any suggestions PLEASE let me know

and last but cernatantly not least, IF this that YOU are saying, Ms. Bilal, i figure it should be nothing but easy to explain why someone other than ourselves are deleting our posts of the situtaion on our stats WITH NO WARNING!!!! hum?? who? please dont say you guys are doing it…i honestly think that would a bit tacky, and to say the least, UNPROFESSIONAL for a group of people so highly intelligent….smh fuckin morons. WE KNOW WHATS GOING ON> AND IT WOUNT BE LONG BEFOR THE KNOWLEGABLE OUTNUMBERS YOU!!!!!!

Did anyone notice you had to leave your email adress to leave a post here? Did that not make you nervous? Maybe someone will gain access to your personal emails before leaving you a virus for the next time you sign in? everyone know facebook admin has access to our profiles, reason for this is that offensive mnaterial (pornography, racism, abusive language etc.) can be removed from profiles on request, ever seen the “Report this photo” button? And so what if the whole world can see you profile, just dont put personal info on there. what is anyone going to gain from my profile? not my personal address, not my bank account number…stop fuelling the panic, otherwise leave the internet alone if its too scary for you.

Oh for god sake..stop worrying guys. type anything intothe “block” box !!! I typed “tesco” and loads of people came up…. these people arent spying on me, they just have some mention of tesco on their page… like their employer!!! its exactly the same for “automation labs” . xx

if FB is watching us, I really dont think they would give us a trace like that. just type in “Automation Labs”, and then all the people that is watching your profile just pops up. to easy.

but what do I know.

Anybody want to buy some snake oil? It’ll increase your potency, extend your lifespan and keep creepy facebook stalkers away! $15 for the oil, $20 for the bottle, and of course, that doesn’t include shipping and handling

if you are worried about this “scare”, try typing the same thing in your search field at the top of your facebook page … the same names should show up. They are people that obviously working for the company. May not be a good company if they produce a “bot”, but a company none the less. Try typing in something generic like starbucks or mcdonald’s in both/either field and you will get the same results.
Keep your profile to full privacy and live in your little bubble, or get used to the fact that people are ignorant and willing to see who will do just about anything they are told to do.

oh, and as to stuff being deleted (status posts regarding this) … did you contact FB and see if it was them? They may be trying to stop this hoax before it sucks even more fools in. Kinda like if you post inappropriate pictures … they get deleted!

As well as automation labs, have a look at automation block and automation, all three will bring up a list of unknowns.
Automation seems to bring up the biggest list of them all.

i did have people on mine and i did barr them so sumone needs to look and see wots going on i also no others that hav also had unknown people they barred

This article is complete truth. I’m one of the people who apparently come up on the search and have received numerous inquiries about why I am apparently ’spying’ on them. I do not work for Automation Labs, although I am a student at MIT, so people automatically assume that I am a vicious hacker. The truth is that I used to work for a lab called Human and Automation Lab, which is an aero/astro lab completely unrelated to anything facebook or web things in the first part. It’s sad how easily people are persuaded by this crap. After all of this, I have lost my faith in human society and would rather these people block me anyways if they are so ignorant as to believe that I would waste away my life ’spying’ on these people who I don’t even know.

LISTEN UP PEOPLE!!! I got an email from a friend stating “SERIOUS SHIT GOIN ON HERE. EVRY1 GO2 APPLICATION SETTINGS, THEN PRIVACY SETTINGS AND BLOCK LIST, TYPE IN AUTOMATION LAB OR automation LAB. delete every1 on ur list. FB seem to be doin nothin about these hackers and sick, sad bastards invadin our accounts. lets get the message out peeps, tell evry1 u know!!!!

So…. I did this…. I deleted 1 person after another, again and again…. Then I noticed something…. Apparently ther SHOULD be about 20 people in the list we need to get rid of, but after getting rid of 30+ people, I still had 20 people in the list????? So I carried on again and again….. Still 20 people in this damn list!!!
After around 100 blocked people I stil had 20 names listed to rid of!!! We need some more info on this guys!! xx

Wow. I wouldn’t normally bother even googling something like this, but I was bored. You can certainly tell the difference in attitude between American and English. If someone was “spying” on you, what exactly would they see, considering most of you share your profile and updates with approximately 300 other people (most of which you have only met a few times or haven’t seen for ten years, nor will you see them for another ten)!!!!!! For goodness sake, stop jumping on the chain mail train. I’ll bet you lot think the world will stop turning when you get a text saying it will unless you forward the message on to ten other people!!!!

WARNING-go into your privacy settings click block, type in AUTOMATIC BLOCKin the search box, 3 names will come up, DELETE them!! They’re apparantly taking pictures of our kids off your fb and they’re meant to be paedophiles, they were on mine - 3 FOREIGN NAMES. Block them 1 at a time, PUT THIS ON YOUR …STATUS TELL UR… FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!! (This aint a wind up!)See moreSee more

this warning is now 2 diffrent from the 1st so it proves it cant b real or theirs a lot of spying pedos about lol

Why do you all have to be so nasty is what I’m wondering?…Why are people, who are expressing a concern, considering that we hear about hackers all the time and really don’t know what’s what, why do you all have to attack with nastiness? Gosh, can’t a subject be discussed, someone give an INTELLIGENT response as to why one should (or shouldn’t) be concerned, without people being so nasty with the name calling?…yes true enough, I was one who posted without researching…Only because I know of quite a few people who had their accts hacked into…(FB acknowledged it too, that they were having a problem)…and her profile, privacy all were compromised..So yes, it’s not so far-fetched for this to not be true…but as I told someone else, if you believe it, act accordingly, if you don’t then press on….simple…Just know nothing is sacred ON THE INTERNET…Stop thinking your info is safe…it’s only safe when you keep your info to yourself…PEACE!!!

’stop jumping on the chain mail train’…I guess that depends on the chain mail train, huh…How many of you has seen the ‘chain mail’ going around about posting a pic of the celeb you look like…there are so many going around in fun…no I didn’t participate…but it was fun to see that everyone posted pics of the beautiful people they think they looked like, not butt ugly people…But still, that’s a ‘chain mail’, just an entertaining one…and not one person complained about that…

I was one of those accused - received on the order of 250+ messages so far ranging from death threats, to hate mails, to genuine concern, to props from various wanna-be ‘evil’ organizations on FB.

The only reason any of the 20 or so people were originally identified was because we all had the words “Automation Labs” somewhere in our FB profiles…in my case it was an Industrial AUTOMATION LAB I worked in during college where we were trying to design a facility to manufacture high temperature membrane electrode assembly hydrogen fuel cells to make them commercially viable. The work was far from evil…

Anyway, check things out before you hate…and to those who sent me death threats for supposedly ruining some game you play on facebook - really? No wonder this country is in trouble…

When it comes to the safety of our kids do u really expect us not to believe it??? Just incase it was true it is enough to make any parent do it. Because we r scared enough for the safety of our children i’m afraid that is the society we live in. We r ruled by fear. But say it was true and turned out yeah they were all child abusers and did hack into our accounts. Try forgiving urself for that and then put on here its a load of rubbish. We will always do everythign in our power to protect our children and that includes this sort of thing. So even if it isnt true i personally will b blocking all those people.

fook n i only looked in here to see how to delete folks

i wasn’t told to write in automatic lab i was told to type automatic block and i had 3 asian men all in their 40’s come up on mine… in the message it also sed to block these ppl as they are pedos and are after pics of ur kids.. im no computer geek and i don’t know if this shit is true but instead of stressing about it i blocked them it doesn’t matter to me i don’t know this ppl to ever want to un block them but i know my childrens pictures are safe

1. if it’s all so ‘innocent’, why does fb block us talking about automation labs on fb??

2,. if it’s all so ‘innocent’, why don’t i recognize ANY of the names listed in automation labs???

IF these people want to be in my mafia, they must first disassociate themselves from Automation Labs…

… i have to tell you, i probably would neither care of notice any of this if not for how slow FB has become…

(amendment to prior comment…)

PRIOR COMMENT:
… i have to tell you, i probably would neither care of notice any of this if not for how slow FB has become…

AMENDED COMMENT:
… i have to tell you, i probably would neither care or notice any of this if not for how slow FB has become…

Anyone who actually believes that shit is crazy. Just like someone said on the list above. You can type in any name in the world under your block list. Disney world, mcdonalds, walmart, corvette, dodge, anything your heart desires and a list of as many linked people to that name will come up. Does that mean that everyone from that list is spying on you for some strange reason? It’s funny to me. So funny that Maybe you will see another spy list very soon.

Holy crap. If your concerned about your children’s “safety”, why are you puttinga your/their info ON THE INTERNET?!?

Yeah, this all sounds fine and dandy, except that I decided to search a random person from the Automation Labs list that popped up and funnily enough her profile doesn’t actually exist! I searched a different person and neither did his! I realize there are tons of people on here who share the same name, but I am able to match a picture and theirs definitely wasn’t on there. It all seems a little fishy to me.

Wow this is seriously out of hand. The chain status I saw was about farmville, had nothing to do with anyone looking at your stuff. And its true, Automation Labs is a cheat site for farmville. My status message started a discussion in my status about the validity of the chain mail… and then poof it was gone. THAT is what irritates the crap out of me, that someone took it upon themselves to delete things from my page without any notification. If they are going to delete this then they also need to delete the vast number of FB groups claiming to give people free features or items not released yet in apps. Those things are just as annoying.

And for the love of all things holy, don’t send hate mail to people you don’t know (or anyone for that matter) its simply uncalled for.

its all bull shit insted a writing animation lab type for eg. wierdo…. or perfume…pancake partys or sumones 1st name example i put my daughters name in and it came up with her and other people who have the same name. it just comes up with people who have some sort of conections to that word. its all aload of shite. sayin that one chap on mine from south korea was called dong, i looked on his profile,e luks shit scary, he had 1 freind, i clicked on the freind n it said deceased lol. but dosnt mean e shud b judged….. haha pissa!

Okay, spam or not, I fell for it and had a great laugh about it after I found out that it wasn’t really true (or maybe it really is). I’m not sure anymore after reading all these comments and the statement.

Anyway, I think should look into this to avoid future scares. Facebook should redesign its block search box. Only similar or exact spelling of names that people want to block sould come up and those should be the names on the account, not the name somewhere on the profile page.

The authority of internet hoax debunking has said that the automation labs scare IS HOAX. Here’s the link to snopes.com story:
http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/automationlabs.asp

then how come my status’s have been deleted when i metion the spy’s???

@A Parent:
Do you even know what facebook is? If you did, you would know that any person with common sense would not post anything too revealing about they’re personal life. Additionally, if you’re genuinely concerned about your child’s privacy then maybe they shouldn’t have a facebook. In addition, it is part of your responsibility to maintain your facebook and monitor your user account activity. Facebook is on the internet, in the public domain for people to see. If you are so concerned and worried about your privacy, perhaps the better option is not to be on facebook in the first place.

It is one thing to block someone, it is another to write hate mail and assume that everyone is a pedophile. It’s good to be conscience and careful with the internet, and especially facebook, but it’s also good to think before you do.

Many people’s messages told them to search facebook for anyone relating to ‘Automation Lab’ and said that there were 20 people all spying on them. Let’s explore how internet searching works. You type a keyword, in this case, ‘Automation Lab’, and all the people results will contain all people with those words anywhere in their profile. Let’s keep in mind that ‘Automation Lab’ is not a unique name- there are many labs that use the word ‘automation’, especially college labs (hence why in the results, you get a bunch of college students), but let’s say we missed that part. Typing ‘Automation Lab’ into facebook yields 62 results, not 20. Hmmm another clue? It’s good to be conscience of what’s on the internet, similar of how you should also be careful of chain mail like this one. Everything that you absorb should be treated with precaution and thought, not fear and impulsiveness.

Good grief that was some read….
To be honest you all made sense in your own way :o)
Some a bit harsh :o(
I got ‘the’ message from a family member…of course I asked how, why, when etc. But I didn’t wait for an answer before I blocked a whole load of people!! Well, I had no reason not to believe my relative. I am not familiar with ‘chain mails’ like these.
Then, I also got a link to here.
Steady folks…
oh ’skinted’ I ROFL…cheers
I think if people have concerns they have a right to be reassured all is well…why not?
Be nice… :p

I am so surprised at how many people fall for this. It’s no wonder people who phish you for your password get it easily. I guess if they say Jesus says give me your password or you’ll burn in hell, well, you wouldn’t hesitate to do it. If you don’t know how to work things then stop playing on the internet. If you put the words in a search that everyone on facebook is putting in their status, then every one of those people will come up but the latest one I saw said to search for automatic block instead of automation labs so this is just how gossip gets twisted. Automation labs does run a farmville bot and if you were stupid enough to join their app and give them permission to use your information then of course they have it because you gave it permission!

Imagine the amount of man hours it would take to physically snoop at every f/b members profile…I only have around 400 friends on f/b and dread to think how long it would take me to look through every one of their profiles…ALWAYS TREAT ANY TYPE MESSAGES WITH SCEPTICISM and if in doubt contact facebook admin…
wonder if i say that for £10 / $14 i can clear everyones facebook of these threats, how many ppl would be interested HMMMMMM.
Thanks.

i put my status about this automation labs thing! Then my friend went 2 find it on my profile 2 read it and it had been deleted and NOT by me! Please explain this!!

But for real…when you sign up for any of those apps…you do see a box saying that your info could be used for whatever purpose (I forgot exactly what it says) and you have to allow them to put your info out there…if you deny..you can’t play the games…So we all know ‘they’ do collect your info or data, for whatever reason..

But again, why the nastiness on this thread?

@ jeremy… at what point did i say i was concerned for my childs safety and that my child had a facebook??? it clearly says i was sent a message like every1 else but mine never read LABS it read automatic block for pedos and i never said or accused any 1 of being a pedo or sent hate mail, Again im saying what was posted to me…. I have my profile on privacy settings so no1 can see anything unless they r a friend. I wouldnt risk anything concerning my child and have no info of my child on the internet but a few pics of us together which if u have family with children probably do also… if some 1 posted something to you concerning your child you would take the safer option wether u knew it was true or not which is exactly what i did!!!

I’ve never seen so many idiots spout off in my life. This chain has already been changed once the “Automation Labs” keyword was figured out, and now it comes up as “Automatic Block” and people search for that and then block the people listed.

If you don’t realize this is pure nonsense, I suggest you take a bath with your toaster.

And if you don’t believe me, or the author of this article, type “PURPLE MONKEY DISHWASHER” in to the block list search and see what you get. Now, obviously, that’s not a code word for “freaks who want to molest you.” It’s simply a mechanism, folks. It’s a hoax. Stop being buffoons.

wow. at first i thought a bunch of you were delusional but i decided to block just in case. what sold me is that i do play farmville and have been having problems. i went to log onto farmville after blocking everyone to see if it’s faster now and the site doesn’t come up! WTF! i even rebooted. so i guess i apologize for thinking you all are crazy, maybe there’s something to all this. don’t know what, but maybe something.

I too have done the same blocking these ppls,i was able to access farmville early this morning now a few hours later my farmville has been totaly deleted after many months of building my farm.

ffs… are u all seriously getting up to that much dodgy stuff your really worried some one will see, for crying out loud.. your up loading your personal details, photo’s comments an stories to THE WORLD WIDE WEB! wake up! if its not them it could be anyone or no one?!?! but mostly, i’d say if i was gonna hack facebook i wouldn’t be bothering myself with the person sat changing his facebook status or playing zanga poker all night, i’d be checking out were people were putting their cash, paypals etc, an if your stupid enough to put credit card details on to a site full of viruses anyway, then your gonna get ripped off. start being sensible and dont put up anything so personal you wouldnt want the woman in the local shop knowing!

My comments on my status were just now deleted-
Who authorized changing my status, if they don’t have access to my account!

just found one of realtrue friends on this so-called list of hackers and he could not hack his way out of a wet paper sack…..

well i must say that it has been a great read, But just a few things that i would like to point out to a few people!!!!
1) i have been on fb for quite some time and have NEVER even thought about playing farmvill or whatever it is called, so why is it that people are saying it is connected to that?
2) yeah i think alot of people should sort there profile out and keep things that they dont want on the internet off
3) everybody is saying that we are being spied on, BUT not one person has said why we would be spied on???
4) this day and age with the amount of people using the internet do you not think that we would not be getting looked at??? think of the amount of terroist attact’s that are going on and think of the best way to find sign’s of sects……
5) the way i look at it all is that untill there is someone that can show me that this s**t is just a hoax then i will keep on getting rid of anyone that even trys to look at my profile….
it is better to be safe than sorry…..
A VERY VERY VERY good book to read is DIGIATAL FORTRUS by DAN BROWN !!!! bloody hell that tells alot of things about computer spies, just the first two chapters will do, have a read…..
P.S. sorry about my spelling…..

my post about the automation labs was deleted without my consent. FB is now editing what I post.

oh and just one more thing…
with any type of search that anybody dose, you will be using a “KEYWORD” in this case it is “automation labs” now you are being told that it will bring up lots of names that have something to do with that TEXT that has been entered……….
If everybody in a room filled with computers was to enter the same “KEYWORD” with the SAME TEXT into a search index and hit enter the search would bring back the same result for every computer… 3 other people that i know have done this, from a laptop whilst sitting in the same room, at the same time, and each person had a different result????????? and not one person had the same name as the other person come up in there search??????

I say thanks for the explaination but what is the harm from blocking them to be safe?????

What a sad paranoid world we live in. Get off facebook and go have some face-to-face human interaction people. And if this Automation Labs things is to do with stealing FarmVille credits or something along those lines who cares, FarmVille is lame anyway. When did we all start hiding in our homes and living through our computers, not only too scared to live outside the monitor but now we’re even scared of the monitor too. Wow people are so sad, lonely, pathetic and paranoid. Why is everyone SO scared? Sorry to tell you the truth but, Terrorists are not out to get you at every turn! Today is not and orange alert, red alert or green alert day (whatever the weird system is they use to keep you american’s living in perpetual fear) it just a day, like any other.

Please take the time to check out Facebook’s comments. I have typed in several surnames, and combinations of names - like “Gerber Foods”, “Giant Eagle” (which is a food chain where I live) and “Ohio State” just to see what happened. It seems that anyone who has used the words typed into the search bar will be pulled up when those specific words are searched. So while the people from Automation Lab may be extremely computer literate, I do not see what the small amount of information I have in my profile will benefit them. Check things out before you spread them.

I think there should be a like button for the comments here

Ok all you paranoid idiots. If someone is “spying” or “hacking” your facebook you think simply blocking them will stop it? If someone want’s to hack you they can do it while not even being logged in. Blocking their profile will stop nothing.

if people don’t want to be hacked then, don’t use computers. Hackers get into your computers just because they can….that’s all they need to prove…. I personaly believe Facebook is a worderfull tool, specially if you are a business this is the right way to go, instead of paying huge amount of money to magazines nobody read anymore. You want to spend money, pay facebook advertizing…. you will get a fast and easy to proof return. Many online applications are now doing the same. Google just started to make connectons more important on google algorithm….bad people are everywhere, just be carefull all the time and don’t share your critical information with anyone! Good luck to everyone and to my facebook team: THANK YOU!

Whenever i read this things, i’m never one to believe them
But i figured with this one, no harm could come of it, right?
It hasn’t deleted all my friends and it’s not going to give my computer a virus, so i did it
And it’s not like i really need those people having access to my facebook, they’re just randoms
But thanks for the info, it’s nice knowing that people’s identities are not in danger

I am not really into conspiracy theories and all that, but I did block the four that popped up. However I did go on to their facebook page, and found that all of them do have something in common with each other, they all work for the same company. Agilent Technologies. Which they are a research company. So yeah, I think they are collecting data from us.

Who cares real or not, where there`s smoke there`s fire, & I don`t know any of them anyhow, so I deleated them all.

Facebook is an open network. If you are concerned about your privacy..then set it to private. Otherwise dont have one then.

Facebook will removed chain letters because it causes problem on their side. Also they have made it clear that if there are false claims or hoaxs, they will intervene…it’s in their policy. They are merely trying to stop things from going out of control. Facebook would have had them removed if there was a problems or reports of any kind of abuse.

I know what they were saying about blocking names….they can be names of the user / group / fan of / joined a group / networks / or a topic on their wall. So when you are searching anything with automation labs you are pulling up a bunch of people that may have said something, or joined a group, or added that function for Farmville. There’s nothing to be alarmed about.

All I can say is there is no smoke without fire.

The so called explanation is well and good, however if the person who wrote that explanation came home and found a complete stranger sitting in their bedroom I don’t think a simple explanation such as, he or she has the same or similar name as me would resolve that issue.

To all FB users: no need to be paronoid about FB. Big Brother as been watching us all in ways we cannot even begin to imagine and we will never know, it is annoying but we lost control years ago so get on wiht your lives.

What the hell people? Get over it! It’s all a pile of crap and some of the comments you people post about believing it make me laugh my head off!!! You people must think very highly of yourselves to think that the whole world is out to get you! here’s a little piece of info…no one bloody cares if you saw a movie, got a hair cut or bought a frog! Get out of the house and get lives you pathetic people.

Hahahaha….. What exactly can these ‘SPYS’ be finding out??? that my head hurts from the heavy weekend, or that my dog has walked mud all through my house again??? My account doesn’t have anything on it to be spied on, so what is the problem??? Twitter is more public, so what is the big deal….

Delete anything you don’t want the world to see…. If its that bad, your friends probably didn’t want to see it either
x

If you are so worried about people “spying” on you, get off the internet completely…I am on FB to keep in contact with family and friends. I enjoy the freedom. If someone is monitoring me like a lot of you seem to reckon..SO WHAT.. What are you saying to each other that is soooooo bad. It’s a game isn’t it…. Send e-mails if you are frightened of Spies(’Cos e-mails aren’t monitored ,are they???)

Its not even about people believing anything, its about protecting privacy and only sharing with people you give permission to, there are a lot of seperate options to do that , within any system nothing is full proof and fail safe, the more intelligent the system becomes , the more intelligent the, the hacker, the spy, The thing is we may have private pictures and pictures of our children in our albums, so it is not a case of believing anything and everything , its a case of better safe than sorry..

That’s my perspective, each to their own, its a beautiful diversity.. Have a nice day everyone..

I realised this myself after several of my friends had sent me this email.
So many people who use computers have no idea how programs work so are really gullible when it comes to things like this.
I emailed one of the guys who came up in the search and have told him how to get himself off automated labs, but until then he had received hundreds of abusive email and death threats to his family. He has young children.
His only crime is having his company’s name on his profile.
Anyone who’s received this stupid scare email needs to send a correctional one back.

both me and my partner blocked these people last night it was the same people on both mine and my parters profile we both have been publishing stuff and when you go to check it it has been removed me and my partner both have not deleted anything so why is it being deleted

this site is probably ran by one of these automation labs, if not all of them as a team.

cant believe ppl think their being spied on.
why do ppl fall for these stupid scaremongering fake chain mails. are ppl really that silly .
anyone who has block anyone before will know a list of everyone that has the same name or connected in some way will appear but it dont mean they can see your profile. if you set your profile so only friends can see the parts you want no one else to see then no one can spy on you. if they wanted to spy on you they just park outside your house and follow you not watch what silly games or apps or reading about when you last went the loo. facebook only shares what you want to share if you set it up right. LmFAO

Mmmmmmmmmm facebook wat a cover up I treid to use AUTOMATION BLOCK some names appeared and I tried 2 block sum1 but I couldn’t block them I put AUTOMATION BLOCK in2 the block list again this time no names appeared mmmmmmmmm sounds like sum1 is keeping tabs and many ppl I am aware of also cnt use AUTOMATION BLOCK on block list why is that?…..And those how have blocked these ppl are getting a messages from facebook wen logging on to their account “there is no AUTOMATION and inform your friend on facebook” Why would facebook go out of their way to give this message?………..If they were jst chain messages?…..As ther have been plenty on facebook and lets not forget jst on the outside world in the uk esp we get seen on their camaras up2 300 times a day so I am not suprised there are bunch of weirdo glued to their comps or working on behalf of fb collecting ppls stats and etcccccccc I really wouldn’t put it past them and lets not forget why the internet was first designed lmao so I think this is all true and those who dnt beleive I pity them as they are part of the zombie race all they do is eat sleep and s**t lmao and they will never b aware the reality of this world

As always ppl are easily frightened. A quite rightly so. Lets get one thing straight, if the owners of facebook alowed this then they would be taken to court. If anything like this does happen, facebook will shut it down instantly. Do any of you read the facebook blog? i though not.
Always be carefull and trust no one and do warn others. But give true facts and lie’s. As for the labs thing, total rubbish.

way i see things, face book should not have messed with our privacy settings in the first place.
they should make privacy settings less complicated and give us total transparent controll back.
as i said to a freind if certain people want to have access to my profile all they need do is ask as i have nothing to hide lol.
i refuse to use store cards and fill out question forms or so called promotions purely for this reason.

if i was for example to follow any perticular person to see what they were up to, what they bought to eat, who they were talking to or for any other information i would probably end up in court charged with stalking

i ask myself what are all you people doing here to be so paranoid?? the onlu reason to get a dodgy feeling about this is if you are doing something to be ashamed about, i cannot be the only person to be thinking something like this eh folks!!

You shouldn’t have to much info on your profile anyway….Its just a fun page….not to tell everyone you life!!…Just take the family photo’s off….Who knows what freaks find pictures interesting on here…..TRUST NO ONE

You are all a bunch of dumb motherfuckers. You can go to the block list and type absolutely any name you want… go ahead type Bill Murray; names will pop up. Oh my god! Bill fucking Murray has access to your profile!

When you were searching for automation labs, facebook searched through profile names and didnt find anything, so then it searched through other parts of profiles until something with automation labs popped up.

Idiots on computers who have no idea how they work FTW!

I don’t know what you people are talking about I typed in my work’s group name and got a list of my work friends. Typed in my last name and yup got a bunch of people with the same last name. Worked for me

This is true, had 50 people, some from MIT and other Universities….then 14 hr later another 20 after the previous were deleted

After reading this article, it makes sense that these individuals are in automation lab, but why is this automation lab linked to any account, and why are there people we do not now, a profound number of individuals that may and may not have access to our accounts ?
Why so many IT and University students for that matter ?
How do we know for certain they are not spying on our accounts ….this could just be a counter measure to the original rumor

O.K. reading through a lot of the above comments, I am really wondering. I do not play farmville and my settings are private. So why did someone show up on my list then? I blocked him and the only reason I use FB is to keep in touch with friends overseas. I don’t post private things I don’t want people to know. And FYI I have seen someone being fired for a private statement on Twitter, that is exactly why I don’t want some random guy I don’t even know reading into my account!

witch hunt 2010!!!

try changing Settings>Name>Full Alternative Name to “Automation Block.” you’ll get an equal amount of hate mail and friend requests.

iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction and this is simply a chain letter. hopefully you are here before burning any witches or dropping any bombs. thank you for taking the time to get your facts straight!

-dylan coyle

The problem is that a majority of people is just stupid and believe everything they hear, they think there is a conspiracy behind everything… Really I saw this in one of my contacts’ profile, it just took me 20 secondes on Google as to see it was a hoax…

don’t care about what anyone of you say. Farmville was running worse before I started blocking these people. It might not be running good but it’s better than it was & I’m sick & tired of having to wait for the damn computer to unfreeze when I go there or to any of zynga’s games on fb so I will keep blocking them not cuz I’m paranoid but because I want to be able to play the games on fb without so many stupid glitches.
& yes I have cleaned out my cache I have to clean it out every hour on fb just so things will run properly.
So believe csm from the x file is in your computer but shut up calling everyone paranoid. Some of us just want stupid fb to run properly for a change!
I’m tired of everyone attacking each other just because they have different opinions. Grow up all of you.

I’d feel more confident if this was a reassurance from a neutral party.

I’m not paranoid, and I don’t believe in big brother, and if some spy wants to read my stupid jokes on Facebook then I feel sorry for him.

All the same - taking a few minutes now and then to delete these people seems like a good idea. I’ll keep doing it.

Then why does it says in the employment staus of the hacker that he works for Hackers Internationsal. Doesn’t make much sense to me.

But where’s the OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM FACEBOOK????All we got is this source from the source from the source of endless cycle.

Please explain why they proudly list themselves(at least the one I blocked) as hackers! Sorry fb, but as they say where I’m from, “THAT DOG WON’T HUNT!”

who ever comes up with these hoaks r fucked up !! why even put somethin like this on if it ant true?? it scares u expec when u have pics of family and friends on ur fbk!! its so stupid there r weirdos out there !! IF IT ANT TRUE DONT PUT IT ON TO WORRY OR SCARE PPL !!!!!

Working in IT for 18yrs..there are always ways to get around security and if it is locked down for the avg Joe..Facebook staff do have access so what do you do..
DONT PUBLISH ANYTHING PRIVATE PEOPLE

I did it with my surname. I got a list of people including my husband, in-laws, nieces and a whole slew of other people with the same last name. If you don’t get anything under your own name, try something common like Jones or Smith.

I might be the only one to get no name when i enter automation labs so if its true or not im not affected.

Bonjour, les commentaires ci-haut mentionnés rejoignent tout ce que je pourrais dire!!! Merci

well, ive been receiving friend requests all day from people i dont know and when i check mutual friends theyre all blocked, only because i blocked them all on the automation labs list….this is tapped and wierd

Well this is a very nice whitewash by the person who has written this page. BUT…. Can facebook book explain why on recieving the message from one of my friends and attempting to copy and paste it I was blocked repeatedly from doing so and redirected to a “privacy site” by facebook.
On further examination i found that all other posts i made were posted unless that message contained the words privacy or autmoation in it. Stop trying to pull over our eyes Facebook- you have been caught with your pants down this time!!!

Um, the reason more and more people are coming up in

This explanation does not seem to make sense because when I type automation lab when I am logged in no names appear, yet my friend gets 7 names when she is logged into her account. Why wouldn’t names come up when I type it in if it is simply the same as typing in a surname. It sees automation lab should always produce some names if this explanation is correct.

try typing in ‘automation block’ and see what comes up… are you going to tell me that hundreds of people are named automation block? come on… something is definitely up and facebook is not coming clean on it or isn’t even looking into it… I blocked hundreds of profiles that had the actual words ‘automation block’ in the names and today there are hundreds more - I wish some techie could explain this…

type ‘automation block’ under block list

Can somebody post a list of the names of the people who had been linked with ‘automation labs’ as you do a search for those people now and you can’t find any information on the and as someone has said when you try writing anything about this on facebook it gets deleted or if you try and send in email to a friend it won’t allow you send or mention anything having to do with ‘automation labs’ which leads me to wonder what is being covered up???

Thank you so much for your post, it was a great help. But it also showed me something so utterly disappointing I am still at loss for words: I was trying to post a link to this article on the post of the friend who had posted this and Facebook would not let me. Then I tried to post it on her wall and it would not work either, a message just popped saying that the thing was a scheme and they did not want me to post about it, linking to a pst that is 122233 internet years old and does a way worse jobs than what you guys are doing here.

I am so disappointed. I fully understand the dimension which these things can reach and what it is doing to Fbook’s reputation. But, incredibly, they have chosen to stop this by limiting freedom of commenting on posts including them and to post links on the wall of my friends. So, basically, they choose to protect their reputation against something silly done by a third party by doing something a lot more serious that truly affects how we use Facebook and oversees how the community around Facebook started moving to protect the exact same reputation.

I am utterly, utterly shocked at not having been able to post this link that actually does the work they should be doing instead of spending your time limiting my freedom of expression and of interacting with my friends.This is so, so incredibly disappointing that I cannot start to find the words for it.

Lol, now it actually works as long as I change the link to a tinyurl.com one…so they are not only limiting my freedom, they are also incompetent at it. Hmmm.

As earlier post described, try looking on the internet WATCDOG of hoaxes: http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/automationlabs.asp

@ Gary - February 3rd, 2010 at 2:51 pm

You are my hero!

Jehrry Trönnberg
Susan Cure
???
# Thomas Bergström

These Names Come up to me i wanna fuck them

uummm…..if all you people are so worried, delete your profile on Facebook and go to myspace. They want you there. Also, those of us who can understand this stuff and don’t read something into every little thing they see, will know how a search engine works. You will get different names each time, it is a SEARCH ENGINE!!!! Go to myspace…or don’t. Either way, quit being so gullible. Read up on this…go to http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2010/02/03/new-facebook-scare-automation-labs-alert.htm This guy researches all urban legends out there. And believe me, this is just an urban legend. Nothing else. C’mon people, get real!!!!!

I think this is probably a 50/50 proposition. Some results are innocent and some are not. I first blocked some and my game prizes did last longer. Now I am getting remarks that my prizes are going pretty fast again. Checked “automation labs,” automation lab” (caps and not caps) and tried just “automation.” WOW. “Automation” got a lot of results! What concerns me is when I CANNOT BLOCK the names. And my real concern are the ones titled “automation block,” “block automation,” “automation block automation block,” etc. Are these are named like this so they cannot be deleted? What help can I get to block those?

To all of my friends: COPY & PASTE: New problem found…. Hacker in door in our friends list!….We are now listed as friends of ourselves! You need to delete yourself from your friends list to close the door to hackers. To do this … Go to Account, go to edit friends, there search for your name on the list and click the X to get your name removed……a friend sent it to me and I just deleted myself

THIS IS THE NEW THREAT GOING AROUND FACEBOOK, ANYONE KNOW WHAT ITS ABOUT?!