Fake Accounts in Facebook – How to Counter It

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world and is responsible for bringing almost a communication revolution to the World Wide Web.

Facebook use in current time is really very huge and has reached a level where the user base is roughly estimated to cover around 37 % of the total world population. Along with this huge user base the fake user base also has risen to an unexpected level of 27% of the total Facebook users. That means if you get 10 friendship requests a day then out of that 10 only 7 or 8 are real people and rest 2 or 3 fake.

Just like the virtual world, internet world is also becoming full of frauds. Starting from phishing scams to hacking, today’s World Wide Web is said to be only 65% original. This in turn means that rest 35% is fraud. Same is the case with popular social networking and micro-blogging sites like Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter etc. Some does it for fun and some for business.

Here are some of the reasons why Facebook is becoming a Fake-book:

1. Fun-book: The most common menace among youth is to set up fake accounts and fool his friends and colleagues on Social grounds. This fun habit of fooling others has given rise to fake account holders, sometime even in the name a real person who never used Facebook in his life.

2. Business book: Facebook danger is very brutal when we talk about the dangers to business. Nothing worse can hamper the business than a fake prospect. And with the rise of these fake accounts in Facebook every business requires to be smart while converting a Facebook lead to a prospect. Most of the fake business accounts are used by some companies themselves to promote their products. Because people find it more convenient to believe in a product or a service when an individual refers or endorses it. If you take a look at any of the Freelancing sites like Elance, GAF or Guru, you can easily find out some good numbers of projects posted to create bulk Facebook accounts. They are indeed about fake accounts.

3. Niche book: You name any niche and you find it within Facebook. either in the form of groups or fan-pages. And to grow the visibility of a group or a fan-page, the use of fake accounts is the best source.

With the growth of these fake accounts the risk of losing grounds in Facebook is becoming very high for everyone. So, it is an immense need that you know about the cautions to be taken. I am mentioning a few of these cautions here that I have found useful:

1. Look for the Address: Most of the fake users in Facebook do not have a proper address in their info page. So, look for that info page to clarify your doubts.

2. The profile picture: To amaze all of us, most of the fake accounts have pictures in their profiles. And they are merely collected from dating sites and other image sources. So, relate the image to the address or the age provided by the user. Believe me, it will tell you a lot.

3. Friends: If you see an account where the user’s address is somewhere in Chula Vista, US or London, UK and doesn’t have any friend from that region then you need to be cautious. This is just uncommon that a person doesn’t have any friend from his own place.

Keeping these 6 points in your mind while accepting any friend request in Facebook, will definitely save you from the Fake-book danger.