'This Profile No Longer Exists'
The meaning of a myspace bug
Katinka Hesselink 2007
There is a myspace rumour going around that when you see 'this profile no longer exists' under 'edit friends' in myspace, this means your profile is hacked. This is NOT TRUE. This merely means that for whatever reason, profiles you had on your friends list have been deleted. Some will have been deleted because they were hacked or spammers. Others will have been deleted because their owners just got tired of myspace. Whatever the reason, there is no cause for concern. YOUR PROFILE HAS NOT BEEN HACKED.
This is just a myspace bug.
In other words: Myspace should really just show you who the original owner was, or not show that a profile has been deleted at all. The same goes for your messages. It is quite anoying to have messages in your inbox that have no content, but do sit there with the announcement 'this profile no longer exists'. The same with seeing them sit there under 'edit friends'. Why do I have to bother deleting them, can't myspace delete them automatically? Anyhow, though this is an annoyance, it is no cause for worry. If you have other reasons for thinking your profile has been hacked, please read about what you can do to minimize the damage.
By the way: yes it's a good idea to delete these profiles under 'edit friends', just like it's a good idea to clean your desk every once in a while. Actually, cleaning your desk makes more sense: perhaps then you can find stuff again. Seriously, the only reason to delete the former friends whose profile no longer exists, is because it bugs you to have grey boxes with red X-es through them when you look under 'edit friends'. Other than that, since the profiles are gone, there is nothing to worry about anymore.
Here's the bulletin I got on www.myspace.com from one of my friends:
Jan 25, 2007 11:21 AM Subject I had some of these Subject I Had 29 of These! Please Read Y'all!
Body: I had 29 of these things on my Edit friends list...pretty scary how they even got there!
*Kristin*
I was a little shocked to try this, but I had 80 deleted profiles on my friends list for my other profile just now!
Just wanted to let you know a new way to check to see if a hacker has your account info...
On your home page go to EDIT FRIENDS. (THEY ONLY SHOW UP UNDER EDIT FRIENDS FOR SOME REASON)
Then check to see if any of them say
"This Profile No Longer Exists"
If there are some there, delete them. It will bring your number of friends down, but if you go and count your actual friends beforehand it will be the accurate number afterwards. Let everyone you talk to on myspace know about this.
TO BE SAFE I WOULD CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS TOO! I NEVER CLICK ON ADDS OR ADD PEOPLE I DO NOT KNOW! DON'T KNOW HOW THEY COULD HAVE GOTTEN INTO MY ACCT
P.S. I want all my friends to know that this is what happened to me when i was editing my friends and I was afraid I deleted the wrong people...they show up only under edit friends...you are not deleting your actual friends...i had about 30 of these hackers on my edit friends...I went through my husbands and my kids and found even more...so CHECK...JUST HIT EDIT FRIENDS...IF U SEE THE BIG RED X AND THIS PROFILE NO LONGER EXISTS THIS IS A HACKER ....DELETE IT...ASAP....