Private Profiles

I've recently been receiving a bunch of friends requests from people with profiles set to private. I will not consider friending anyone with their profile closed to the general public unless, (in a recent case) someone knows the person sending the invite and can vouch for them.

This site, nice as it is, has a big time spam problem, and their tactics are constantly changing. I've lost count of how many times I've received an invite from someone with a private profile saying, you can trust me, add me please. I wait a couple days, re-check that same profile again and it's gone.

I understand the need for privacy, especially in the case of women and couples, but one method would be to contact the person with a PM when they're online and arrange to temporarily have your profile open for a few minutes, then close it again.

I'm not one for blind faith, and there's a saying here in the Midwest: "Never buy a pig in a poke". If you approach myself or anyone with a profile set to private expecting me to trust you, the message you're sending is... You don't trust me, and isn't a friendship supposed to be based on a measure of trust?

My profile is open, you can see me. Shouldn't I be able to see you?