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?

Similar Messages

Scam Contact requests

I have seen a post that says to stop scam contact requests - I get them every time i log in - it says to go to "tools" > "Options" > "privacy" etc....... but I have no "Tools" heading on the toolbar. I am fed up with these scam contact requests...... HELP!!!!!!

On a Mac, you'll find what you're looking for in Preferences. (Skype/Preferences/Privacy.)
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

I get unwanted skype contact requests

Hi I have set my privacy settings to receiving messages only from those on my contact list but I continue to get multiple requests a day from spam/unwanted users. I always block them but I would prefer to not receive them at all. I don't know how they see my skype account or name to be able to contact me past the security settings.
Thanks
Jennifer

Has anyone noticed that the sudden influx of unwanted contacts coincides with the closing off of MSN Messenger and Microsoft's insistence that one's original Skype entity MUST show your gender and birth date now. Reading through some of the various messages about this problem it seems to be mostly (but not always, of course) women who are getting spammed with these contacts.
Come on Microsoft/Skype... it's time that a Privacy Option is instigated to enable a user to disallow contact requests by default. Before you say this is unworkable, it just means that if you have "locked down" your privacy to only allowing, say, calls, video/share screen, and IMs from people in your contact list only, then if someone you know wants to be on your Skype contact list they would probably have asked you for your id another way and you could temporarily uncheck this option to "open it up".
And how come when the Allow IMs from... anyone/people in my Contact list only is set to the latter option, these requests still come through anyway. After all, they come as an IM.
Even if the above suggestion wouldn't be practical, it's well past time that someone starting thinking out of the box for a solution.

Another contact-request scam (???)

This is the contact-request message I received followed by the “chat” I had with what I am assuming was a bot:
sandra.hamiltonvlq
“Hi, I was checking ppl near me and i came across your page and you seemed worth talking to ”
(ME): Uhm...how did you check for people "near" you when Skype does not give you the option to search for users based on location???
[12:50:28 AM]
sandra.hamiltonvlq: k, well, I have to go . ... Hmm.. would you like to check out my profile and pics..?
[12:50:42 AM]
sandra.hamiltonvlq: check it out: http://www.date-arcade.com/?id=6589&profile=talinm
[12:50:57 AM]
sandra.hamiltonvlq: search for me as talinm.
The profile originally had a picture of a girl, but the picture disappeared when I sent the instant message. I blocked and reported the account when the bot responded. Has anyone else received a message from that account or instructions to go to that site? Is this a well-known scam like the others (such as Friendjungle) to get credit-card information?

most likely it is a scam, or at least an annoying strategy to promote that particular site. you indeed made the correct action of blocking the user and reporting them to skype. you can also set your privacy settings to allow messages (and calls) from people in your contact list only, to avoid receiving such unwanted communications 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!

Attempted scams - IM text-contact requests

HI, since 2 days I am getting message on my Skype from men mostly military that are not in my contact list and the fact that my privacy setting is set to off they still can sent me IM text with introduction
I don't care as much about 1 guy , but it started again this morning, what will happen if I get 1000 scam messages per day ? since they use Robots to do that .
What make a sense for Skype Privacy setting if strangers can post IM message without authorization . And no matter what the content is , today romance tomorrow sales .
Beside I just read a tread from 1 year ago in this forum about the same issue , it seems like nothing was done into the direction of secure users from scams and strangers and phones in the middle of the night from India selling US college adverts.
I did what I could from my side as that is all I can do with the privacy setting

unfortunately, there is no option yet to block/filter contact requests, regardless if they are requests from legitimate users or from possible spammers/scammers. The only things you can do at the moment is indeed to ignore and block them (and report them to abuse@skype,net).
The Privacy Settings in Skype can only prevent/stop unwanted calls/instant messages from non-contacts, not contact requests (where they can attach a short message).
IF YOU FOUND OUR POST USEFUL THEN PLEASE GIVE "KUDOS". IF IT HELPED TO FIX YOUR ISSUE PLEASE MARK IT AS A "SOLUTION" TO HELP OTHERS. THANKS!
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Unwanted Contact Request?

i did not see a support forum on the support tab and my search question "why did i get a request from someone i do not know" turned up nothing. can this be posted here?
i have never had a problem with skype in the past since i have gotten it. i believe it was 2011.
Alright, so i login to skype to see which of my contacts is online and to hopefully chat with them. Then i notice i have 1 new contact request. I go to look at it and it says "princess_cassisexox111 (Joy Rodgers)". I then ask some of contacts if they knew this contact and they reply "no"
I then try talking to this contact to see if they know me from somewhere. Here is the conversation. Twinkle is my display name since it was already taken on here.
Twinkle has shared contact details with Joy Rodgers.
[8:32:54 PM] Twinkle: who is this?
[8:33:00 PM] Joy Rodgers: heyy there hun, ya busy? saw u online so i figured i'd send a message and see
[8:33:16 PM] Joy Rodgers: 27/f here, you?
-i did not even ask for their age or gender-
[8:33:17 PM] Twinkle: [8:32:54 PM] Twinkle: who is this?
-i try a second time to figure out who they are. perhaps a familar username from another site-
[8:33:32 PM] Joy Rodgers: oh ok so whatcha up 2?
[8:33:53 PM] Twinkle: Who Is This?
-i try caps the first letter of each word to try to get this contact to notice the message-
[8:34:11 PM] Joy Rodgers: ahh well i was just checkin my inbox on Just Hook Up, i got out of a relationship a few months back and im sick of going out and meeting guys at clubs.
[8:34:26 PM] Joy Rodgers: my friend told me about it and i was like umm idk about all that lol, but in all honesty i really like it and i've met some really cool people from there too. do u have a profile anywhere or any pics?
[8:34:47 PM] Twinkle: how did you get this skype name
-at this point, i ask how you they found out my skype name-
[8:35:02 PM] Joy Rodgers: i actually just finished uploading some new pics from last weekend if u wanna see?
[8:35:27 PM] Twinkle: [8:34:47 PM] Twinkle: how did you get this skype name? do i need to caps the message
[8:35:49 PM] Joy Rodgers: alright here's my profile bit.ly/15Wc4l0 that has my photos there. u might have to sign in to see them like on facebook i'm not sure but u should sign up anyway
-the link in this message, i suspect to be a spam/harmful link of some sort-
[8:36:02 PM] Joy Rodgers: it only takes a couple seconds and it's totally free, no credit card or anything stupid like that. plus i can send you a friend request and we can get to know each other better
-here, im being told to register for a possible dating site, which im not going to do-
[8:36:13 PM] Twinkle: we are through here
[8:36:33 PM] Joy Rodgers: Once u do send me ure username so i can send u a friend request 2..
-at this point, i decided to end the conversation since this contact would not answer my questions and blocked-
[8:37:18 PM] *** Twinkle blocked Joy Rodgers ***
how did this contact get a hold of me? could this of been a bot?

I'm almost sure that those are scammers/spammers/or phishers. Unfortunately, those unwanted users are very resourceful individual. They may have numerous ways to search for valid Skype usernames.
ignore and block them, and/or report them to [email protected] for misusing/abusing Skype services.
IF YOU FOUND OUR POST USEFUL THEN PLEASE GIVE "KUDOS". IF IT HELPED TO FIX YOUR ISSUE PLEASE MARK IT AS A "SOLUTION" TO HELP OTHERS. THANKS!
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We need help with unwanted contact requests

In the last 2 weeks, I have received 13 unwanted contact requests that I have blocked, which is roughly 2 unwanted contact requests for every Skype message or call I'm interested in receiving.
All of my privacy settings are set to "Contacts" and I do not publish my Skype ID on LinkedIn, the only social media site I use.
What else can I do?

Hello Gilad,
Thank you for your contact!
The script does not work, no error message comes up, I am sure it`s a
stupid mistake but neither my boss nor I are programmers.
Please have a look at the form enclosed, the field in question (field
name "calculated currency value", red border) is on the top right and
refers to the field "FX" (field name "FXname 4800") below (blue border)
Both fields are in number format so I don`t know why this doesn't work,
what else can it be?
With kind regards
Ursula

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?

Unwanted Contact Requests

Unwanted Contact Request IS THE REASON I AN QUITTTING SKYPE AND
WILL NO LONGER PAY FOR THE SERVICE

Dear Readers,
I, too, have filed various reports via the [email protected] e-mail address and to date have not received a reply - however, nor did I ever expect to.
Moderator Note: This e-mail address is no longer in service. Please see this FAQ article for next steps and instruction: https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10001/how-do-i-report-abuse-by-someone-in-skype
I have it on good authority that all of our reports are reviewed by Skype and action taken as necessary. I have also reported this and many other threads related to this topic. You may also file reports with Skype Customer Service directly; here is a link to the instruction on how to do this: contact customer service
For my two cents, I add absolutely nothing to the profile - country, location, birth date and so on are completely blank/unspecified or for those settings where we are permitted choices, private or contacts only.
Please don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player ...
Best regards,
Elaine
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Unwanted contact request on Samsung note

Hello everyone,
Can someone please help me with Skype on samsung note. I keep getting unwanted contact request. I don't see deny button or what to do with my skype on samsung.
thanks.
Florence

I'm almost sure that those are scammers/spammers/or phishers. Unfortunately, those unwanted users are very resourceful individual. They may have numerous ways to search for valid Skype usernames.
ignore and block them, and/or report them to [email protected] for misusing/abusing Skype services.
IF YOU FOUND OUR POST USEFUL THEN PLEASE GIVE "KUDOS". IF IT HELPED TO FIX YOUR ISSUE PLEASE MARK IT AS A "SOLUTION" TO HELP OTHERS. THANKS!
ALTERNATIVE SKYPE DOWNLOAD LINKS | HOW TO RECORD SKYPE VIDEO CALLS | HOW TO HANDLE SUSPICIOS CALLS AND MESSAGES

Unwanted or unknown Contact Requests

Is there anyway of not receiving annoying and unwanted contact requests from strangers?.<br>.<br>Privacy settings are set to Contacts Only.

shoshanna719 wrote:
I would expect the option to be given to be left off the Skype public viewing list for at least all international (outside the country of residence) viewers. If the nutcases keep bothering me I will have no choice but to quit Skype and I use it to keep in touch with people that I actually DO care about. I do not see why my use should have to suffer because some nut thinks for some sick reason they want to be a contact with someone they have nothing in common with or have no knowledge of. And I think that Skype is sick to encourage that type of behavior.
Looking at your profile using Skype search function, I can see that you have specified your gender and country of location. This means that people who are interested to find female Skype friends in Eretz Israel, could be tempted to contact you. Removing this kind of information from your profile may reduce the chance for receiving such contact invitations.

Unwanted IMs and Contact requests

Hello,
I'm receiving contact requests and IMs from strangers.
I've double checked all my privacy settings and they are all set to "receive from contacts only".
Where else can I go? Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

Same here.. .apparently skyp doenst give a flip about it...
Ive asked this question 20 times (usually under other names per it was actually per clients..
This is the first ever under my own id.
I regularly have to deny 'requests' twice a week and at times more.
I currently have hundreds of requests blocked.. Im getting tired of it...
Unfortunatley skype is the only way I have to contact certain friends who are using skype as a workaround per them not being able to afford regular phone use, but have nearly unlimited internet options.
But this particular issue, as soon as skype gets competition, if not already... Im gone.
I had hoped skype workalikes would do it, but they mainly are skype passthrus.
I relize I can make myself invisible and that likely solves the problem.
BUt I need those who are my contacts to see that I am in fact online.
So while invisible might do... its not realistic....to me thats a fake workaround.
Contacts should be able to see you if they are contacts...period, even if invisible

Receiving contact requests.

Alright so my friend once lived in Australia with me she then moved to America. I only use Skype to chat with her but for about 4 weeks now I have been getting contact requests NON STOP from creepy old men claiming to be "U.S Army Veterans" I am really creeped out. I have blocked all of them. I have changed my privacy settings but it still hasn't stopped them. I have no clue who they are and I am really creeped out. How can I stop this?!

This is an old problem http://community.skype.com/t5/Security-Privacy-Trust-and/Strangers-keep-contacting-me/td-p/620247/pa...
I have the same issue. I have always had all my privacy/IM/Video settings set to contact only. I do not have an MSN account so the crossover issue mentioned in the thread I linked, whatever that was, isn't it.
I asked the last one how he got my contact details. After lying that I'd given them to him, he absolutely refused to answer.
First he said I must have given him the info in another group (I don't know him from Adam, very creepy shot-in-the-dark from him, since I DON'T use skype except to call my family's landlines in the UK via subscription - if that was true, why not open with a "Hi it's xxx from site yyy"?)
I said that was impossible, he said, "Hmmmn. Don't know."
I said, "How did you know what contact name to add? Go on, I promise I won't be cross "
He said "I don't know what to tell you."
At that point I thanked him for his time and blocked him.
I don't get a lot, and it's strange how they do _seem_ to be army. I don't for a second think they are. There are scamers out there using US army guys faces to borrow credibility to get you to talk to them.
In which case, they are probably finding contact names by doing to places like dating sites and running through the username lists they find there. If your skype contact id is not unique to skype, you can be contact by guesswork, basically. Skype can't fix that.
Skype CAN fix that the last one IM-ed me and he's not in my contact list, contrary to my provacy settings. That suggests there's an exploit in skype's security that is being hacked, possibly by an organised effort since the type of contact is so consistent.
My advice to average user bearing the brunt of this - since we are the actualy target and what they want is money - is to save the conversation, then block and report, and post the convo here if you can so the community can get a handle on how widespread this is.
Never, ever give out personal identification info or money out online, not even if the person convinces you absolutely that you two are in love. They contact you, get real info and a background check but don't just take thier word for anything.
Ref: http://usmilitary.about.com/u/ua/justicelawlegislation/Are-You-A-Victim-Of-A-Romance-Scam.htm Scroll down to the name nj flinn - that post talk about use of army guys names in scams on skype.
Good luck and stay safe,
Mulberry

Unknown Contact Request

I recently received a new "Contact Request" from a name unknown to me and which I was not expecting.
I checked the profile which provided no additional relevant information.
Is there any danger, either directly or indirectly (getting on Spam lists, etc.) of accepting such a request? Is this a frequest occurance on Skype?
Thank you in advance, Frank

please check the suggestions mentioned here;
How to Handle Unwanted Contact Requests
IF YOU FOUND OUR POST USEFUL THEN PLEASE GIVE "KUDOS". IF IT HELPED TO FIX YOUR ISSUE PLEASE MARK IT AS A "SOLUTION" TO HELP OTHERS. THANKS!
ALTERNATIVE SKYPE DOWNLOAD LINKS | HOW TO RECORD SKYPE VIDEO CALLS | HOW TO HANDLE SUSPICIOS CALLS AND MESSAGES
SEE MORE TIPS, TRICKS, TUTORIALS AND UPDATES in
| skypefordummies.blogspot.com |

UNWANTED SCAM CONTACT REQUESTS

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