How to Spot a Fake Facebook Account

Vinod Bhat
Some people will try to dupe  Facebook users for reasons of their  own, from having a bit of fun, to  duping for its own sake, right  through to grooming people online or  seeking to behave fraudulently. For  your own sake, knowing how to spot  a fake Facebook account is an  important part of keeping safe online and remaining distant from people you don’t know  Steps
Know why it is important to spot a  fake account. If you’re wondering  what can happen to you from  having a fake friend on Facebook,  there are quite a few things that  can cause you distress and loss  from being involved with a con  artist (which a Facebook faker  usually is). For example, you could  be manipulated into believing  someone really cares about you  when all they want is to play mind  games for their own satisfaction or  to get money, goods, property, or  something else from you. The  impostor might also be setting you  up to steal your identity or  valuable information from you that  they can use to manipulate  someone else.
Think twice about accepting friend  requests from people you don’t  know or who haven’t been  connected to you through  legitimate, verifiable means. If  you’re not sure, consider the  following:
Ask them questions: What  makes you want to be my  friend? How did you find out  about me? Who do we know in  common (you can then check)?  Look at their profile photo . Is it  way too perfect or does it  seem touched up in any way?  Maybe you’ve seen it before?  Search their name online to  see if it returns. This won’t be  so useful if the name is a  common one but for a more  unusual one, there might be  some interesting returns.
Have they being tagged? A real  person is generally tagged  here and there as part of the  Facebook sharing experience.
Read the profile carefully. Does  what is being said add up or are  there some really hard-to-believe  statements being made? For  example, maybe there is a photo of  a very young person next to  claims of being a professor or a  CEO. Does the embellishment seem  more than the usual “making  oneself look good” and come  across as simply implausible?
Trust your own senses on this  one. You could even ask for proofs  of some of the things the person  has stated.
Check out their friends. Are their  friends global or local? The more  local the friends, the more likely  the person is to be real. The more  global their friendship list, with  very few or no local friends, start  getting suspicious. The lack of  local friends suggests that this is  not a real persona you’re dealing  with but a fake account.
Be alert to anyone new that you’ve  friended but don’t really know. If  you’re in the (not-so-great) habit  of accepting friend requests from  friends of friends’ friends or  because they seem to have similar  tastes to yours in music, cooking,  dancing, or whatever, then you  leave yourself open to the  occasional fake. While you can  make wonderful connections in  this way, try to always have  someone you do know vouch for  this person first. And if that’s not  possible, be alert to signs of weird  behavior, such as suddenly  bombarding you with likes,  comments, photos, etc. on a daily  basis. If you hardly know this  person, they should be taking  things slowly and politely, not  invading your space immediately.
Beware interconnected faking. At  one time it was probably  reasonable to think that if  someone had a group of friends  interacting with them and  vouching for each other, that  person must be real. However,  there are increasing cases of one  person running numerous fake  Facebook accounts, pretending to  be an array of different people, all  vouching for one another and all  trying to be friends with someone  real! For example, the case of  Natalia Burgess who wove a web  of deceit and caused many young  males to fall for her various  aliases, all because she felt  inadequately loved. [1] Sadly,  impostors of this sort go to  incredible lengths to create an  array of fake accounts including  other social media accounts and  websites to give the impression  that their fake personas are “real”.
Look for and record  inconsistencies in the things they  say to you. If you’re being targeted  by an elaborate web of lies,  eventually these start to unravel.  This is most evident in someone  who is trying to maintain several  fake Facebook accounts at once  and eventually, they will drop the  ball and mix up their stories. If you start noticing this in response to questions, or in their comments, take note and remain alert for more inconsistencies.
Be really wary of undying  declarations of love , affection, and  romance. If someone you’ve never  met, who lives thousands of miles  away from you, and who has  barely revealed themselves gets  amorous with you, be suspicious.  Sometimes the faker does this  because they love the feeling of  playing with the life and feelings  of someone else; sometimes it’s  because they’re in love with online  love but are too afraid to reveal  their true selves (or they’re in a  relationship in real life); and other  times it could be that they’re after  something, like money, sex, or  drugs.
Question your own feelings  and motivations if you start to  feel something for a person  who declares they love you  online. Is it too sudden? Too  weird? Too freaky? A little bit  icky? Trust those feelings and  delete this fake friend from  your account.
If they ask you for sexy  pictures, immediately be  suspicious . A fake account is a  good shill for getting free  pornographic material that then  gets passed around online.
Be careful what you put online and  what you tell people you don’t  really know. Some people act very  caring until they have enough  information about you and then  they turn around and blackmail  you with it. If you don’t know the  person, no matter how friendly  you’ve become in the online  context, keep back your private  details and keep everything very  general.
Look for evidence of offline  interaction with their Facebook  friends. However, keep in mind  that even this can be faked if they’re running multiple Facebook  accounts.
Check any links they’ve provided  to personal websites, social media  pages, etc., to help you to see if  things add up.
Warnings
Keep an eye on your teens. Young  people are the most vulnerable to  building online relationships with  people who don’t exist. They fall  in love with an image of the  perfect person and the faker is  happy to oblige for their own  gratification or other reasons.  with regards.