The Facebook social network has over a billion users. Some of them don’t care about others. They may search for information, steal your identity, or ruin your reputation.
Reports say Facebook erased 27.67 billion fraudulent accounts between October 2017 and mid-2023—3.5 times the global population! Facebook estimates that 4-5% of active monthly users are phony in early 2023. Around 150 million fraudulent Facebook profiles exist as of late 2023, with over 3 billion active users. It is probable that you and your children have been impacted.
Fake accounts are either run by bots or malicious humans, according to experts. Regardless of kind, there are various symptoms of a phony account.
- Bots and fraudsters utilize attractiveness to acquire ‘friends’ by posting photos of beautiful girls or guys. Why? We are human—a good picture greatly enhances the likelihood of a friend request being accepted.However, ‘real people’ aren’t perfect. Why not check the photo using Google Image search if you’re still unsure? You’ll instantly learn whether anybody else owns that picture on Google after uploading it.Additionally, AI picture producers are complicating this. These simple tools allow fraudsters to produce attractive vaguely realistic graphics in minutes. Since these photographs are fresh, it’s impossible to uncover any information on them, making it tougher to tell whether they’re fakes. With three or more images, the fraudster may easily construct an attractive
- Scammers and bots publish few photographs. They exclude personal details to give the impression that the account is run by a genuine individual. They typically spend a lot of time creating a phony buddy list. This is always worth checking. ‘Real’ Facebook users have 200–350 friends, so be wary if the account has a few or several thousand!
- Blank walls indicate a fraudulent account. If your potential ‘new friend’ has few likes or no activity,
- Another warning indicator is a mismatched account name and URL. Scammers may modify the name of a hijacked Facebook account to suit their purposes. Remember that stolen Facebook accounts may be sold. A fraudster may steal an account and sell it to an influencer. The influencer doesn’t require the old identity, only the credibility and friend list of an existing account.
References
https://www.mcafee.com/blogs/family-safety/spot-fake-facebook-account