Orkut, Phatoos and Tabloids

Every couple of weeks, I get urgent messages from my friends asking me to remove all my personal information and pictures from Orkut. The conversation usually goes as follows:

Concerned Friend (CF): Listen to me VERY carefully. I have an important message.
Me: (perplexed) ok.
cf: Remove all your snaps, personal info from Orkut. Delete your old scraps and remove people you don't know from your friend list.
Me: umm.. Why?
cf: Just listen to what I am saying. It is very important. I'll tell you later.
(At this point, I prod them more to tell me why and either they say that they saw my picture somewhere, which they can never reproduce, or they go back to the old newspaper-says-so-it-is-so excuse....)

cf: It came in TOI! They have run multiple stories on this. You should be aware of spammers!
me: umm...
cf: They will take your number and make it a call girl number!!!
(At this point the 'conversation' just deteriorates as I give them my reasons for not removing my information which includes informing them that their sacred TOI is actually, a tabloid.)


I don't understand my friends. Are they just a bunch of 'phatoos'? Being take advantage of by this tabloid selling stories by creating a fear of something popular?

Why don't they use their brains??
1) Question the newspaper report! Whatever is in there is not entirely true. The person writing the story has personal opinions and an editor who has to increase sales.

2) Anyone can get my personal information from multiple sites. Orkut is not the internet. My bro's website alone must have all my life's pictures.

3) How does it affect you if some porn is being sold with your picture on it?

4) Wouldn't the pimps steal pictures of models rather than of 'laywomen's'?

5) Why would anyone give out my number as a 'call girl'? Other than begrudged lovers? Call girls are part of a money making scheme. Why would any pimp give my number out for free?

6) I dont have any disgruntled ex-lovers. But even if I did, and they were to create profiles for me on Orkut with Porn, how does it really affect me? If any of my friends are dumb enough to believe in a porn pic with my head on top, then they are probably of too low an IQ for me to even continue any significant friendship. Other than that, I just have to get it deleted once I know about it.

So people please, if any of you CFs is reading this, please please stop reading tabloids, be a little more aware and most importantly, don't be a 'phatoo'.