Think that Facebook’s de facto spam filter couldn’t possibly be keeping anything of consequence out of your inbox? Think again. When James happened to click that unobtrusive “Other” tab on his Facebook inbox, he learned that he had won a new TV, Blu-Ray player, and a copy of the movie the contest was promoting. But Facebook had filed this message away on his behalf….in August 2010.

He writes:

Like so many other people, I never checked the ‘other’ tab for my Facebook messages. I assumed that if anything wound up in there I would see a number pop up notifying me, much like my normal inbox. Fortunately a friend alerted me to the fact that this ISN’T the case, and I went in to find hundreds of re-routed messages. About ten were relevant and not spam.

One of them was a notification that I had won second prize in a contest I entered online, relating to the Blu-Ray release of a major motion picture. This included a new flat screen TV, blu-ray player and a copy of the movie. Oh, and it was dated from August 2010.

I emailed back and of course was notified that since I hadn’t responded it was awarded to the next runner up. Though I question why I received a Facebook message and not a call or email, they can run their contest however they want, and the bottom line is I lost out; all because Facebook can’t be bothered to tell me when they’ve put a message in ‘other’!

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