This is Stupid (Nintendo Wii)

apotheos

I'm not sure if the cause of this is forum related, but in the last week I have received 6 messages that start like this...

An owner of a Wii Console is asking permission
to register you as a Wii Friend to exchange
e-mail with you. This individual's Wii e-mail address is...

I have no idea whom any of these 6 people were. None of them have contacted me since.


Who in their right mind thought this was a smart way to extend Wii connectivity to the internet at large? I feel like I'm getting Nintendo authorized spam...

Sushisource

I doubt it's nintendo sponsored. Normally they have to ask your permission to send you automated emails.

Woodroez

Sounds fishy, to say the least. Those folks in Nigeria have a new angle.

AbsoluteZero

You're getting emails? I don't think they do that.

EDIT: Wait. Actually they do. This is what happens when someone tries to add you to their Wii's Address Book using your email address and not your friend code.

AlphaTwo

If you want to send Wii messages to e-mail, the e-mail recipient will receive what you received first to confirm and make the "handshake". It does sound like some sort of spam. Very very bad inefficient spam.

skeldare

Sounds like you've got some stalkers.

Pata

Yeah. Wii's can send and recive email, not just Wii messages.

Woodroez

Perhaps you should just email everyone on your address book a big ole' WTF??

BTP

You know the 16 digit code for your Wii? It's that. Your friends who are also Wii owners want to message you while they're on their Wii, only they also want to send messages to your email address instead of your Wii. Their address is the same as their 16 digit code, but without the w in front of it.

I've received this email when I was setting up my Wii address to my regular mail address, in case for whatever reason I needed to email my Wii. I know I did it once so I could add one of my friend's code. It basically went like this: Was told of their code through MSN, copy/paste code, email my Wii, next time I turn on my Wii I get the message I sent to myself, I go "Oh yeah, I gotta add my friend!"

Edit: Checked my own message that I still have saved and it's worded exactly the same way. Check your friend's codes and compare it to the address you received in the mail and you should be able to figure out who they are. If not, don't accept.

apotheos

Well its a bit impossible to reverse engineer as I have ZERO people in my Wii address book. (replacement Wii x 2)


I get the desired double-blind anonymity of the friend code system. At least let people have an alias or screen name or real first name to send along with ridiculous requests like this. SOMEONE WITH A WII WANTS TO TALK TO YOU. Very informative.