Preventing random contact requests

hello
I get hundreds of contact requests every week. How can I prevent random people (bots?) from adding me? I only want people who know my email address to be able to find me.
It's quite a pain to find the missed calls and chats from your contacts in a list with a hundred contact requests. I even have to delete each one individually!
thanks

unfortunately, Skype's privacy settings will only prevent unwanted calls and messages from people who are not in your contact list. It will not stop any users, both legitimate and potential scammers/spammers, from sending you contact requests.
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2 Random contact requests

So I just logged in to skype and found 2 random contact requests from I presume strangers. I have no idea who they are. I stupidly replied to one but got a reply back. So I was wondering was this a potential scammer? I've bot blocked and declined the contact request as well as launching a full computer scan and there is no potential threats found. Was I paranoid or was this a scam.

In your privacy setting there is an option to only allow messages, calls and such from people in your contacts. Just double check to make sure it's all checked properly
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Skype Privacy: Random contact requests

I keep getting random messages from people I don't know even tho I have my privacy settings set to only friends can message and call me. Please help as it is irritating to get these messages! thanks!!

Hi, Coibhin, and welcome to the Community,
Confirming that yes, this is a scam - and one that has been reported many times here in this Community as well as numerous variations of it.
Regards,
Elaine
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Trustworthy information: Brian Krebs: 3 Basic Rules for Online Safety and Consumer Reports: Guide to Internet Security Online Safety Tip: Change your passwords often!

Random Blackerry Messenger Contact Requests

Hi, I keep receiving hundreds of contact requests on blackberry messenger from people that I don't know. I've honestly received 400 requests so far today.
I haven't shared my pin on twitter or facebook, etc. so I don't know how these people have gotten it!
Is there any way I can stop or block this?
Thanks.

Somehow, somebody has got ahold of your PIN. Perhaps you bought your phone second-hand? If it's the odd request here and there, I usually suggest it's just somebody sending out random requests but since you're receiving so many, it's beyond that.
The only real solution is to exchange your phone for another one thereby swapping PINs. Technically, there is no method of filtering which requests should come to your phone and which ones should be bounced. As long as you keep this PIN active, the requests will probably continue to come in.
Not advice you wanted to hear but I see no other solution.
- If my response has helped you, please click "Options" beside my post and mark it as solved. Clicking the "thumbs up" icon near the bottom of my response would also be appreciated.

Getting too many random skype contact requests bec...

someone linked me to a site called "skypecontacts.com" and now my name is on there or something and people are sending me random skype invites and its really weird getting all these invites and i dont want someone i know to send me an invite and then accidently say "ignore". The website thats causing this is called skypecontacts.com BTW. So how do I stop this?

Unfortunately, there is no option yet to stop any user from sending you friend requests. Instead of Ignore, you can also consider clicking Block so a particular user won't be able to resend you contact requests in the future.
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How to Handle Unwanted Contact Requests

Unfortunately, there is currently no method to sort or filter incoming contact requests.   I think it would be very difficult for Skype to determine if a certain person is a potential scammer or spammer, unless they receive relevant reports from users who receive suspicious contact requests from them. Below are some suggested steps on how to deal with unwanted, random, unknown, or suspicious contact requests.
1. Take note of the username and display name of the user (please see image sample below)
2.       Open the Contact request then click the Block Button.
3.       The Block This Person window will also appear, you can click the Report Abuse box if you feel that that contact is indeed a highly potential scammer or spammer.  Click the Block button to confirm your action.
4.       You can also report them to [email protected]
Then Skype will be notified of the suspicious activities of the reported user/s and will most likely prompt them to check and investigate those users. Their account might be put under suspension, termination, or prevent them from creating new accounts or using Skype services.
Note: Setting your account's privacy settings to allow messages and calls from people in your contact list only will only prevent the ability of non-contacts to call you or send you instant messages. It will not stop unwanted contact requests from random users.
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I think the problem results from the level of visibility Skype users present. For these random requests to come in, there must be some way of trawling for Skype IDs, which would allow would-be scammers and spammers to make the requests. My wife gets many of them and I get virtually none, so they obviously target women.
If Skype users could manage their level of visibility to prevent random trawling or browsing, but allow targeted searches, that should reduce the incidence of this problem enormously.
Another way would be to create an option for a "Contact Token" which could be forwarded to people you allow to make contact requests. They would need to supply the correct token (matching your individual "Contact Token") in order for the request to be submitted. ie. in Privacy Settings, add the followng option:
"Only accept and display contact requests from users supplying the following Contact Token: _____"
This may seem overly heavy-handed, but it would suit many people who don't want to be bothered by nuisance contact requests, and if they like spam and scam, they don't have to enable the option!

Spam contact requests

I have had a Skype account for several years, I have never had so may spam contact requests as in recent months. I have the highest privacy settings and always report and block spam. It still comes through - often with the same photos and message requests. What is being done to stop this? What is the point of blocking, if nothing is done to trace and prevent it from happening again?

Hello,
Did anybody get a fix for this im getting 2-3 requests every day, surely if you set allow msgs from contacts only this should stop them.. I understand that if skype blocks contact requests nobody can get in touch, but I would be much happier if this option was available in the privacy settings. This seems to be a problem that is just ignored by Skype but seems to be irritating the users. If anybody has a fix, I would like to know it...

Unwanted Contact Requests (Ongoing history within ...

Upon reading Primemover's [Power User] ‎25-07-2012 20:39 - edited ‎25-07-2012 20:52 response to "How to Handle Unwanted Contact Requests"
(reference : http://community.skype.com/t5/Security-Privacy-Trust-and/How-to-Handle-Unwanted-Contact-Requests/m-p...
I followed his/her instructions.
My Skype version (7.0.80.102) screen appeared differently than that which was displayed within Primemover's link. My screen was missing some key options such as "BLOCK" this person.
My wife suggested I right-click on either the unknown requestor's picture or name to see what options appear.
Sure enough upon right clicking both the requestor's name and picture came a drop down list of options. Looking quite a way down the list of options, I saw the "BLOCK" option.
I clicked "BLOCK this contact" for my South african 'fan'. This (apparently) immediately blocked the contact. Followed immediately with a Skype pop-up appearing complete with a 'tick' box asking if I wanted to "Report Abuse" (which I did).
Immediately the contact disappeared from my list.
I presume the report went through to Skype and will possibly result in Skype doing their privacy protection duties as Primemover suggested.
I certainly hope this is effective in reality. Hopefully my approach works for other Skype users who are also afflicted by ongoing introductions and requests from unknown/unwanted individuals or entities.
I, too, find this process both odd and expect it to be unnecessary. In my opinion this is either an oversight on Skype's programming or a knowingly enabled function within Skype for unknown purposes contrary to what Skype users either expect or choose.
My wife and I both have set our Skype Security and Privacy settings to only accept incoming requests from people we know in our contacts. Yet we both continue to be harassed by unknown entities or people whose intent is contrary to what we have configured our Skype settings to permit.
Having read many of the complaints within the extended history of associated concerns suggest this is more than an anomally within Skype. Clearly Skype is aware of this concern for years; Skype chooses to enable/permit it to continue rather than acutually support the privacy and security choices of it's users. Follow the money trail is likely the rational to enabling this affliction rather than ensuring Skype's users' settings actually function reasonably as intended/expected.

I never ever post on these forums! But this is getting simply ridiculous!
It used to just be General Napoleon-complex or whoever, and that was once or twice a month; I could live with that. Then it got to be random people at least once or twice a week. Then it built to at least one or two a day.
Today it was 5, and one of them was pure porn. ACK!!!! Totally not acceptable!!!
And I am required - note: REQUIRED!!! - to use Skype for work. Just how is one expected to use Skype for work when one is bombarded with useless, senseless requests, some of which are porn?
And what about our children, who also use Skype? I do believe that subjecting minors to porn is against the law. If you knowingly don't fix the problem and a minor is subjected to porn, that is a FELONY.
At this point, if you can't fix the problem, the result is going to be that we all start to use something else. Some of those inexpensive little webcams come with nice PRIVATE chat systems on a CD that you can install anywhere. Perhaps we should migrate to those, guaranteeing we only have people in our networks that we know - because they won't have the CD, and won't have our usernames, and someone won't allow them to find us.
Wake up, smell the coffee, and fix it, before you lose everyone. Or is that the idea?
Or does anyone from Skype or MS even read these?

Contact request: Is this a scammer?

Hi,
I received a contact request yesterday with the (in my language) default invitation message from a Skype account I don't know. Said person has a picture of a heart with 2 puppet-like figures looking at it.
Even though I've never had random contact-invite issues before, I'm smart enough to guess this might be a scammer and I should not accept this person.
However, The only information shown on the profile of said person says that this person is from the same city as me.. Which is what kinda confuses me.
So my questions are,
do scammers fake being from the same city on their profile?
Could it do any harm for me to accept said person and ask who they are? (I have no added phone number on my Skype profile, so that's secure). Or is there a different way of finding out who they are/where they are from?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

viridee wrote:
Hi,
I received a contact request yesterday with the (in my language) default invitation message from a Skype account I don't know. Said person has a picture of a heart with 2 puppet-like figures looking at it.
Even though I've never had random contact-invite issues before, I'm smart enough to guess this might be a scammer and I should not accept this person.
However, The only information shown on the profile of said person says that this person is from the same city as me.. Which is what kinda confuses me.
So my questions are,
do scammers fake being from the same city on their profile?
Could it do any harm for me to accept said person and ask who they are? (I have no added phone number on my Skype profile, so that's secure). Or is there a different way of finding out who they are/where they are from?
possible, scammers might employ such tactics to entice their targets to accept their contact request. Generally, it is not advisable to suspicious contact requests. I think if that user is indeed someone who knows you, they may have attached a short message in their contact request to introduce themselve.
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UNWANTED SCAM CONTACT REQUESTS

PEOPLE SKYPE's acknowledgement of an ongoing problem and lack of action is total **bleep**.
At present any user can be sent a CONTACT REQUEST from any scammer, regardless of a user's privacy settings. This is WRONG, SHOULD NOT HAPPEN and is contrary to what we users expect of you SKYPE when they are CHARGING us for using SKYPE.
I don't want to be contacted by General **bleep**ing or his sister, do you understand me Skype admin ? Neither do any of the other users who've written and posted to this site : WITHOUT any action being taken by Skype to FIX THE PROLEM.
I am sick and tired and fed up of getting these contact requests, every single friggin day and having to delete them and block them. You do it, why should I ? STOP these scammers for once and for all.
Come on how much money does Microsoft have behind it, to do so ? now get rid of the scammers.
FIX THE PROBLEM.

I never ever post on these forums! But this is getting simply ridiculous!
It used to just be General Napoleon-complex or whoever, and that was once or twice a month; I could live with that. Then it got to be random people at least once or twice a week. Then it built to at least one or two a day.
Today it was 5, and one of them was pure porn. ACK!!!! Totally not acceptable!!!
And I am required - note: REQUIRED!!! - to use Skype for work. Just how is one expected to use Skype for work when one is bombarded with useless, senseless requests, some of which are porn?
And what about our children, who also use Skype? I do believe that subjecting minors to porn is against the law. If you knowingly don't fix the problem and a minor is subjected to porn, that is a FELONY.
At this point, if you can't fix the problem, the result is going to be that we all start to use something else. Some of those inexpensive little webcams come with nice PRIVATE chat systems on a CD that you can install anywhere. Perhaps we should migrate to those, guaranteeing we only have people in our networks that we know - because they won't have the CD, and won't have our usernames, and someone won't allow them to find us.
Wake up, smell the coffee, and fix it, before you lose everyone. Or is that the idea?
Or does anyone from Skype or MS even read these?

Contact requests

Hello, I keep getting contact requests fro us soldiers in Afganistan and don´t know how to stop them!Add me to you contact etc... I tried privacy in my setting, but somehow did´t succeed.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi,
Skype application has built-in privacy settings that you can use to restrict who is allowed to contact you, but you can still receive new contact requests. This allows friends that you do not have in your contact list to ask to share contact details with you.
Unfortunately, there is a small minority of people who abuse the Skype software. We have resources dedicated to a number of ongoing anti-spam initiatives so that we can effectively deal with people who send unsolicited messages.
Please continue to block and report abusive users to us. This helps us to identify and prevent spammers.
To block contact in Skype (Windows), please visit: https://support.skype.com/faq/FA10488
To block contact in Skype (Mac), please visit:
https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10870/how-do-i-manage-my-contacts-in-skype-for-mac-os-x?frompage=...
We are working hard to prevent spammers from contacting you, and we do take action against them where appropriate.
Hope this helps.
Julian

Contact requests from "Army General"

Daily i receive contact requests off so called generals from the USA armee i dont like that at all becouse ofcourse i know its fake in my privasysettings only my contact persons can contact me but stil it happen. I block them ofcourse and report abuse. But nothing seems to help
Solved!
Go to Solution.

cath101 wrote:
Let's get something quite clear. Even if you have your privacy settings for contacts only, these US generals contact requests get through. Blocking them does nothing to stem the flow of others. So many customers write in, do the right thing, but skype does nothing to sort the problem. Its so depressing. If only we had a choice so we could stop using Skype. Microsoft get your act together and DO something.
Unfortunately, the Privacy Settings in Skype can only prevent/stop unwanted calls/instant messages from non-contacts, not contact requests (which now also appears in the IM box/window).
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GHANA CONTACT REQUESTS

I keep blocking and reporting, but they don’t seem to be discouraged. J
I’ve been receiving for a while now contact requests from Ghana.
It curiously happens that all of them (mostly female) are from other countries and doing “something” there.
Can someone to confirm that is part of an organized scam? If so, can the requests be prevented?
I keep blocking and reporting, but they don't seem to discourage (not sure about the spelling of this)

Wrong board.
Moved to "Security".
TIME ZONE - US EASTERN. LOCATION - PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA.
I recommend that you always run the latest Skype version: Windows & Mac
If my advice helped to fix your issue please mark it as a solution to help others.
Please note that I generally don't respond to unsolicited Private Messages. Thank you.

Skype sent out contact request without permission?...

Alright so I contacted support over this and they just said they couldn't answer my question because they didn't know. I guess I'm not searching for answers anymore but just seeing if this has happened to anyone else or if someone can find some error I made to make this happen ... Thanks for your time in reading.
SO... Awhile back I deleted my ex from Skype and blocked him. I would like to mention I had him blocked numerous times but he could still send a contact request...... Anyways... I had him deleted and blocked and then three days ago, randomly out of NOWHERE... I look at my contacts and he's in them- saying that IVE sent a contact request to HIM.................... And it offered the option to resend it. I flipped out so hard because it really does make me look crazy if he got a contact request from me............ Out of nowhere ....
I can only hope it was a one sided thing and he never got the receiving end of that message. I had him blocked but nowhere in the chat near 'resend request' did it say 'this contact is blocked' as I seem to remember it doing before.
Ugh.. This situation had me so fearful that it would start like, spamming contact requests or later on doing something else because if Skype support can't explain it, then im just gonna just go ahead and say my account was possessed. To try and counter this, I deleted the account today and made a new one.
So yeah, anyone have any similar experience? ... Did I do something critically wrong that somehow did this? Is it possible /he/ was the one sending the request? (OFC that doesn't make sense because it was giving me the option to resend and saying it was pending.) also, if it's pending does that mean he hasn't accepted and the request was waiting there or could it be rejected and still say pending?
Thanks for your time xoxoxox ♡

ambitiouswhiteg wrote:
Today I had a new person added to my contacts list, (not recent conversations), that I did not approve. I have had people I don't know randomly request to be added but this is the first time where someone was added without my consent.
First off, I would like to report this individual since he has obviously circumvented Skype security features. He is soliciting his S. African business through his profile. How do I go about reporting this because aside from this forum on security I can't find a way to report on your website. I have read several other users post similar stories dating back a few years and I am surprised this is still an issue although I am grateful I have never had this happen before.
Here is the information on the unsolicited contact:
*edited for privacy*
Please advise,
Chrystal
you can send this information to the department specifically handling cases of abuse of Skype services - [email protected]
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Can't stop the spam contact requests

I've removed all profile information and set everything to as private as possible. But, somehow creepy guys keep sending me contact requests. How do they find out my user name? I don't tell it to random people, and the Skype search seems too inferior to be able to just search for random people... you need to know something precise like the email address. Where are they getting my info? It does seem it requires I be online in order for them to send me a contact request... if I don't use Skype for a long time, there aren't contact requests when I sign back on.
I've even removed my gender, said I'm 110 years old, and put up a profile photo of a morbidly obese fat man, but nothing stops them. What do I do? Why does Skype think that this is a problem that isn't worth solving? Other social networking systems in the past have been abandoned because of too many spammers... do we want this for Skype too?

I completely agree with this....I have used Windows and Skype for many years. I recently installed an older version of Skype to run on Windows 8.1 because the new version is SO AWFUL. As much as I prefer the older version (6.14), the daily number of SPAM CONTACT requests is rediculous and most are just variations of the same spammer. Maybe it is time to look for a replacement for both?

Preventing random contact requests

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