After being bought by Malaysian’s firm, Friendster slowly shifting from social networking site to a social entertainment site which will focus on gaming and music.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. All you need to do is google “Friendster” and its there right in front of your eyes:

For all of you Friendster loyal members out there, starting May 31st 2011 (1 week from now) Friendster will be fully transformed. That means all your cute little photos, testimonials, profiles, comments, blogs etc will be gone for good. You can either stick to playing games all your life in Friendster and just forget about your friends or move out to the REAL social networking sites (it’s about time ).

For most of us, Friendster is our first little playground of social network. We have so many fond memories there. It just hard to let go. Well, good news for you, Friendster gave us the option to backup all your precious data but you have to be quick the transfer tool available until May 31st only. So DO IT NOW! Don’t forget to share this with your friends.

Cropped version of Friendster spam comment

Another sample of Friendster spam comment

This is a two-fold solution: First you stop spam from entering into your Friendster account and then you block it from appearing on your Friendster page. OK so here is the first part. Most Friendster spam occurred as a result of compromised personal information. Therefore, we have two options: change the information OR clear the information from appearing publicly. Former is the most effective way to stop spam immediately while latter only stop it gradually.

If spam are being sent from your Friendster account and you did not send them, or if you’re receiving spam from your friends (and they did not send them) then this shows that you or your friend’s computer has been infected by the recently discovered “Koobface” virus. To do the changes its pretty simple. All you have to do is log-in to your Friendster account and follow one of these instructions:

a) If spam are being sent from your Friendster account and you did not send them:

1. Click Settings link (at the top of the screen).
2. Change your email address and password of your Friendster account.
3. Run an antivirus program (recommended) on your computer to disinfect this virus and prevent further infection.

Friendster Comment section

Friendster Message section

b) If you’re receiving spam from your friends (and they SAID they did not send them):

1. Go to your Friendster Comment/Message section (as shown above) and select all the spam and click Delete.
2. For spam message, mark the message as Spam in your Friendster account.
3. If a ‘friend’ keep sending you spam comments, you might want to Block User (as circled above).
4. Inform your friend they may have been infected by the “Koobface” virus.
5. Have your friend change their Friendster account password immediately.
6. Have your friend run an antivirus program on their computer to disinfect this virus and prevent further infection.

To clear your personal information is quite a lengthy process (and sometimes beyond your control). Here are few steps on how to do it:

1. Google your email address (the one that you use for your Friendster account).
2. If you see your email address in the search engine result pages, try to remove your email from being indexed by the search engine as much as possible. For example, try to ask the webmaster to delete your email in their website, remove your post in the forum or remove your comment in the blog.

Now comes the second part, blocking spam from appearing on your Friendster page. To do this, you have to play around with your Friendster settings. The goal is to block as much spam as you can from appearing automatically on your Friendster account. This will give you more control on what you want to appear on your account. Here are the basic steps:

1. Click Settings link.
2. Scroll down to ‘Who can send me messages’ section, choose My Friends in the drop-down list. (This is to set only your 1st degree friends are able to send you a message.)
3. Under the ‘Who can leave a comment’ section, make sure you select Friends Only in the drop-down list. (This is to ensure that only your trusted friends can leave a comment for you.)
4. Under the ‘Approve comments automatically’ section, you MUST select Never in the drop-down list. (This is the most critical step in order to block ALL spam comments from appearing on your Friendster profile without your permission.)

CAUTION:

• DO NOT Click ANY suspicious links even if its coming from your friends (unless you know for certain they DID send them). If you’ve accidentally clicked it, IMMEDIATELY run an antivirus program on your computer. Why? Read drive-by download article to know more.
• NEVER give out your email and password even if the website look EXACTLY like Friendster. This is because spammers intend to phish your information and use that information to send spam among your friends.

That’s all there is to it.

Please spread this blog to your Friendster friends to help them avoid the same problem. And save them from public humiliation.