What problems can occur if I accept Facebook friend requests from strangers?

[Newbie]

About a week ago I got a Facebook friend request from someone who lives in the same large apartment complex where I have my office (the complex rents out about 8 offices). This guy's Facebook page indicates he is originally from Berlin, Germany but now lives in the U.S. Both of us are friends of the apartment complex on Facebook and I guess that's how he found me. I thought he is probably a lonely foreigner in a strange country and I didn't see any reason to reject his request. After I accepted, he sent me an email message thanking me for accepting. I sent him an email thanking him for sending the request. Besides, I would like to have as many Facebook friends as possible.

Today, I found out that I have two more friend requests from people I don't know. One is a guy from England. Is there any reason I should not accept these friend requests? Is it fairly common to get friend requests from strangers? Is there any kind of Facebook scam or fraud that someone can pull just by being friends on Facebook? Also, I was thinking that maybe the guy from Berlin told the two other guys that I accept Facebook friend requests from anyone and that's how they could have found me.

One strange thing is that I can't find the last two friend requests on my Facebook page - they're just in my Outlook emails. The friend requests do seem to be authentic Facebook friend requests, though. The only information that can be found about me on my Facebook page is name, education, city where I grew up, city where I live now, and my occupation. I don't have my birthdate up on my Facebook page as that can help an identify thief. I don't even identify any friends as family members or best friends - they're all just in one big list as I want to limit the information I give out. Thanks for any information you can provide.

[mariah]

I wouldn't friend anyone I didn't know. Period. But I have pictures of my kids and stuff on my fb. I put very little info on my page for security reasons also.
If I were you, I would remove that guy from
Germany (have you ever talked to him in person or on fb?) and don't worry about hurting his feelings.
The only strange friend requests I have gotten were Spammers. Everyone else I know.
So go and delete. You can also adjust your privacy settings so that your name doesn't come up in search, if you wanted to. GL

[Amber Shirley]

It's never a good idea - they can see all your pictures, plus you have no idea if they are who they say they are.

[кαтяιηα]

Do you really have to ask this question? I know your not like 12 so use your common sense to answer this on your own. And sometimes people just send friend requests to random users...why would you think the foreign guy told two other guys to add you cuz you accept random people? Who do you think you are? I'm sure their not dying to be on your friends list. But since you say you want to have as many FACEBOOK FRIENDS as possible then why not just approve them both?

[Kittysue]

These are SCAMS. Never accept a friend request from anyone you don't know. They can steal your identity with the info most people have on their profiles. They have access to your photos which they copy and use to create fake accounts used to scam other people on various dating and social networking sites. They have access to all of your friends to spam/scam them

If the Friend requests are not on your Facebook page, those are spoof requests. The "confirmation" link they send you to looks exactly like a real Facebook page and they want you to log in. When you do, you just gave these criminals your login details, they immediately change your password then contact all of your friends saying they are you stuck overseas and you were robbed and need money to get home

Any real request will always show up in your Facebook - never trust any emails unless you want your account hacked

There is no reason to have as many friends as possible - do you really want that many people to have access to your life? You never accept a request from anyone you do not know for any reason. I thought everyone knew this