If you are a triathlete, runner, cyclist, swimmer or other endurance athlete you have likely been plagued recently by silly Ray-Ban and Oakley spam on Facebook, and here is why.

Most people like it when their ego is stroked, so when men in their 30s, 40s and 50s get friend requests on Facebook from what appears to be attractive young women, the instinct is to say "hell yes" and accept. But as the old saying goes, "if it seems too good to be true, it likely is." Often these "hot young women" are already friends with various pro athletes or maybe some other age group athletes you are familiar with, and that makes these fresh profiles seem more legitimate. Once you accept these women and sometimes men as friends, you soon end up being photo tagged in a picture that features ludicrous ads for fake sun glasses.

Many male and female pro athletes accept these new "fans" easily, because of course they want to have more fans. But moving forward the pro athletes will have to be more careful. So when you (pro athlete or amateur) get a new Facebook friend request, you should look very closely at the profile and check how old it is. If it has no history and you do not personally know the person, it is likely a spam bot. Sure, one of your old friends from high school or a new new neighbor might be new to this social media portal and thus have no friends and no history, but that is a very rare occasion.

The pictures often look real and authentic because they have been snagged from other legitimate Facebook profiles. Pro triathlete Beth Gerdes recently noticed one such account that featured her personal pictures. And in some cases, legitimate accounts have been hacked and taken over.

If you have not yet personally been connected to such an account, you have probably seen it in your news feed, and you likely will be feeling the heat next. The number of these fake account requests has grown rapidly in the last few days. I personally had 11 such requests today.

The lesson here is be careful who you accept as a friend, and change your Facebook password regularly. It is one thing to be tagged in such a spam effort, but quite another circus if the spam originates from your personal Facebook account.

What do you need to do when you receive such a request? Delete the request and report it as spam to Facebook. That is easier done on your desktop than on the mobile app.

If you are not sure if you already accepted a spammer as a friend, or generally are of a more cautious nature, you can set up your Facebook profile where you get a notification first and then have to approve every tag before it shows up on your profile.

Now be safe and smart, and keep your ego in check.