Facebook appears to be testing out a new form of spam detection in which users who have no friends in common cannot friend each other. The main purpose of this system is to prevent the massive amount of fake accounts that sprouted up in recent weeks. In contrast to MySpace, who had this spam tactic destroy their system, Facebook appears to be implementing a robust system to automatically detect what relationships are not likely to occur.
In other words, Facebook knows how likely it is that you like someone even if you haven’t friended them yet. For those users who are using spammy tactics by adding random users as friends now receive the following message:
Do you know this user personally? To prevent misuse of Facebook, this request can’t be sent. To learn more, please visit the Help Center. If you believe you’re seeing this message in error, you can report the problem.
You can see the error below. Ironically, the person who reported this issue to us probably didn’t actually know the person, by their own admission. The bottom line is this: Facebook is aggressively pursuing those spammers who are using the new “friend adding” techniques. If you are using similar strategies you should stop now because you could end up caught in the crossfire. Then you’ll have to drive cross country, only to have Facebook reject your request to have your account reinstated, as this woman did.
Update
Some users already reached out to us saying they didn’t like the idea behind this. Keep in mind, this does not mean that all users who are not connected cannot friend each other. It’s simply a system to prevent those individuals who are adding large numbers of friends that they aren’t connected to from doing so.






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Ha, that's the chick from MTV's Real World.
Comment by Facebook User — September 1, 2010 @ 3:50 pm
This could make life difficult for new users, couldn't it?
Also, I often meet new people in the real world and then friend them on Facebook. We don't always have other friends in common.
Comment by Caitlin Fitzsimmons — September 1, 2010 @ 4:03 pm
Yeah like adding your whole yahoo IM list all at once. -_- Why don't they just implement a good form of captcha like the rest of the world does. Before you add someone you have to type a captcha or something.
Comment by Steve — September 1, 2010 @ 4:58 pm
It's a joke. You can open a new account and your first add will be denied.
An existing account with 100% accept rates can be denied.
You can be denied for BUSINESS profiles.
They've gotten too big if they think they can do this to users. Time for an alternative.
Comment by blah — September 1, 2010 @ 5:05 pm
This is idiotic. What if one were to meet somebody on vacation in another state, or heaven forbid, another country? Facebook would insist that there would be little to no probability of that transpiring?
Facebook claims that their users are willing to be open and more social, but yet contradicts themselves by implementing a measure to limit contact? Nice.
Comment by Frank — September 1, 2010 @ 6:07 pm
Captcha is a waste of time and damn annoying. Those things are at best unreadable without using a magnifying glass to try and separate two letters. And obviously, it hasn't stopped spammers.
Comment by Guest — September 1, 2010 @ 6:10 pm
I was burned by this new feature yesterday when I tried to add a new friend. I was not impressed in the least!
Comment by Frank — September 1, 2010 @ 6:36 pm
While its good that they are taking the issue to heart, i actually find it to be one of the most annoying things the site has ever done.
Who are they to say who we like and who we dont? They need to remember, Facebook is a site, not god…..
Comment by Kev-Bluei LaTart Bev — September 1, 2010 @ 7:35 pm
The new implementations of anti spamming systems from Facebook are getting more and more annoing, altering the social network experience and minimising the ergonomy of their processes. Too bad…
Comment by prouted — September 1, 2010 @ 9:32 pm
This is a quaint idea, but it'd make a lot more sense if FB was anywhere near the all-knowing thing it wishes it was.
Comment by mmm — September 1, 2010 @ 10:07 pm
I think this has to do with the "Do you not know this person" or "Is this spam" after someone denies your friend request.
I had this appear a couple of times even with people that I had 5 to 9 friends in common with. Don't know why!
Comment by Pieter — September 2, 2010 @ 1:02 am
that's great!
Comment by Tran Johan — September 2, 2010 @ 2:08 am
the new form of spam detection also prevents you from connecting pll you know and have mutual friends !!!
like how does facebook know about a girl i met last night and asked me to find her on the site or worse after a lecture i tell pll to connect with me but facebook refuses them
food for taught…facebook
Comment by nimi — September 2, 2010 @ 6:47 am
This is sort of ridiculous i tried to addsomeone as a friend that i did have mutual friends of theirs and it still wouldn't let me add, then it came up saying it would block me from adding any friends for a while! what a stupid idea!
Comment by Lisa — September 2, 2010 @ 7:04 am
ummmm where is all the posts from last night ? olks do you really think this has only got 14 posts ????
Comment by 'Liza Aanor — September 2, 2010 @ 9:35 am
MY POST ROM LAST NIGHT WHICH IS GONE TODAY – MY 2 CENTS : The thing of it it is – the games, like Sorority Life pretty much demand you have a full sorority. (1000 people) Farm ville – 300 , same goes with Mafia Wars. We need to be able to fulfill our quotas. Its not fair. As to Face …Book being "private" – no way! It is an international company ,open to the public. SO , that being said – i you do not want random invites – do not have your profile "open". FB gives plenty of tools to stop that – USE THEM . Reporting folks for simply trying to be friends is BS people. GROW UP!We gamers just need another site to be on and away from fascist FB.
Comment by 'Liza Aanor — September 2, 2010 @ 9:37 am
All about control, how are we to find people we haven't connected with from high school or childhood even with these rules, seriously it is taking away our right to choose. i agree with the other comments i have people all the time tell me to find them on facebook. Seriously thinking of looking into other social sites with less rules without common sense attached to the rules.
Comment by Sherry — September 2, 2010 @ 11:41 am
I don't know, this sounds a little sketchy to me. If I meet someone new and want to maintain the connection through FB, I should be able to "friend" them, shouldn't it?
If someone is bothered by numerous friendings then they can hide their profile or forbid others from friending them I believe.
In case I cannot friend someone, I'll have to ask them to friend me instead, which is legit, but will be annoying to them ANYWAY.
Now let's see what happens if neither I am allowed to friend my new pal, nor they are able to friend me because of "spam" prevention. Anyone at FB ever though of that?
Thumbs down.
Comment by Ruben — September 3, 2010 @ 2:41 am
This pissed me off. I met someone recently, and we had 1 friend in common. I kept getting that message when I tried adding him.
very annoying.
Comment by Abdel — September 3, 2010 @ 8:13 am
Facebook the social non social network.. pathetic.
Comment by this that — September 3, 2010 @ 12:01 pm
I had pretty much the opposite effect happen to me. I can still add people OK, but people can't add me. I play Farmville and like people to add me. I post Add Me in Farmville's Review page so people can add me. I posted it a few times this week, but got ZERO friend requests. I did have 3 people send me a message saying they tried, but got this message,
"Do you know this user personally? To prevent misuse of Facebook, this request can't be sent. To learn more, please visit the Help Center."
I then tried adding them and it worked. I can add them, but they can't add me? Very stupid.
Comment by Steve — September 3, 2010 @ 2:16 pm
You know why they'd do this? People are goddamn sick and tired of seeing "add me guys" spam all over the place. Whether it's legitimate to play your stupid ass game or from a email/photo harvesting spambot account – it doesn't matter. It's annoying and this is aimed to curb both. And another thing, there's a bug in their friend button. While I was deleting friends, a new friend (spambot) somehow added itself while I was in this process. I have no idea how the hell it did that without me getting a message to authorize that person or not, but it happened. They need to do some serious security overhauls to their code to prevent behind the scenes crap like that.
Comment by Guest — September 3, 2010 @ 4:17 pm
Lot's of antagonism over this facebook feature. I've encountered the same problems. Working in an ad agency, we sometimes get clients who want to have facebook pages or accounts. These are brands or products with ZERO relationship to anyone so we get lots of problem adding people as friends even when they actually want to be friends with us. Anyway, it's the responsibility of the account owner, we can decline friend requests right?
Mavic
facebook user
Comment by Mavic Relayson — September 4, 2010 @ 12:16 am
A lot of people are complaining, but it's a false positive vs false negative problem that will always have an imperfect solution because of the trade off between the two. FB is trying to prevent spammers who could ruin the social experience by flooding the site with fake requests. The stricter the controls get, the more the spammers will be blocked, at the expense of real users sometimes being blocked. The less restrictive the controls, the more the spammers get through.
I see a work around, though. If you meet someone IRL, have them send you an EMAIL first, then use the FB feature to find email contacts on the site. Since that will establish a connection between you, you shouldn't get blocked.
Comment by eleusis — September 4, 2010 @ 9:46 pm
"""Do you know this user personally? To prevent misuse of Facebook, this request can't be sent. To learn more, please visit the Help Center. If you believe you're seeing this message in error, you can report the problem ??"""
i have this problem…..
how to solve it?????????
plz reply me…….
Comment by pratik — September 5, 2010 @ 9:05 am
Do you know this user personally? To prevent misuse of Facebook, this request can't be sent. To learn more, please visit the Help Center.
i have this problem./…..
how to solve it………..
please reply me fast……
Comment by pratik — September 5, 2010 @ 9:08 am
What you said is not satisfactory and the members of Facebook are not linked to these causes has been to stop me, and I owned a 100 from a friend and there are more than 5000 Imklk friend is quite equal? 8 members have the possibility of ignoring the requests for friendship .. Should resolve this problem quickly because this will make the members and fans go to Facebook, many sites rival
Thank you very much
Comment by stay alive — September 5, 2010 @ 9:41 am
Whatever, I have like 150 friends, and this thing stops me from adding people … it always bitches, and I KNOW THE PEOPLE I'M ADDING, it's a gay system and might prompt a change back to myspace, lol.
Comment by Nonya — October 14, 2010 @ 2:48 pm
So how am i supposed to add someone i knew long ago from school for example that might have moved off?? Or someone that is new to facebook, what can they just not add anyone now? lol i mean really
I think a system such as what other sites us were you have to enter a code to be able to submit request would be more acceptable and ethical.
Isnt that what facebook is all about reconnecting with people? Good job on screwing that up
Comment by Chase — October 14, 2010 @ 3:17 pm
Facebook is a dog. admin havent' support!!!!!!
System dont know what is a bot or a REAL person ?
CRAZYYY
LET'S BYE BYE FACEBOOKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!
Comment by Lides — October 19, 2010 @ 9:46 am
hi plz help, me in my face book Do you know this user personally? To prevent misuse of Facebook, this request can't be sent. To learn more, please visit the Help Center. If you believe you're seeing this message in error, you can report the problem.
why ?plz help me thanks
Comment by saeed solgi — March 6, 2011 @ 3:00 am
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Muere-Osama-Bin-Lad...
Comment by Osama Bin Laden — May 7, 2011 @ 4:49 pm
This really sux. Not impressed. I was caught by this because I ran an Airsoft Event ( 80 people) and I began everyone that turned up so that we could keep in touch and I could share our company photos. Even though I was already friends of friends to most of them!!!! People are emailing me loads now complaining that I haven't added them so they can see my photos.
http://www.commandskill.com
Comment by Laurence — May 11, 2011 @ 9:04 am
[...] three items are actually friend requests I’d sent out with personal notes, and they’re archived as if they were sent as [...]
Pingback by Have You Looked At Your Facebook Messages Lately? — May 13, 2011 @ 7:14 pm
my facebook page tiogamotorsportspark was marked as spam all im doing is trying to get drivers and fans from the cloesd track to come like the page so why im i marked spam?
Comment by david erick jones — August 14, 2011 @ 12:52 pm
Do you know this user personally? To prevent misuse of Facebook, this request can't be sent ….message plzs slove
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