Earlier this week, several bloggers and journalists, like Barry Ritholtz, Gary Weiss, and Felix Salmon, discovered that Overstock.com (OSTK) CEO Patrick Byrne had created a list of all their Facebook friends.

Henry Blodget, John Carney, and I were all on the list, along with several others.

So how did he get all the names? No, it doesn't appear to have been hacking.

Just good old social engineering.

Gary Weiss discovered that a Facebook user named "Larry Bergman" had gone around and friended most of the folks on the list.




The aim was to get their friends' lists in order to publish them on Byrne's "Deep Capture" website. That, in turn, is then used to concoct elaborate conspiracy theories.

Bergman even started friending people's friends and family and kids.

You should read Weiss's whole post because it provides pretty compelling evidence that Bergman is Bagley, including the steps he's staken to cover his tracks.

Anyway, after this post, we'll be unfriending him.

larry bergman overstock patrick byrne