How to stop spam from friends

We’re sure you’ve all been subjected to spam in your time. Spam is essentially the distribution of irrelevant messages over the internet. Ever had an email offering a new type of pill that helps you lose weight fast, or a message on Facebook asking you to share an image to raise money for a cause? Yep, all spam!

Friends can send spam, too, though it’s entirely dependent on what you consider to be spam – forwarded emails, unnecessary tags and mentions, malicious links, even just sending cute or funny pictures can be considered spam!

It’s harder to ignore spam if you consider the sender a friend, but we have a few tips on how to deal with it without upsetting anyone.

 

Block/hide them

One of the easiest options is to simply prevent them from contacting you, though obviously this isn’t the most practical method. You may not want to block someone’s email address, as they may want to send you something important, but this certainly works for social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

If a particular Facebook friend is annoying you with constant updates that are of no interest to you, you can hide their updates. You’ll still be Facebook friends, and you’re free to access their profile, but their updates do not appear in your feed. Simply click on the top-right corner of the offending post and select ‘Hide all from [insert friend’s name here]’.

For Twitter, you can simply go to the user’s profile and click on the drop-down menu next to the Follow button (pictured).

Blocking a user means that they cannot mention you, view your profile or contact you in any way. You can also use a number of external Twitter tools that allow you to filter certain posts, and TweetDeck, Destroy Twitter and Tweetings are great examples.

As we said before, this can be quite an extreme solution to the problem, so you might want to consider the options below before you take the plunge!

 

Ask (politely)

If a particular friend is sending you annoying messages, posting annoying pictures or tagging you in causes that you have no interest in, they may not realise that they are bothering you – on the contrary, they might think they’re helping you.

Let the person know that their messages are distracting you from your work or that they are interfering with your job. Ask them politely not to include you in any tags or messages and they should, hopefully, oblige.

 

Educate

Your ‘annoying friend’ probably doesn’t want to annoy you – they just don’t realise they’re doing it. Some forms of malware force victims to post messages to friends and family and they may not even be aware that it is happening.  Educating them on what spam is and how to prevent it could solve your problem.

Ever received an inbox message from a friend along the lines of ‘Have you seen this video of you? [suspicious link]’? Annoying, right? Well your friend may not realise that they’ve sent it. Let them know that it’s happening and advise them to scan for viruses and avoid clicking suspicious links in future. They’ll thank you for it!

The important thing is to remain calm and level-headed. Don’t get angry. You don’t want to start an argument; you’d just like your friend to stop spamming you! Be upfront, but be friendly. Chances are, they mean no harm and will think before they post in future!