Men ignore Facebook privacy settings to befriend women

The study, commissioned by anti-virus software company Bitdefender, said men are suckers for scantily clad female strangers.

The survey revealed men were far more likely to accept friendship requests from strangers, announce their location, leave their account open for all to view, and fail to read a website's privacy policies, Daily Mail reported.

Over 1,600 men and women in Britain and America took part in the study. It found that 64.2 percent of women always rejected friendship requests from strangers, while the figure drops to just over half of men at 55.4 percent.

A quarter of all men allow strangers to view and search their accounts, compared with 16 percent of women.

When it comes to revealing their location, the percentage figures are closer together - but men once again lead the way with 25.6 percent, as opposed to 21.8 percent of women.

The survey showed men were more likely to hit the 'confirm' button on a friend request if it was accompanied by a 'hot-looking' woman, according to the Mail Wednesday.

When confronted with a friend request and an attractive man's picture, women fail to take the bait.

Bitdefender's George Petre said women's reticence to accept the offers of strangers predated not just Facebook and social networking, but the Internet - society has taught women to be cautious about strange men.