<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"With all the buzz around social media, opportunistic and shady businesses are savvy to the fact that those with less than perfect intentions want to take the easy street to instant credibility.\nEnter social media salesman, uSocial, a company that has become somewhat notorious for previously selling Diggs and Twitter followers. In both instances, the startups tried to have them shutdown, but uSocial is back at it, and this time their promise is thousands of Facebook friends or fans.uSocial is selling \"targeted\" Facebook fans and friends to would-be purchasers, starting at $177.30 for 1,000 friends or fans and going all the way up to 5,000 friends and 10,000 fans if you're willing to shell out $654.30 or $1167.30, respectively. Buyer beware.\nWhy buy Facebook buddies? According to the company, \"every Facebook fan or friend you have is generally worth $1 to you per month, which is a figure anyone using this site correctly can back up. This means that even on a purchase of a 1,000 friend pack, you will not only return your investment in the first month, but earn more than five times what you've invested. Try and tell us that's not a great investment.\"\n\nRegardless of value, you're probably wondering how they're managing the automatic friend/fan process. While the actual methodology is kept hidden, uSocial says that should you provide them with your ID and your targeting preferences and they'll take care of the rest. You'll just have to trust them with the rest of the details, as any more info requires that you complete the PayPal transaction.\nOf course, as long as there is social currency in having friends and followers, there will be services that exploit people's desires to build up their networks. But, you can bet on those Facebook friends that uSocial's scheme won't last too long. Facebook is likely to follow in the footsteps of Digg and Twitter and move to shut the service down as soon as they get wind of it.\nIn the meantime, are you brave enough to admit that you would pay for Facebook friends or followers? What's your take on uSocial's services? Should Facebook shut them down? Share your thoughts in the comments.\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, RyanJLane."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/09/02/usocial-facebook-friends/>