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Wednesday 11 July 2018

Facebook fakes

It was recently noticed that there are a lot of fake accounts on Facebook.

These were set up several years ago - perhaps Facebook was less discerning then? They have the following characteristics in common. We see them when they try to join a group.

All claim to be in the USA
The account was set up several years ago, and contains two posts, one to set up the profile picture, and one to set up the banner. Then nothing for several years.
Many of them are an attractive woman in an attractive pose.
Others are an attractive man.
Many of them are members of several other groups with related subjects.

What is the purpose of these accounts, and the purpose of joining a group? Nothing good, I fear. By joining the group, they get better access to the members of that group. And here's what I've seen happen ...

The person offers to friend you. If you accept, then you later on get an invitation to a page, which is for a different person.

Reporting this to Facebook seems to have no effect.

How widespread is this?

I'm seeing more fakes than genuine people. That's a big deal. Is it possible that Facebook has less than half of the accounts that it claims?

4 comments:

  1. Reporting to Facebook has as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

    They think a profile name of "Ravin Mad" is OK:


    "You anonymously reported "Ravin Mad" for pretending to be someone they aren't.
    REPORT REVIEWED

    Thanks for your feedback
    25 Feb
    Thanks for your report – you did the right thing by letting us know about this.
    We've looked over the profile you reported, and it doesn't go against any of our specific Community Standards"

    ReplyDelete
  2. I used to know his cousin, Stark Staring. He married a girl called "Completely Bonkers" and last I heard they had three loonies and a nutter.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha ha.

    BTW: Have you given up Geocaching - I saw there was a Chiltern100 celebration meet last week?

    No Geocaching seems to equate to no ebike blogs either :(

    ReplyDelete
  4. I missed the Chiltern 100 meet! I'd have gone to that.

    ReplyDelete