Do not forget unwanted calls dialing SkypeIn numbers. I have gotten calls on a SkypeIn number that is virtually unknown. Clearly these are services just dialing numbers looking for any line. Where incoming IDs are known, blocking or otherwise flagging should be considered. Blocking unsolicited Skype users is much easier to handle. We only have to see them once.

Skype AddSpam (which I define as randoms adding you as a contact) would be significantly reduced were you to add a captcha to the process. This problem increases significantly when you put the Skype add function on a web page.

the problem of the actual solution is anybody can search for your skypename using the directory and report you!!!
I got my account blocked because of stupid foreigner who wanted to talk to me, i refuse, they blocked and report me!!!

The report abuse should be only if somebody add you as friend not if you receiving a message. If you receiving a message from someby which is not in your contact it's mean that you privacy are not setup right!!!

Please make it so that you can turn off the ability for people to ask for your contact info. I get a lot of spammers and parasites wanting my contact info, going to the length of making multiple accounts...It's BAD...

I've done everything suggested in the blogs - set my settings to only allow contact from people in my Contact list, etc., but the requests for me to become a spammer's contact keep coming. It took me a half hour to convince my wife that I don't know these people!

I right click on the contact request and block and report the spammer. The Skype window shows that I have blocked the spammer.

Then I right click on the contact request and delete the spammer from my contact list. The spammer doesn't disappear from my contact list, and the Skype window indicates that I have shared my contact information with the spammer! I DON'T WANT TO SHARE MY CONTACT INFORMATION WITH THE SPAMMERS!!!!

I right click on the spammer again and delete them once again, and the spammer disappears from my Contact list. But they now show up under Options>Privacy>Blocked Contacts! Please help me explain what lacy.hott.chick19, paola.delicious, sexual.riley, and others are doing in my blocked list! And imagine the agony of explaining what these creeps are doing in my contact list BEFORE I block, report, and double-delete them (which causes my information to be shared with them!!!)!

Please please PLEASE make it stop! I KNOW they are not contacts. I KNOW they have requested my contact information. I KNOW what to do with in Options. BUT IT DOESN'T WORK!!!!!

HELP!

I really love the 'report' button in the block, feel like I'm helping get rid of spammers. It'd be even cooler if you could report via the Skype API

Why isn't Daniel Berg getting involved in this issue???

It is not just the irritation of spam and unwanted solicitaton, it is the RISK that these idiots are sending links which can ruin a Skype-user's pc and delete their data!!!!

The solution to the main risk is simple and I keep telling people at Skype yet nobody does anything. Do you even have a tech department or a customer service one? Firstly, PLEASE just eliminate the ability to include a link in initial solicitation request. That would at least guarantee protection from virus. It is easy and quick first step that would at least demonstrate that Skype (and eBay) have some corporate responsiblity sense and are acvtually being proactive. To-date it is only "fried air" which you are selling as NOTHING has been done.

With the amount of contact request spam coming through Skype now it is absolutely not enough to merely suggest going through the whole blocking routine every time (it actually feels like a cruel joke to even click the block button at this point because you know that it will be just a matter of minutes/second until you get another one). I've been using skype for a couple years now and in the past 30 days the amount of this kind of spam is a constant trouble. Need 'disable contact requests' NOW, please.

The number of unwanted contacts on my Skype has now risen above 100 people over the last week. In the absence of any senior executive from Skype being active on this problem I have decided to eliminate it from my computers, forever if necessary. Although I doubt it very much, should any executive happen to see this posting, would they return my Skype credits to my credit card forthwith. Plus publish his/hers Skype name so that we can all send our request for contact and see how they like it day after day.

I've gotten rid of my years old account (this one) because I am receiving no less than 40 spam requests a day, it's unacceptable.

I signed up for a new account and now only get 5 a day. Still too many. Add a setting that blocks all requests to add people to their contact list and make it "Opt In".

This is so annoying and if it doesn't stop I will just switch to Google talk and give them my money. Ebay has billions of dollars but can't fix this? Give the company back to the original guys who created it.

Why not let users formulate their own 'captcha' authentication for Add requests? IE - The user could (optionally, of course) write a question AND the correct answer that someone must enter before they're allowed to request an add.
In my case, I might choose something like "What's StickyC's first name?" or "Is StickyC under 30 (yes/no)?" Obviously, anyone I'd want to talk to on Skype would know these things and the average spammer isn't going to want his minions burning the 5 minutes it'd take to Google the answers. No, it wouldn't stop all AddSpam, but it'd sure cut down on it.

The endless AddSpam is starting to significantly diminish the utility of Skype and I'm sure that you're losing business as a result.

If you value your customer base, at least add the facility to block the spammers by name as well as their skype sign up name as they seem to be using the same one over and over.

http://img.skitch.com/20090820-em3xgfen4cark71nypsbpuakim.jpg most recent epic fail spam attempt. Wish I could retro-actively report this user. Installing 2.8 now. Thanks, Skype!

I get the same sort of thing. Its really increased in the past couple of weeks.
I get 20-30 of these wastes of life pinging me everyday.
It makes me want to stop using skype just to get them to go away.

I was wondering if I was the only one getting these SPAM messages (plus my kids SKYPE account, the one they talk with their grandmother on). Obviously not, and I was too busy to check to see how wide-spread this actually is.

I could accept "normal" SPAM (dubious health claims, instant wealth!), but the sexual content SPAM has caused me to look long and hard at whether I should continue to use SKYPE. I love using it when my wife or I travel (either vacation or work) to keep in contact, either via IM or the voice/video method. I also use it to keep in contact with (and send files to) business contacts all over the world (Australia and US primarily).

It is a sad day indeed when business users (or any normal adult) look at going to MSN (or it's ilk) as an alternative to SKYPE.
Allan

This accelerating problem has existed for many months. Therefore, it is not surprising that many users are not "resting assured that you're working hard behind the scenes to combat spam" with a few simple requests repeatedly submitted to no apparent avail.

Some Skype competitors have instituted these, or similar features which seem to actually prevent intrusions.

The heavy acceleration of recent spam activity is also clear to many that these are occurrences of spam bots. Therefore, to "continue to block and report abusive users to us" is intended as a user pacification approach, only functional for actual abusive users. This does NOT work with bots (and you know it).

Results are what the user community expect and should receive. Soon.

Concerned users are abandoning the product for responsive alternatives. Exasperated users are organizing a media outreach campaign.

Actionable results is what will define management.

Please implement this in next Version, to radically suppress spam:

1)create a flag in profile labelled "Proactive new contacts". That flag would make it impossible to anyone to ask me to be added as a contact. A legitimate would-be contact can always phone me or email me asking to be added.
2)Skype should then provide for a way to manually add my contacts.

The freedom to lock out all contact requests should be granted to us, coupled with manual add.

The solution for the add contact spam is easy. All you allow is a default request and dont allow a message. Maybe allow a VERY short message so that people can specify a name (if its a name of more than 10 characters = FAIL). Also filter out ANY URL's in the messages?

I know it's been said before, but I want it to be clear. The solution is straight forward. When a user sets their privacy settings to "only those in my contact list", it should be stored on the server and calls, messages, requests, etc. should only be allowed from folks on their contact list. Very straight-forward, and it should be very simple to implement.

Note that Oprah uses Skype almost daily on her show, and sometimes does a promo for Skype just before signing off. Send her an email (you have to go to oprah.com and fill out a form) telling her what's going on - that unsolicited contact requests that include links to porn sites are allowed to be sent to unsuspecting users.

Then vote with your feet and cancel your Skype account. This problem has existed for over a year (judging from the dates on complaints in the forums), and all Skype does is pat us on our little heads and tell us to suck it up.

I'm done with Skype. Join me in walking away. When the giant gets too big to notice the customers it's time for the giant to die.

Perfectly reasonable suggestion about Oprah, Marshall. There are four primary threads on this issue. For a broader read of your note, may I suggest you cross post it to:

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=49841&st=200
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=370161,
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=360781&st=280
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=99101&st=0

Your tools don't work against automated spammers. If you want to fight them you have to do it like wordpress.

Why don't you do it like wordpress with akismet?
It works very well. No spam any more.

I agree, simply stopping the ability to place URLs/code or messages longer that say 20 characters in the contact request would dramatically decrease the amount of spam by making it less attractive for spammers to use.

Why anyone would need to write a "war and peace" introduction for themselves seems daft.

@quinnroger I’ve added you on Skype, and am happy to help you get a refund for unused Skype Credit.

@darth.anoo looks like you need to check your privacy settings – you can block IMs like this from people you don’t know.

And to those of you who have offered suggestions as to how we can combat spam – thanks. I read every comment posted here and make sure they’re passed on to the appropriate people.

I don't know if this has been suggested but how about requests to be added to IM self destruct after, say 24 hours. Then the 40+ a day requests can just sit and fester until they die rather than the user having to go through each with the three clicks (block, report abuse, block).

Oh dear. Skype is owned by ebay is it? That fills me with confidence. Too many concerns owned by too few people and its all motivated by greed. All ebay are interested in is taking your money. Fees on ebay have just increased by 50% as if you prove the point. And we are in a recession!
Dont count on ebay fixing the spam problem anytime this decade. Skype is great but the owners are tossers.

Surely it is easy to fix the options - i have it set not to accept anything unless from my contacts - so why can the incoming spam messages not be refused by the software??? It is becoming very annoying.

My privacy settings say "only allow people in my contacts list to contact me" and that's what I expect to happen, yet I've started getting spam requests frequently during the day, making Skype pretty much unusable.

I've downloaded the latest release build and double-checked the privacy settings but the problem is persisting.

Not sure if this is the result of a security hole or intended behaviour but if I wanted to receive direct requests from people who are not in my contacts list then I would expect to be able to choose that as a different option. Can we not simply have ALL requests blocked?

If it carries on too long I'm also going to have to switch over to something else - plenty of good alternatives around but it is of course hassle I don't need. More than happy to stick with Skype if I see some attempt being made to rectify the problem.

I hit the 50+/day mark today - I'll give this one more month and then I walk. As has been commented a number of times in this thread, the solution isn't hard to implement and reasons why these simple solutions are not implemented have not been presented.

This is not professional conduct, eBay, and your software customer base is about to die because of it.

The company I work at is changing to another solution for communications, but I still use it privately. That is about to change...

For Mac user that upgraded to Skype 2.8 and as a result are getting flooded with unsolicited contact requests (mainly porn spam), I recommend re-installing Skype 2.7.

Before I upgraded I didn't get contact request spam, after upgrading to Skype 2.8 I received over 15 a day. After downgrading back to 2.7 I am back to getting no unsolicited requests.

I'm not getting nearly as many Add Requests as some of you are, and I'm already sick of the hassle. I've never looked for alternatives to Skype. Someone mentioned Google Talk. I'll go check them out now. If you know of other software with similar functionality, please post it.

My yearly subscription is due in the next week or two. I'm going there now to cancel it.

If you sick of no response from Skype, Follow Me!

Why is it so hard to just not allow anyone to contact me if they aren't already on my contact list? I mean seriously...

PLEASE, add a "captcha" for friend requests. It will immediately solve the problem of getting spam through automated contact requests.

I recently upgraded to Skype 2.8 and I am now flooded with unsolicited contact requests. I will soon have to stop using Skype if nothing is done.

I am on Skype 4.1.0.141 . Strangers are being added to my contact list without my doing anything. All of my settings are to allow from my contact list only. This is a security bug. It's not normal spam, it's a security problem. Some hacker is modifying my contact list. This is also happening to my son. From looking at the "Skype Community" this has been going on for months and Skype will not fix it. This is unacceptable.

i am disgusted with the inability of skype to ensure that the privacy settings do their job. i have ticked the boxes which say i only want calls and instant messages from my contacts only but for the past 3 months i have had hundreds of unsolicited instant messages from porn stars wanting me to visit their site for webcam. i foolishly applied for a skype in number and this is on all my business cards so i am not happy to cancel my skype account. if it were not for this situation i would be doing so. it is completely unprofessional that i am paying for the skype number and have to put up with this. please escalate this to the highest order and be aware from the comments above and on twitter that users will walk with their feet.

Skype's video and audio quality have improved over the years to the point where it is almost rivalling business grade video conferencing products. It is a great pity, that if the problem of unsolicited user requests is not addressed immediately, I like may other users, will be uninstalling Skype once and for all.

Skype has isolated itself from business users, as well as personal users, as it is no longer safe to leave children, anywhere near a PC/MAC with Skype installed, due to these unwanted messages.

Sort it out, and give us the ability to turn off these requests, or continue to lose users. Your Choice!

I have been getting dozens of spam Skype messages per day. Problem only seemed to start in last couple weeks. I don't know if this is because I switched to latest version of Skype around that time, or if that is co-incidental. It makes Skype unusable, because there are so many spam Skype messages and spam Skype friend requests valid Skype conversations are getting lost amongst them. I'm using latest Skype 4.1.0.141.

I've set the settings to only allow people in my contact list to send IMs to me, but it makes no difference. I've also used the option to block users many times, but it doesn't stop spam.

Ironically just as I hit Post on my previous post, I received another Skype spam...

Sat 22nd Aug. Still no word from Skype mismanagement, what the hell do we have to do in order to get some response from these cowards?. Has anybody found an alternative web communications organization that could accommodate all the dissatisfied people commenting on this site?.

yes... I spend most of my day clicking on report spam.. yet the next day... I get more... rate my webcam, add me to your contacts.. blah blah blah...

no matter what my security settings say to allow pms from only friends on my contact list... thats a useless function it appears...

Please provide an option to completely block contact requests. The spambot contact request volume is out of hand and I am considering abandoning Skype. I am smack in the middle of your ideal user profile; I use SkypeOut & SkypeToGo creating the revenue Skype needs. Skype has become an integral part of our business operation - please don't force us to change.

Something needs to be done soon.

I have been using Skype for 3 years, and I think it's such a great thing that colleagues comment that I must have shares in it (which I don't).

Earlier this year I started promoting it as a tool and a cost saver for people in my company who are all over the U.S., especially as it combines IM and voice conferencing.

For me, the AddSpam only started kicking in over the past month or two, and even though I now use 3 different accounts, the AddSpam comes up even in a brand new account. That suggests a security issue rather than a public directory issue.

If not fixed soon, I will be looking for alternatives and suggesting likewise to my colleagues.

Skype was the leader and innovator in this field, just as e-bay was in the world on online auctions. E-bay is now a "Me too" player and I'd hate to see complacency by Skype make it a "has been". The clock is ticking.

I'm sick of this. I've waited, hoping, Skype would fix the problem and they haven't. I've used Skype since they first came online to talk to family and take care of business back home while deployed. I'm done with it. I'm moving to Google Talk. Keep the money left on my account for Skype credit. I don't want to deal with you anymore because you show a lack of concern to your customers. OUT

So Peter, what's it gonna be? Will you have somebody with "power" from Skype address this issue on this blog? Or do we walk? Your call, my friend.

I'm testing Gizmo right now.

Listen up skype people, I am sick and tired of getting 50+ SPAM friend requests every bloody day. YOU HAVE GOT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Lots of people have suggested very good working solutions and look at you!! seems like you guys are sitting on your hands.

I've had this problem for months but about three weeks ago it just became unbearable.

Oh and by the way, my privacy settings are all good.

What really grinds me, is that spammers are protected by the law, I 'm wasting my time here, but why not start to pass law so every spammer who sends links makes the linkee liable for the legal costs whether they are in the right or wrong, sounds a bit like guilty until proven innocent? Why cannot Skype admins create mousetrap accounts and use those as early flags?

I am proposing a simple queue with maximum 1 request every 2 hours auto-delay on all add-contact requests, if you get 2 blocks in a row to freeze your account. No rocket science required, and it's so fair because if needed your "friends" can add you if you e-mail them first (you are friends right?). As for legit business applications, yea, if there is verified account and $10 or whatever in the account, then that must count as bail money.... people-lets get real here. Skype have a great product, no need to ruin it by letting louts run the show.

It would be very cool to get something from the higher ups at Skype just to let us know that a fix for this is gonna be pushed out soon.

I agree with those above - I have set my privacy settings to allow calls and chats only from people in my contact list, yet still I get these ridiculous "friend-requests". As yet I am not seeing high volumes - but I am dreading what may happen.

Skype needs to fix this fast, or I will walk away.

Monday morning - start up my work PC - I have received 4 spams within 5 minutes.
Oddly, I barely got any spam in the weekend (I use the same account on my private machine). I guess spammers need their weekend off like everybody else. Maybe they're even unionized?

Seriously, eBay. Stop sitting on your hands. This is not a hard fix and it should have top priority to the exclusion of everything else on the Skype project. Hear the users and be done with it. You're starting to look like Sony.

The contact spam would be less of a problem if you did not allow URL links in the message. One careless moment and the spam recipient can be clicking through to a trojan site or whatever. Skype need to solve this spam security problem or business users will have to reconsider allowing skype inside their firewalls.

Spammers find our Skype Names in a search list. Easy solution, get rid of this list! Or even better, make a button in Skype where you are able to choose not to be in a User List where everyone can search through. Problem solved!

I have flagged up this problem and searched the Skype data base for a solution thoroughly in the past and come to the conclusion I was doing something wrong. Enough has been said. What we need now is reassurance and action or customers will simply evaporate. Most people's patience is sadly running out.

Overheard through the grapevine this morning, was an unconfirmed rumor regarding a CNN contributor's peaked interest in developing a segment that could air during the next Nielsen sweeps period which commences on October 29th that could be entitled something like:

From Skypefest To Pornfest ... Don't Go There Queen O!
Will Porn Spam create the next in a string of endorsements-gone-wrong?

Of course, let's be quite clear ... there might be nothing at all to this report. But speculate, if you will, whether Oprah (hypothetically assuming that's Queen O) — morally, ethically, and to protect her brand — would initiate some pre-emptive action. What measures might they be, and how might all that impact Skype and, of course, the anti-porn initiatives? What would be the probable fallout? Now, having speculated ... what might be the most productive, timely, and forward-thinking plan of action that would be most beneficial for Skype and, of course, the user community?

Skype has graciously provided this — remarkably, and notably simplex — blog. So, user community ... what constructive thoughts, ideas, and suggestions might you like to offer to Skype and, of course, eBay? [whether the rumor is false ... or not]

Heck, your suggestion might even get read ... apparently not by Skype senior management (well, maybe they read, but either deign to respond, are significantly distracted, or wish a more cordial invitation), but maybe it would by ... no, she wouldn't ... would she?

(Note: With so many users, 480 million according to Skype's press release, there may be many who might ... inadvertently ... overlook this blog. They may, in fact, wish to be informed, by alternate means, of this time-sensitive opportunity to assist Skype by lending their voice. It would be admirable for users to inform and support your fellow users in order that they may fulfill their wishes.)

(Post Note: When discussing matters of urgency and sensitivity: security, moral, ethical, social responsibility, and brand issues ... please be appropriately understanding, considerate, and respectful of senior management's current restructuring, valuation, IPO, and IP licensing concerns and requirements ... and the impact ... if requesting a corporate review of principles and priorities.)

For those who might prefer to offer their cogent suggestions directly, here are the contacts:

Josh Silverman, President
Skype Technologies S.A.
22/24 Boulevard Royal, 6e etage, L-2449 Luxembourg

cc: Daniel Berg, CTO
Christopher Dean, CSO
Brian O'Shaughnessey, Communications

John Donahoe, President and CEO
eBay, Inc.
2145 Hamilton Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125

cc: Michael Jacobson, General Counsel

Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey Show
PO Box 909715
Chicago, Illinois 60690-9715

(312) 633-1182

You should restrict anyone requesting to be your contact to not be able to send any message with the request. As it seems spammer add message and web link with invitation.
The message should be fixed message with the name & location of the requester.
This approach may reduce what information spammer can give you at first.

The tech press have been covering this story for two years and still no solution or an acknowledgement that the source of the problem is the openness of the user database that lacks the simple expedient of an ex-directory option.

To exacerbate things, Skype is very popular with teens and pre-teens which means indiscriminate spamming of a sexxual nature reaches a very large number (millions) of curious children.

How long will it be until we read of some horrific abduction of a child groomed into meeting a sexual predator via sexual solicitations facilitated by the Skype network?

And will Skype's management response continue to be silence. Or perhaps an announcement "we're working on it" on a mendacious marketing blog.

Just wanted to add my voice. My entire company (several thousand users) may drop Skype as our standard IM platform because of the constant hassle of blocking the deluge of new contact requests from tatanya99@fuckable.cn and her thousands of friends.

We're a media company, with a high-profile flagship magazine and website, and the writers and editors are people that you don't want to piss off. Not if you value your reputation.

At the very least, I wonder whether there is a way to mass-delete-and-report the dozen or so contact requests that I currently remove one by one every time I turn on my computer.

Also, if there is a business reason for not addressing this problem, I wonder whether you could let me in on the secret? Because it seems like suicidal behavior for a company like yours.

The fact that this problem is really old, and really annoying to its users, and has several easy to implement solutions is baffling to me (a software engineer).

I'm already looking for alternatives to Skype.

I'm a paying customer and I use to love skype. But now I receive 20 contact request everyday, I even receive request from people that I've blocked in the past. Seems like Skype doesn't care that customers are getting spammed. I guess it's time to start looking for a new service provider.

This is an escalating problem which Skype could, with determination, fix. There is obviously no real determination, how hard can it really be to have the phrase "Allow XX only from people on my contact list" really do what it says? Skype has the ability to check a contact list before posting the IM/Conversation/Call or whatever.

I have used Skype since it first was introduced, and have an account.

Believe me Skype management (if you read), people are getting pissed off at this inactivity on your part.

I am actively looking for an alternate and if nothing gets better in a short term, I'll vote with my feet and wallet - even if I don't find a suitable replacement, I am not having porn spam on my PC.

Ok, so I block someone.... and the next guy.... and the next guy.... but they still show up in my contacts list. Now my contats list has the 5 people I like to talk to, and the 50+ spammers. Can you at least make a checkbox so I can hide the blocked people? I don't want to see them. I want to be rid of them. If I just delete them, then they come back again as Skype doesn't recognise them as they have been deleted from the locked list.
Even I could write the required bit of code an I'm a noob.

spam is terrible. Skype is totally failing to deal with this. I receive daily about 25+ contact requests and rising. I spend several minutes a day blocking and reporting them and then deleting them from my lists. Needless to say, this is ruining my skype experience. WHAT IS SKYPE DOING ABOUT THIS!!!

Our IT people have been tracking this spam problem with Skype for sometime. They've come to the conclusion that due to the unresponsiveness of the company on this issue, they're moving the 2000+ employees spread across 8 countries to ooVoo (www.ooVoo.com) which appears to have dealt with the problem satisfactorily.

I'm now testing ooVoo at home for family in the U.S. and in Asia on PCs and Macs. I'm finding the transition smoother than expected and no porn popups. (Skype, irrespective of the settings on our Macs, porn popups do still occur.)

Sometimes, you have to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. -- The Gambler

This is getting crazy here too. I have always had the odd one or two a week, but now I'm getting about 10 per day. Its getting to the point of installing Skype and finding an alternative. The annoying thing too with the new skype version whenever I go between office and home PC's I get all the messages like notifications on my home PC so get all ten at once when I go home after I already blocked and reported the abuse!

All I want is a tool that will disable all contact detail requests. I don't use IM either, so a switch for that would be nice, too. If I want to add someone as a contact I will, but I will do so via regular contact with that person - As I have in the past. The requests for software changes made by the thousands of skype users are not outlandish. We are paying for a service and have the right to determine if we want to allow these requests. Obviously most (if not all) of the paying skype users don't want these requests. I have reverted to version 3.8, but my company and I are looking for another carrier - It is costing us too much money for workers to spend 1/2 hour to an hour cleaning the spam off their contact list. Please contact us if you need help fixing your software. I am sure one of our programmers can fix this in a matter of hours. Plus, we would charge much less than the what you are losing by people quitting your service because of this issue.

Glad I'm not the only one with these issues, not so happy reading the posts above though, as it seems Skype just does nothing about this.

Here's an idea: instead of sending a user a notification when someone adds them to their contact list, make it so that BOTH users must add each other to their respective contact lists, before EITHER receives any notification or Add request.

I am now receiving (on average) 10-15 contact add requests per day, all of which pop up in the Conversations tab in Skype. Most of which are from usernames containing sexually-oriented language which I'd really rather not have my 8-year old kids see when it pops up.

I used Skype to communicate with family abroad- it used to be quite a valuable tool in that respect- much cheaper than using the landline. However, I am now moving to Google Voice because of all the porn-based add-spam.

Another idea: do something about this. A workaround is not good enough. It's sad to see this happen to such a great technology, just because the developers won't listen to their users. Nevermind the "idea" behind Skype. Stop the spam.

You're loosing paying customers, and as more people realise it, it's a downward spiral. Tell me how that's good for business?

Just adding to the chorus-- appreciate your efforts to fix it. It's become a really major problem in the last 3 weeks or so, and seems to be getting worse by the day. It's now pretty much at the point that I need to turn Skype off when I'm not making a call.

ATTENTION ANY SKYPE ADMINISTRATOR WHO GIVES A DAMN ABOUT KEEPING HIS JOB:

As you can see from the number and hostility of responses, Skype has a serious issue on its hands, one which will kill the company in a matter of months if not corrected.

You need to immediately communicate with the user base that you are aware of the critical situation and that a download will be available on a date certain. Trust me, this is going to be huge. I've communicated these issues to several journalists and I think they are about to report about this huge liability on national news channels.

Meanwhile, I pose a question to the user community: what other services are good? I've taken a cursory glance at oovoo.com but haven't signed up yet.

I've seen a few Forum user replies about ooVoo that indicate it's a reasonable facsimile, but without the spam problem. You can find them in the Security thread.

I hate this spam...but I hate nothing done about it even more.
There are about 69,000 results for the search "better than skype" in Google. The problem is the approach to any issue with Skype is achingly response-less. I'm pretty much done with Skype. Just like all good applications that die from lack of support from companies who relax in their accomplishment, Skype will instantly lose market share when the next solution of equal ability rears up. adios.

hi
my skype name is : camil9191

some one change it to : camil91913534,

and change my password did not let me to log-in
please call me @ 1780 446 9003
i try to reset my password it came in as a wrong accout skype name ???
i did stop the auto recharge from paypal .. after some one use it to
recharje skype for 2 extra time

its very important to call me
i been with skype for 6 yers and i put thuwsents of dolors .. now i lost
all my contact ... and i cant log in to my account
callllllllllllllll me ASAP

camil nassar
780 446 9003

hi
my skype name is : camil9191

some one change it to : camil91913534,

and change my password did not let me to log-in
please call me @ 1780 446 9003
i try to reset my password it came in as a wrong accout skype name ???
i did stop the auto recharge from paypal .. after some one use it to
recharje skype for 2 extra time

its very important to call me
i been with skype for 6 yers and i put thuwsents of dolors .. now i lost
all my contact ... and i cant log in to my account
callllllllllllllll me ASAP

camil nassar
780 446 9003

Camil, I'd suggest you post your problem to the user Forum on this thread http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=345171 so that it gets the attention of the Skype moderators and can be tracked. This is a blog with uncertain visibility into Skype Support. Alternatively, Skype Support email for these kinds of issues is security@skype.net. Also, probably best if you refrain from posting your phone in a public Forum, but okay for email to Support.

I am getting pretty sick of the spam requests to add me as a contact. Way more than ever in the past. How complicated could it be to have the following options configurable?:

-Unlisted profiles/usernames that can't be viewed at all
-Do not allow others to add me as a contact
-CAPTCHA for those searching profiles or adding contacts

In contrast to Skype's innovative and trendy image (now crumbling), they have problems with the following:

-Buggy software. (Don't even get me started.)
-A customer support structure that feels a bit like a brick wall.
-Behind the times when it comes to response to security issues.
-Unstable product.

If Skype does somehow survive all this, I doubt they will end up as the top dog. Somebody will eventually realize that a much better job can be done and will put them out of business.

Speaking of business, can you IMAGINE running your business with this product?? I can't.

Interesting link: http://www.viddler.com/explore/TheUberOverLord/videos/12/

Speaking of a lack of response to security issues...

Why is my Skype username have to get published when I post?! Great, now I am easier to find by the spammers...Couldn't there just be a way to have an alias attached to your username? Why do we have to come up with all these ideas! Aren't there highly educated people making nice salaries up at Skype that are supposed to be thinking up new ideas to improve the product? Maybe it is time for some staff changes...

"Why is my Skype username have to get published when I post?!"

Sensible question. You get to choose an alias on the Security Forum: http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showforum=72, but not here on the blog.

I am running 12 accounts in order to monitor which are safe and which are not. 5 are so far free from any spam contact. The other 7 receive an average of 1 contact every 2 days. I block and report abuse on all these .I check the following day to see if they have been removed from the Main Skype Database. Since the 25th August none of the ones reported have been removed , they are still there. I prefer to believe that Skype now have a different initiative and are collecting information on these accounts instead of deleting them. They are all appear to be in the United States. I will post further on if or when the Blocked/Abuse accounts appear to be removed from the database. If it continues much longer I will be going over to a different provider.

It really should be as simple as:
If your have your privacy settings to block anyone not on your contact list, you see nothing from someone not on your contact list. Ever.

Once that is done and working, you could some up with a workaround for people who want contact who might create a new identity (probably a lot less likely once the spam is totally blocked by your personal settings).
Maybe a confirmation box. They send a message to you from the new identity and (since your settings are set to private) they are presented with a message box saying "The account you are messaging is set to full privacy, enter the confirmation password that account has provided you with to be allowed to leave a message" Or maybe "Enter your identity which is already on this account's allow list to be able to leave a message"

No matter what you do, the privacy settings should override anyone else's ability to force a message onto your screen.

A private initiative (temporary workaround) is posted here: http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=412061&st=0&gopid=1888671&#entry1888671

I am sure that Skype is hoping this unrest will blow away in time. They want to keep the ability to contact anyone so they can grow this into a full social networking application.

However it has originally been used by people who mainly want to communicate just with specific people that they already know.

It may be that Skype/Ebay are happy to lose the original people who used Skype, in order to grow the social networking side, filling the lose of users with new ones who are happy to receive random "friend" requests.

I think this is a mistake, they had a good niche which they filled well and just by losing that, doesn't mean that the vacuum will be filled by social n/w users, there's already too many other alternatives.

The solution is clear if Skype wanted to do something, simply have an "opt-out" from the public directory. Given it is so simple, they must have made a decision not to do that, hoping the "unwanted users drop out and their prefered social networking users join.

This is so bad that I have decided to cancel my auto-recharge and I will only use skype as a free service. Sadly, over the years, I have recommended Skype to many friends and I have become rather dependent on it to communicate with them. I will now use Windows Live Messenger as much as possible. I will also remove Skype from my iTouch and will not use my Skypephone anymore!

Skype are obviously aware of this problem but do nothing about it despite the possibilty of easy fixes. Other IM's have managed to prevent this problem or not have it at all.

If anyone is interested I have just found a temporary workaround to fix the problem.

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=412061

I have installed the program and it works on Windows 7 and so far I have not received any spam

I had to uninstall Skype 4.0 to save my marriage! My wife objected to all the Skype porn spam. I tried setting the most stringent privacy settings. Somehow the spammers kept coming. I don't need to receive Skype invitations from anyone. There should, period. I just make out going calls. There should be a privacy setting for that, but alas there is not. Reading through the comments on this list, I think Skype had better create a new version that meets this need, or everyone sill be uninstalling it. In the meantime I guess I'll have to re-install Skype temporarily, when I need to make a call. I'm glad I don't have to use Skype every day! (This obviously is not a viable solution for everyone).

Why is it that, at the top of this page, it says "Our anti-spam initiatives", yet there are no details whatsoever on any anti-spam initiatives. IN the August 19 posting, Peter Parkes does not even say that Skype is working on the issue - just that they "don't take it lightly".

They are just asking the customers to report the abusers - but then, as has been reported by others in this forum, do nothing about them.

Given the outrage, why does Skype not publish their plan, and the proposed release date - to at least give people an idea that perhaps someone is working on the issue.

The number of bogus Skype invitations has gone considerably up. What's the deal? What's Skype doing about this? I like the ideas mentioned here:
1. Implement a captcha.
2. Let the user implement their own security questions? For example: "what's fmore's first name?" Or "what's the add password fmore gave you?"

Please Skype: do something about this. Quick. Everytime I look at my Skype icon I see a new message that I'm forced to open and 99% of the time it is an invite from some bogus person.

Just thought I'd chime in too. Up to 10-15 requests a day. I report them all and frankly it's gotten quite tiresome. I've upgraded to the current version and checked all my privacy settings and still it persists. I have used skype for years now and referred a lot of ppl to it who use it regularly and were happy with it til recently. Please fix this or I will need to uninstall and recommend that to the ppl who ask me what they can do about it.

Funnily enough, "vivian.attractive" sends me a request right as I'm typing this... so look for that in the report soon. Bye vivian.

Dear Skype,

I too am suffering from the rise in contact request spam. Again this is mostly of a sexual nature, web cam this, sexy that and so.

What really bothers me is how this has impacted my son. We used to skype with family overseas and out of state regularly. However both sets of grandparents are really alarmed by the spam. They assume they've been infected / are being watched by someone else and so on. I have similar problems at work now too - I find it hard to recommend it to clients and colleagues in fact it's driving us as a corporation to an oracle product for internal communication.

Skype you need to restore the ability to block unwanted contact requests.

For everyone else's benefit Skype created this problem between version 2.7 and 2.8. In version 2.7 if you selected "Allow IMs from people in my contact list only" you would not receive SPAM requests.

I'm off to cancel my skype pay services in protest until you fix this - I suggest others do the same.

Professionally I'm in a public facing role - may I suggest that you follow my experience which is to make the customer happy. Restore the behaviour from version 2.7 while you work on a longer term solution - waiting until you have the wizz bang solution I'm sure you are working on is a mistake. It'll be hard to attract users from competing services if you don't offer some sort of interim solution and your "report abuse" option is unacceptable - mostly because it is useless. Oh and guess what just received a request from savannah.beautiful1 - another useless abuse report to send.

Yours Frustrated

I suspect that the complaining on this forum is futile. Skype has known about this problem for a year now - see http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=201581 - and, in that time, it has only gotten worse. As I mentioned earlier, their statement on their "initiatives" does not describe any initiatives.

So, what do people recommend as an alternative. I checked out ooVoo - but it seems completely focused on video calling. I use Skype for audio calls to phones - and if ooVoo offers a reasonable service on this, they keep it well hidden on their site.

I have switched to ooVoo and making phone calls is easy, though I primarily use it for video calls. http://www.oovoo.com/How-To-ooVoo/Phone%20Calls.aspx will tell you how. It is not buried, but you won't see a phone tab if you haven't entered any phone numbers. Once you do add a phone number for a contact, the phone tab will be visible with a prominent tab next to your Contacts tab.

Of course, you'll need to purchase a plan to make those phone calls and video conference calls. Chats and video are free for one-on-one.

Skype's efforts to prevent unwanted contact is pathetic.

I have all settings to allow ONLY people on our contact list from contacting my 9 year old daughter, and she is constantly flooded by new "contacts." My daughter is no longer allowed to use Skype until this problem is solved. I will set up Oovoo for her tomorrow, because we love video communication.

I have two suggestions:

1) Limit the number of persons that ANY Skype user may try to add to their contact list in a day. I would say that 5 is a reasonable number. The LEGITIMATE need to add more than 5 new contacts in a day is very small. And for the few times it occurs, they can get a notice saying they can try again tomorrow.

2) MAKE THE "BLOCKING" ACTUALLY FUNCTION. The settings appear simply to be BROKEN. There needs to be a setting (that actually works) so that ONLY people on your contact list may contact you.

The long-term plan: if this problem is not solved I am going to use up my credits and then buy magic jack for audio and Oovoo for video, which would be a shame, because I like Skpye. I am also going to write to various tech mags to suggest that others do the same.

It seems inexcusable that Skype is not acting to fix this problem.

Kill the spam or I am leaving Skype for something better.

OK. This seems like it might be the solution: Downgrade. Download Skype 3.8.

Versions after that includes some bug enabling unwanted people to contact you.

Sorry Skype, your programmers must really suck.

If spammers couldn't include a link in the initial request (the first message they send to a person before that contacted person answers them for the first time) , it would help a lot.

Please do something until you render Skype useless for me.

Sort this out or I'm off to google talk, the only thing keeping me on Skype is convenience.

Everyone else I know using Skype also has this 'friend request' spam issue, if I had kids using my PC I'd have removed Skype already.

I can't understand why Skype haven't already fixed this issue.

I just signed up with Skype last week, and am already fed up with the spam requests from those with either pornographic names or links to obscene websites. No matter how many times I block a request, I've noticed that the same real name pops up with a different account name. Something needs to be done about this. I would never let my kids use Skype due to the friend requests I've gotten and its only been a week that I've had my account. I would love to see an option under privacy where you can block all contact requests unless the other user has a password or can answer a question correctly. Other sites use this, I don't understand why its taken so long for one to appear on Skype. I've been looking into this on other forums and am astounded that its been going on for so long and nothing has been done to eliminate this problem. Please do something to fix this soon, I'm tired of blocking people with obscene user names and websites.

Spambot contact request continue to annoy and no progress fro Skype in resolving this for weeks. Come on! I'm running my credit down and moving on. Enough is enough..

Please implement an ex-directory system, or some mechanism that
allows users of skype to fully control their privacy. The current
system is frankly inflexible. I use skype to communicate, not
operate as a cog for human detection of spam in skype.

Maybe skype could introduce an invitation ticket procedure.

One can send a ticket to another (future)user (for instance per smtp-mail) to enable him to communicate.

I am going to ask Skype for a refund and cancel my account

I have used Skype for a year or so.
I just signed up for a year of Long Distance.
In the past few weeks I have been plagued by unwanted IM requests.
Many of these are lacivious XXX types
It is unacceptable to me to have this junk in my Skype account/contacts.
Yes, I know how to block, delete and set Privacy controls.
But nothing stops this junk

So my message to Skype is - stop this junk, or give me more privacy tools to hide my Identity.

I just recently cancelled my land-line home phone because of a plague of telemarketers as well a fax calls at 3:00 a.m.

PS

I think Skype must have become infected with the eBay customer service DNA

I have been using skype maybe about a year or so without any problems what so ever, and so I though my daughter could use it as well to talk with her dad in another country, but sadly as soon as she signed in started these unwanted friend request coming. My daughter is 11 years old and she is receiving links to porn paiges!!!! This is just unacceptable!

Now I have to check her account first before she can use it every single day. I´ve really had it and I´m considering of closing her accunt. Too much is too much! It seems that this really is a big problem world wide (we live in Finland) and since nobody is doing anything to solve this problem... Well, then we just have to stop using skype then.

To all of you who have commented so far – thanks for your inputs. To address a specific concern about whether or not we’re listening/acting: we have a team at Skype dedicated to combatting spam (which includes senior management), and we read all of the comments on this post. So please keep them coming

I've been using Skype for about a year now, and in the past month, I've been receiving massive amounts of IM spam. I block/remove them all, but it is a full-time job doing this - insane! And the spammers create fake names faster than I can block them, so what is the point? I've changed all Skype settings to only allow people in my contact list, etc., but it is the REQUESTS for contact info keeps coming. Skype needs to add option to NOT allow request for contacts. If someone I know wants to contact me, they can email me and I should be able to send them my Skype ID and a "key" so that they can "come in" but no one else can. Something that will make it impossible for unknown people to "ask" for my personal information. Just like me getting an unlisted phone number!

I agree with everyone on this post, it is just not on. The setting of "only people in my contacts list can contact me" just obviously isn't the case. It's simple, unless you approve or even a pre-approval type set up would work (by way of adding a user and you only see them/they only see you by mutual adding of each other)I have introduced so many people to skype and every single one of them is now getting crazy amounts of spam a day. This is a major privacy issue and it is worrying that such a big campany such as skype are OBVIOUSLY not doing anything about it.

I have 12 accounts that I have been checking on a daily basis. 4 have never received any porn spam , 8 others have received 1-2 each on alternate days.I am puzzled why posters who receive in excess of these amounts do so, and I don`t.?
I also note that in the last week none of the Block and Report Abuse porn IDs that I selected have not been removed from the Database, previously they were gone in 24 hours.
This may be part of a Skype ininitiative ?.........because...... in the last 48 hours I have not received any new Contact Requests......I will report further on this matter either way.

I have had a subscription to Skype for the past year and will NOT be renewing it when it expires in the next few days. I started complaining about the excessive spam contact requests just after I started using Skype and got the same response from support "We are aware of the problem, we take it seriously, we are working on a solution, etc." In the meantime the problem has only worsened and as far as I can tell Skype has done nothing. It is clear Skype is not going to give users the necessary privacy tools to block these incessant contact requests. The suggestion to continue blocking them is worse than ludicrous.

I was fortunate enough to get an invite for Google Voice and have switched to it. It meets all my requirements for VOIP and there are no contact requests or spam to deal with ever. Plus it is FREE for all calls to the USA and Canada (I paid Skype $30/yr for that) and the overseas charges are the same as Skype (e.g., call the UK for 2 cents/min). A Google Voice number is also free (Skype charges another $30/yr for a Skypein number). You can also call out on your landline or cell for free to the US and Canada and at the GV rates for other countries - no computer needed. When Google Voice gets in full swing and is available to all comers I think Skype may die a sudden death. If it hadn't been for this Skype Spam mess I probably would not have sought an alternative - so I have the spammers to thank for saving me my Skype subscription costs. Skype is falling apart at the seams - and mostly because they simply don't listen to their customers. I think we are starting to see the death spasms and they are not able to muster the where-with-all to keep afloat.

I am another Skype user who has recently started to get a lot of unwanted "contact requests". I can't see any way of blocking these and it is becoming a pain, as well as embarrassing that the account my kids use is also receiving these often sexually explicit messages. Is there any way to address this?

Further to my post ,(4 above), after some random checks today , I assume (that Skype with the update to the Program to v.166 on 3rd Sept) , Skype have now made porn spamming less attractive by stopping the URL inclusion in Contact Requests. I have not received any further spam messages since my last post.

I am concerned that I appear to be the only one to date , (in this blog) , to have become free of spam . It would be helpful perhaps if previous sufferers can now post a 1 line message " Yes I am now free of porn spam contact requests" , (or similar),...then we can have a bit more confidence that Skype have at last got it right ?

Hmmmm. Spam-free for two days now. Dare we hope?

Contact requests are never-ending and the ones I receive are obvious hooker names. I mean, who has the GD time to do this? What's the return? Skype needs to block all IMs that are not in a customer's contact list. Very simple. I can't understand why it's not implemented.

Three days spam-free and counting! Wow!

Yes its brilliant marshall ! , same here, I am only looking at 3 or 4 accounts now , but they appear still to be free of porn spam.

I am glad that Skype have now managed to fix it for 2 of us at least............

Finally! I'm happy to report that I've been spam free for several days now, too. Good job, Skype! (Better late than never!)

I do wish you had acknowledged the severity of the problem more publicly and provided a bit more confidence that a solution was coming. I realize it must have been a technical challenge (and likely will continue to be a challenge as the spammers adjust), but we users need to know you are passionate about your customer service!

hey peter
it is being almost a month that you post this message and no news from skype
you say "Please keep an eye on this blog, where we’ll announce the public-facing bits of our approach as we release them."
when we will get any news ??

Yes I am now free of porn spam contact requests. Thanks for fixing this problem at last.

We are experiencing this problem while piloting deployment of Skype (business version) in our organization.

Unfortunately, also with current (.166) release, we still receive plenty of these random contact requests (3-4 a week) even with all the privacy settings on.

Until this problem doesn't get fixed there is no way we can deploy skype in our organization.

It would be nice to have some official communication on what's going on/what's the roadmap on this issue.

So, if I'm reading this correctly, the "Only allow people in my Contacts list to contact me" doesn't actually work???

I get about 3 or 4 spam requests a week from people who aren't in my Contacts list...

Erm, this goes against the above option...????

This is funny, I got spamm callers, n according to the last one, luiscriado23 I was calling him!! completly nonsense, I recently bought skype phones to talk with my girlfriend, and since I am using skype every day, its nonsense, 4 days ago i got a call n a webcam video og a guy jerking off, reeally annoying for my family around. instead of receiving messages, skype should notify that sonebody wants to talk to u, but not play video by default.

I Love skype, but its like facebook at the beginning, we dont have control on our privacy with the open way that users can send u webcam video, n we cant acept or reject, its just there, same with messages from ppl out of my contact list.

This has to change otherwise users will go away.

@joseluis.v.g you should update your privacy settings so that only people on your contact list can call you – that’ll make sure that sort of thing doesn’t happen in future.

peterparkes:

You are not reading these posts before commenting on them? I too have my privacy options limited to Contact only & Invisible status. Even today, during a call, I got two unsolicited requests for my contact info. I thank auth_blocker,
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=412061&st=40&p=1907571&#entry1907571
from blocking these (mis)users.

Linux users out in the cold again, eh?