Report a Spammer

[iSting]

I received a friend request from a user with a suspicious link in her profile.  The profile referred to meeting sexy people with a Russian link.  I recognize this, because security is my job.  Some people might not be savvy enough to recognize this.  There should be a way to have these users banned to prevent the spread of malware.

[SunsetRunner]

Hi @iSting

For now, it's possible to report the user to the fitbit support team so they can look into it. 

Have Fun 

[iSting]

@SunsetRunner

It should be easier than that.  There should be a Report button in the request, like the Twitter  app.

[MzP]

I agree with you @iSting, a few weeks ago I was trying to look for somwhere to report these Fitbit users with the Russian domain websites. There does not appear to be anywhere to do this- you can only report a post but not individuals alone. I reached out to a moderator from a different community post here on the website and all they said is that they are aware of this situation but that is about it. The moderator suggested just to ignore the request, delete it and not access the website shown. If people can’t report these users then how can they tell which Fitibit users are associated with this issue?  Something else has got to be going on- why would there just all of a sudden be a slew of these accounts opened for this purpose?

I hope that no minor children are being targeted either- who knows how these people are selecting Fitbit users, perhaps only to people who post to the community feed on the app. Thank you for posting this message @iSting because I felt like this was just something that happense here and nothing that can be done.  Let’s see what happens.

[M3ggo]

I have recently been subjected to sexual harassment by a fellow community member who was on my friends list and the only option to deal with the situation currently is to block them. I feel that there should be a option to report harassment/bullying/misconduct etc on a user’s profile. That user should then be flagged and the messages looked into by someone from the Fitbit company to determine if the offenders profile should be suspended or revolked completely. Just blocking the person does not deter them to not harass someone else. If it is reported and recorded and the offender has multiple offenses they should be banned from either the community entirely OR at least the chat option. Please look into keeping the Fitbit community a safer one by being able to track when people are flagged for sexual harassment or bullying.

[Holly_J]

1) First name, last initial, and 16x16 pixel profile pic is not enough to tell if someone's real and how you might already know them, want to connect with them, or not. Fitbit is officially UNSAFE this way.

2) I had two of these just now; the lack of any reporting mechanism is what drove me to the forums just now (and I don't know if I'm happy or very sad to see I'm not the only one!) 

3) @MzP, I've only posted a couple of times in the Community feed. I'm guessing they've found a way to automate this, and any active user is a "target." It's not personal. They want to sell views on sexcams. It's probably an organized human trafficking organization that may or may not be based in Russia (may just have an .ru domain and be outside of Russia, who knows?) It may not even be that - it may just be phishing for personal info and credit cards (you almost can't feel sorry for anyone who gets far enough to decide, on bait like that, to PROVIDE a credit card). 

4) Fitbit should be able to automate search and destroy based on the string in the profile pages, but these people are smart enough to change it up now and then to avoid automated detection. I honestly think such accounts are now the majority on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook likes it that way - try reporting one, some time and see how they respond.

[tagureit]

Lately I've received several friend requests that when investigated turn out to be from Russian porn sites. Normally I just accept the request but I just happened to open up a couple and they had links to Russian porn sites. If Fitbit could somehow screen these out that would be great.

[MzP]

Thank you @Holly_J , I agree these spammers are perhaps automating the process to target different people whether or not you have ever posted on the community feed. It seems to have slowed down a little this week. I have one Fitibt friend abondon her old profile to establish a new one because she believed her account was hacked not realizing that multiple people have been receiving these bogus friend requests from these scammers. I wish Fitbit would send community notices to the app to let people know when there are systems wide issues like this so that others know that they are not the only one experiencing these issues. A lot of people don’t think to look here at the community forums online to see what is going on. For quite a few people, Fitibit voices/ community exists only on the phone app. 

[MzP]

Hi @tagureit, a suggestion has been posted as “Report A Spammer” by @iSting. You can use the search feature in suggestions/ideas to find this suggestion and vote for it. The more votes, the more eyes. My frustration is also in how to get the word out to other users in the Fitbit app community feed. I have seen some folks post a remark about this situation and I have suggested to folks to come here to vote for the suggestion but the original post in the community feed gets buried after a while. 

[Rich_Laue]

This now exists, look to the leaft of the cancel and reply buttons

[SunsetRunner]

Awesome @Rich_Laue 

[Holly_J]

Excellent.

[Rich_Laue]

I've been using that report button for a couple of years. 

[LanuzaFitbit]

Nice suggestion, thanks for sharing. We look forward to hearing what other community members think. 

[iSting]

This is a very important feature.  It should have been fixed by now.  I hope that a lot of people have not been infected by these friend requests.

[Rich_Laue]

The problem I see is that there was not a report button in the Fitbit app comunity feed. This has recently been addressed with the audition of a report button. 

This is a good step. 

However their still is needed a way of blocking a person's posts from showing up in your community feed. 

Currently we need to wait for enough people to report a person's posts to get the attention of a community moderator. Then hopefully the user is banned. 

Is this user then able to create a second or third fitbit account to continue the spamming. 

[Karaberlin]

I don't post on any feeds however I do get a lot of men friend requests (not sure how that happens since they don't have friends of mine).  I always check to see when they joined and the activity since joining and if I notice all their friends are women & no activity I delete  or ignore their request.  It would be nice if there was a report button on the friends request page not just in the community/group feeds.  I stumbled onto this convo looking on how I could stop the male spammers as I pretty much keep to myself on here except w/friends.  Fitbit needs to make an enhancement or algorithm that spots phishing or fake accounts or temporarily blocks them until they have a certain amount of activity it should be simple enough when you sign up you've got to at least have a few steps opening your fitbit device box the male friend request that I get have been  joined for a few days etc... but accounts don't even show 1 step (in the total steps taken).  I know when I got my fb and activated it it showed my step activity from that process (from trying your device out).

Fitbit needs to step up and make their users feel safe after all facebook & other social media's have an area that warns & informs you about stuff  and have easy locatable report/block & unfollow features right on that post or screen (fitbit doesn't).  I don't see fitbit jumping on this band wagon is it gonna take something serious for them to change and get up to speed by then their stocks & reputation will have been harmed look at facebook for example Zuckerberg lost millions in 1 day! 

[Binkus]

Please consider a Water Aerobics, Water Jogging app tool to or in the exercise choice on my Versa that will auto start and count calories burn. I would Love to have everything in one place.

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @iSting.

Thanks for sharing your suggestion with us. Please do know that it is already possible to report other users.

Thanks for posting in the Forums.