Fake Facebook Profiles - Why and How to detect them?
Posted on 11/01/2008 by Rani Dababneh
Fake Facebook Profiles are one of the most annoying and even dangerous issues that facebookers (facebook users) face, and one of the most challenging problems for the facebook admins, so efforts to eliminate such profiles are set to the max!According to some breaking weird news, Facebook Fake Profiles were dangerous enough to get some guy from Morocco arrested for making a fake facebook profile for Prince Moulay Rachid, the younger brother of King Mohammed VI.
Expensive enough to get another one sued by £17,000 for damages against a former schoolfriend accused of putting a fake GAY profile of some businessman on the social networking website Facebook.
And serious enough for the Dean of one of the biggest colleges at Cambridge to set up a fake Facebook profile to keep an eye on his students after they have formed some protest group to complain about a change in drinking laws.
Why would people create fake facebook profiles?
- Shallow relationships: "lovers" testing and teasing each others, teasing by fake comments of fake profiles, testing each other by fake flirts or msgs!
- Monitoring: monitering people (students, employees ... ) lives by fake personalities!
- Business: forcing some business to grow by making it popular through many profiles!
- Revenge: broken people creating humiliating fake profiles for those who hurt them!
- Psychos: males creating profiles for females and vice versa.
- Some people are just sick: some stupid pointless people likes to fool around!
So here are some tips to guide you detect fake facebook profiles:
How to know a facebook profile is fake?
- If you are not a good looking guy and got added by a hot chick!
- If you got added by a celebrity!
- If you see nothing but Adds Feeds (... is now friends with ...) in the "feeds" section!
- If the "wall" is full of msgs like: "thanks for the add"!
- If it has one profile picture only!
- If it has many pictures but none is tagging any other profiles!
- If it's not tagged by others!
- If it's public, no privacy settings for anything!
- If birthday is 01/01 (no offense real ones LOL but because it's the fastest choice)!
- If it has many friends from all over the world (no specific region)!
- If it joins and attends all groups and events sent by all!
- If the "Interested In" section is all checked: (Women and Men)
- If the "Looking For" section is all checked (friendship, dating, a relationship, networking, and whatever I can get)!
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37 Response to "Fake Facebook Profiles - Why and How to detect them?"
Rani thanks for these information..
you really helped me :)
Raed Khalaf
wow...been very halpful...good to know
HAHAHA :D
Good observations, so true!
Another scenario that I have observed across different social mediums such as Facebook, Myspace, Youtube ect... that can be quite confusing are the fans, activists, critics or hobby enthusiasts that will use similar names, image and profile that is misleading.
While most the time I do not believe it is intentional, unsuspecting users often find themselves linking to a profile that is not who they believe is.
I do not agree with all of the helpful tips above, mainly because I know plenty of "real deal" profiles that would fail your criteria above. but if I see any more than two out of that list .... I am clicking my way on down the road.
ya 100% r8 i dnt accept anyone bt frnds!!!
yeah.. many of them are spreading HOAX news.. it's dangerous
I was thinking og making a fake profile for myself so I could spy on and test people around me. Don't ask how it will work. It just does.
thanks rani
Thanks Rani!!!
Some tips above are really helpful for me ))) And it really works.
You know, I recently ran an experiment using a fake facebook profile featuring the profile picture of a beautiful woman, and I was about to get more than 70% of the people I added to accept my friend request.
Another, more innocent reason, is trial. To anonymously give it a test run to see if it's worth the effort.
i made several fake profiles photos from porn websites
i do it for the LULZ you can't imagine how funny it is to see the reactions of a tard when the sexy whore tells him that he's sexy and that she wants to fuck him hh
*the girls that turns out to be lesbian or bi
*the rendez-vous in another country hhh imagine him making the flight hh
*it just shows you how much your friends are superficial
m
i have no mental disorders im a goodlooking 18 years old guy who studies mechanical engineering in a country from eastern europe
i can finnaly practise my favorite hobby :
MANIPULATING!!!
i do it not for any kind of profit i am just fascinated with human psychology
Where are the solutions to stop the Fake Profiles?
Mate if Facebook was serious about getting rid of all the fake Paris Hiltons and Brad Pitts or whoever that 250 million score would plummet. I don't think they'd like that.
Hey, there are some people who I have met on facebook, on an anonymous application called the bathroom wall who I have added who have turned out to be some really hot girls. Some of the information in their profile looks like it could be fake given that they don't have many pictures and that noone else is tagged in their pictures and a few other things but I've chatted with them on facebook chat and everything they tell me seems consistent with what a girl their age would say. The chats haven't been dirty. We've just chatted regularly but still. It's hard to tell whether or not they are real.
has anyone met somebody who uses a fake profile to vindicate and back up their lies from another life
I've come across one profile which is clearly not like any other I have seen. Their wall is full of abuse, they have a very small number of friends and only 2 pictures which look like they have come from the internet.
When I tried to talk to them they sent me a suggestive message which had nothing to do with my question. There is a VERY STRONG chance this profile is fake!
Anonymous
now i got fake profile with alot of my picture . How can i do ?
If someone sets up a fake profile in your name using photos of you and making defamatory comments, firstly complain to facebook using their on-site procedure and then complain to your internet service provider (ISP) because they may be legally obliged to get it removed (depending on the law in your country).
Haha i love the first one!! "If you are not a good looking guy and got added by a hot chick!"!!
Classic :) xx
this isn't funny at all. En ex's new partner has created a fake profile to talk to me. I know it is them because their real profile is public and I can see all their info. Plus this fake person claims to know the new partner and dislike them. But yet they talk of them very favourably and often say things that I know are meant to upset me abou tmy past relationship and question my ex's faithfulness and love for me. Its horrible and I don't know what to do, I know I should just delete it but I am trying to find out if anything this person if doing is illegal. Because its so scary, this person needs help! I see them out on weekends and they follow me around. They have added all my friends and talk to them to try and get info on me. Im actually afraid for my life, this peson is insane! And worse my ex partner won't believe me. Seriously think before u create a fake profile, because its not funny, you could be seriously ruining someones life.
please help me.. sm1 is using my photos in a fake profile n i absolutly need to get that profile diactivated
I think i have a fake account on my friend list, no one has sent him a message in the 6 weeks he has been on facebook, he hasn'nt commented on anyones status. He has made 3 statements in 6 weeks saying " having a few cans" "hope i get up 4 work 2moro" & "running out of beer" no one commented. he joined a political group after stating in his info that he has no political views is friends with a womens domestic violence course coordinator & his birthday is 1st jan lol. His friend requests stopped at me, after 4 weeks of no activity i put on my status that i had a fake account in my friend list & that i know who it is (my ex or his girlfriend as i have blocked them) & that night he all of a sudden added another 20 friends & changed his relationship status to complicated & interested in females friendship & dating. his profile pic i found on an internet sight for top gear & that is the only pic on his account. Does it sound fake??
some1 has made a fake profile of me, n dats insulting me i hv repoted dat account n so didi my friends but till now nufin is happenin!!!!!!!!!! :'(
thanks rani!!
To the guy who posts fake profiles from porn sites for fun.
You need help.
ha ha ha...Find something better to do with your time.
Someone made a fake facebook account about me.
and i was really upset and it wasnt funny. but i found out who it was which i wasn't happy that it was my best friend.. and my facebook has been hacked to.
Check out the Facebook page: Say No to Sock Puppets for solutions
You guys are missing one of the biggest dangers of fake profiles - identity theft. Many of them are trying to collect information like email addresses, birthday, telephone numbers, etc used to gain password access.
@ - 12
You obviously do have issues and I think the only one here that can't see it is you.
ok yes ive been add by a hot chick.. i am being told she is using fake pics.... ur tips do also sound about right..she say facebook deleted everything and thats why she has no friends other than me and no post on her wall.....plz check out her pics maybe use have seen her else where thanks:)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001100167278&v=wall
thats her home page
a girl requested me she even gave me her number but when i ask her to send me pics from her phone she doesnt...i looked at her profile and she has some really hot pics but im pretty sure its not her...anyway i can findout who pics shes using?
@30. That's definitely interesting. I can't see anything besides her profile pic but strangely enough, that looks familiar to me. Are you saying that could just be a fake profile someone made using some random girl's pic? Can someone go into further detail about what a ‘fake’ profile is? I mean, obviously whoever that girl is, is not fake, but do you mean that someone may have just stolen her photo and made up a name for her? People who do this are scum, and this is why I hate social networking sites, because of people like that. This is the problem with those social networking sites. You can't trust anyone on the Internet. (Well, you can trust what I'm telling you now, LOL).
So am I supposed to add that profile or something, and see if 'it' accepts so I can see if it looks fake? Because right now I can't see anything besides the profile picture. Now, on the topic of fake profiles, I have a few on my friends list that I don't believe to be the real deal. I'm talking about celebrity profiles. I’ve got ‘Mickie James’, for example (not sure if you know who she), and I don’t believe her to be the real deal. Now obviously it’s possible for celebrities to have Facebook accounts, but it’s very difficult to determine if a profile is legit, unless there’s a photo of the celebrity with a piece of paper or something with their link on it. But it has to be something that can’t be faked. There are several profiles out there that claim to be real celebrities, and they have ‘Verified by Facebook’ on there, but that doesn’t mean anything does it? I mean, anyone could write that on there, right?
I am suspicious of ‘celebrity profiles’ that insist they are the real deal. If it really was the celebrity, then why would they care about convincing people of that? Also, if their photo albums are full of professional looking photos that can be easily found on the Internet, then that sparks up fake, to me anyway. I have seen some profiles with more ‘personal’ photos, like photos taken with a phone or photos with friends, something that could only the actual celebrity could have access to. But even then, who’s to say they didn’t just take the photos from the actual celebrity’s Facebook page?
I’m going to use a wrestling example, since I am a wrestling fan, and I’m sorry if none of you are, but what I am about to say is relevant to this discussion. There is a Hulk Hogan profile that acts as if he is Hulk Hogan, but come on; does he even know how to use a computer? (Sorry Hulk!) There’s also an Eric Bischoff profile, and someone asked if it was really him. Apparently it is, because it was confirmed by, that’s right, Hulk Hogan himself! Well, if ‘Hulk Hogan’ confirmed it on Facebook, which is of course the place where Hulk Hogan makes ALL of his announcements, then it must be true! It saddens me to see that people actually buy into this, like those guys really have the time to spend hours a day on Facebook.
There’s also a Nina Williams profile, which is obviously not really her since she’s a video game character. I did, however, find that one quite amusing, and I feel that it is not as serious as those who impersonate real people, since it’s painfully obvious that it’s not real, as a fictional character can not create a Facebook profile.
The last thing I’d like to talk about is my own Facebook experience. I never really liked social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, but I felt I should not knock them without trying them. So I created a Facebook profile. I accepted all friend invites, since I thought it would be cool to build up the numbers. But now I likely have a bunch of these fake profiles you people are talking about as friends. It’s better to have 50 friends that are real than 500 ‘friends’ who are fake. My profile has about 150, but a large number of those could be fakes. If I delete them, it will remove me from their friends list, right? But will they also be informed, like when you are notified of people accepting friend requests? Or will they only know if they notice I am no longer on their friends list, which is unlikely since they add so many people that losing one probably wouldn’t be noticeable? Also, what happens if you ignore a friend request? Does it tell the person the request was ignored?
I only planned on writing a small response, but ended up writing a lot more. So thanks to anyone who read this and I hope I was helpful.
To the people who do this for "fun". It caused alot of arguments between me and my husband. Me and my husband have been through alot and I have trust issues with him (and rightfully so), so when I saw these fake profiles of almost naked woman, it made my heart sink, I thought here we go again. You really need to find a hobby, because this is not funny at all. It causes problems!
how could i tarck out who is creating my fake profiles on facebook...its really troublesome...
Hey im talking to this girl. Im not bad looking haha. This girl has like 24 pics and she looks almost the same in most of them but some are questionable. She wont give me her phone number so i assume shes fake. For all you faggots out there that make fake profiles thats pretty stupid. Your just being a douchebag to people for no reason. Someone tell me if they think its fake. Thanks
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