Facebook now claims to have 120 million users, and although the number of active accounts will be significantly smaller, it’s still a phenomenal figure. In fact, if Facebook were a country, it would be twice the size of the United Kingdom.

That sort of popularity is always going to bring problems. Just as a city experiences growing pains, with a rising population bringing a proportional rise in crime and drug problems, Facebook is starting to get clogged up with scammers, spammers and baddies of all descriptions.

Some of the attacks are getting quite advanced, too, such as the story covered on the Sydney Morning Herald’s website today, where a user’s account was taken over and used to request money from another friend.

The scammer sent a message claiming that the real user was stuck in Nigeria and needed money for a flight home. The attempt was foiled for the simple reason that the intended victim wasn’t an idiot, but it’s worryingly more advanced that the usual, pathetic 419 attempt.

This huge size also has some benefits. Another interesting story this morning talks of family members who had never met, and had no idea of each other’s existence, finding each other through the site.

It’s becoming quite a common tool in politics and demonstrations as well, with another story today documenting the use of Facebook in organising a huger strike demanding the release of political prisoners in Saudi Arabia.

It’s a disruptive technology, for sure, but does it deserve all the media attention it gets? These three stories all ran today, in separate publications.

Scammers have targeted people online for years, Friends Reunited and countless other websites have brought estranged family members together before and political demonstrations have been organised online and over email since I can remember.

Facebook seems to get the bulk of the attention, partially because its an easy brand name that can be used as a catch-all descriptor for online technology.

If a political demonstation was arranged using a combination of email, SMS, Twitter and message boards, would it make a good enough, and simple enough story? Probably not.