random friend requests from unknown people

[Atarilynn]

I keep getting emails saying people have accepted my friend requests... thing is, I am not sending any.  They are people I don't know, and I'm not a huge challenge person (I think I've done one).  I looked on the forums and it seems the advice is to change your password... which is fine, I will do that, but can anyone tell me WHY it is happening, and how I can fix it? Thanks!

[WendyB]

Well if you have a few friends and they request a new friend it will give that person the option to choose some of there friends. 

If you want go to the dashboard. Select settings under the gear. On the left had side select Notifications

Uncheck friend request. Should solve your problems and you will get NO friend requests

[Abifit]

I have the same problem.  I contacted Fitbit and they told me to change my password.  I did so and I still have people who have absolutely no connection to me (or for that matter any of my very small number of 'real' Fitbit friends) "accepting my friends request" when I didn't make any request.

I think the Fitbit has a security vulnerability that Fitbit isn't addressing and its rather shameful that no one from Fitbit has answered your post.

[Atarilynn]

I agree!  I have friends that refuse to use Fitbit because of information security.  I got another email today saying someone I don't know had accepted my friend request.  I went to look for some sort of way to contact Fitbit and was unable to find anything, of course... I will keep trying.  But thanks for posting, it's nice to know it's not just me...

[PureEvil]

@Abifitand @Atarilynn,

While I haven't seen the e-mails that you got, if you use the same e-mail address on Fitbit and other services, the issue may not have anything with Fitbit per se.  It may simply be a phishing scam.

Out of curiosity, you can try one of two things:

First, if you still have that e-mail, you can hover over (don't click) the link to your new friend.  You should get a tooltip that gives you a URL that will point you to your friend's page, that address will have a ton of gibberish (to detect a click through, I've obscured it in my image), but it should start with http://email.fitbit.com.  Like this:

If it doesn't, then someone (presumably a spammer phishing for information) is posing as Fitbit trying to get your to click on a link (out of your curiosity).

Second, is simple...  If you got a message from Fitbit that someone (like Phil, in my case) has accepted your friend request, they should show up on your friend's page.  If they don't, you didn't issue a friend request nor did they accept it.

Just keep in mind that if you use the same e-mail on Fitbit that you use on other services (like amazon, paypal, etc.), if a spammer knows that your e-mail address exists, it's not that difficult to send mail to that address posing as a Fitbit message to get you to click on a link.

If it's someone phishing trying to get you to click on a link, I would be weary about clicking on that link, but you can at least rest easy knowing that your Fitbit account wasn't compromised.

I hope this helps.

[Eleven11]

Unchecking notifications as per your post does not result in the fake "friend" requests on fitbit app.

[thecelticheart]

The exact same thing is happening to me. I bought a fitbit last July and installed the app, but then decided to go with a different smartwatch and stopped using fitbit after a week or so. I uninstalled the app from my phone during this time. I recently started using fitbit again and installed the app again, and was very surprised to find over 300 friends had been added to my account without my knowledge or interaction. I only realized it when I started receiving challenges from some of them (which i did not accept and do not participate in).

i have been back and forth with support but they are no help. This problem has nothing to do with the app. It happens when the app is not even installed. I have also changed my password, that does not help. Two or more friends continue to be automatically added to my account every day and i have to go in and delete them (otherwise I start getting challenges showing up on my today screen, which I am not interested in and is very annoying). I have everything in my account set to private. I do not ever accept anyone else's friend requests and notification for that are turned off. However, just turning off notifications doesn't mean that you don't get any requests. I also receive messages from my new "friends." I read through a few of them and at least one of them said something about thanking me for sending him the friend request (which I most definitely did not do). So it appears that my account is somehow automatically sending out random friend requests every day, and a few people accept them every day. Which I then have to delete.

I would just delete my account and start over with a new one, but I'm not confident that would fix the problem, as it seems to be happening to a lot of people.

Support has been no help.