I get a surprising number of fake Facebook users trying to sign up for a Facebook page I administer called “Bring Google Fiber to Raleigh!” It’s given me some practice in spotting fake accounts which I’d like to share here with a look at the latest fake user I’ve found, “Amanda Watts.”
Here’s how to spot a fake Facebook account:
1. The account tries to join a dormant Facebook page. It’s like the Groucho Marx line about not joining any club that would have him as a member: if someone is signing up for a dead page something is usually fishy. Because the issue that my page was created to address was settled almost two years ago it’s very unusual for anyone to be signing up for my page. Thus, I’m on guard right from the start. Only about 20% of the users who request to join my page turn out to be legitimate users.
Jazmin Sparks, err … Amanda Watts!
2. The account’s profile photo belongs to someone else. It’s usually some hot looking woman but not necessarily. I copy the image URL of the profile photo and paste it into Google Image Search’s “Search by Image” feature. Often it will show the Facebook user’s name doesn’t match that of the real owner of the photograph. It turns out Amanda Watt’s photo actually belongs to model Jazmin Sparks.
The stupid … it burns!
3. The account’s Facebook Timeline is sparse and generic. You’ll see a bunch of random, generic quotes posted (example:“There is always that one person who can send you a text and cause you to smile instantly.”) but no real status updates as you would expect to find from a real user. It also seems several of the fake accounts I’ve encountered include some sort of brain-meltingly mushy ASCII art so long that one has to scroll multiple times to get to the end. I don’t know if this is designed to fool Facebook by slapping some longer content into the page or if its just designed to make the viewer nauseous with the sickly sweet message.
Who comes up with this crap?
4. The Timeline posts are all recent. This user’s posts were all posted within an hour of when I checked her page. It doesn’t get more recent than that.
5. The account was created very recently. This is the biggest red flag of them all. It seems to me that new Facebook users tend to lurk more than veteran users do. If a user has a bunch of posts immediately after joining, the account is probably fake. The account in my most recent case was created so recently that there was no date listed for her joining. That meant that the account was created that very day!
Facebook much?
6. The account lists few friends or likes. Take a moment to check the friends of this account to see how legitimate they are. If those people also don’t have any Facebook time under their belts the account is probably fake.
These are the most common signs I’ve found to spot fake accounts. Got any I missed? Leave me a comment and I’ll post a follow-up.