Earlier I shared an article regarding ways to report Facebook fake profiles. Now I prepared some tips to identify fake profiles.
Like many other social networks, Facebook also contains tons of fake profiles unfortunately. Those fake profile holders use Social Engineering tactics to attack innocent people. Facebook has almost 500 Million Users (Check Infographic) and it is not surprising to have few thousands fake profiles. Below I mentioned some funny but true tips to check whether a profile is fake or not.
1. Profile Picture. Always be suspicious of profiles featuring photos of professional models. Most of the fake profiles, especially that of females, have only one profile picture and that too a beautiful or sexy (ahem) picture! 😉
2. Many Males. Their friends list will contain males mostly (Well, that’s not their fault, gender issue :D). It could be around 1000s or even more than that.
3. When Did They Joined? Check when she/he joined. If they have lots of friends and have only been on the Facebook a short amount of time, it’s likely to be a fake one.
4. Tag Me! He/she would be tagged in tons of cartoon pictures than his/her own picture.
5. Apps Requests. If he/she is in your friend list, then you will get lotta application or like requests from them. I got many requests like that, some include “Can you send me a chicken?”, “Can you send a buffalo?”.. LOL.
6. Facebook Albums. Most of the fake profiles photos are open to everyone. Well, not a promising tip, but worth it. It may contain a lot of pictures but they would not have tags indicating other profiles. They may also contain really tiny photos.
7. Full Filled Profile. If a profile is lengthy and detailed, then you can be sure that it is a real person. Fake Profile creators won’t have time to create long and interesting profiles.
8. Favorite Pages. Most of the fake profiles have less than 20 pages, well almost.
9. Description. Most of the fake profiles have descriptions like “Accept My Farmville Request”, “Add Me In Mafia Wars”, and many more.
10. For Boys : Girls don’t send friend requests to strangers, I mean good girls! 😛 So if, by chance, you get a friend request from girls, don’t confirm it without verifying the details. If you are not a handsome looking guy and you got a friend request from a hot babe. Then you really need to triple check! 😀
11. For Girls : Who said? I support boys too! But some boys usually send friend requests to girls. So it is better to confirm with others and verify. If you are not a hot babe and you got a friend request from a handsome looking guy. Then you should also really need to triple check! 😀
12. Status Updates. Most probably fake profile’s status updates won’t get comments or likes. They may also share fake websites (Phishing attack). (Survey)
13. Celeb Request. If you are added by a celebrity! 😛 Unless you are a celebrity please don’t add! 😀 If they are claiming to be a model or actress or anything like that, then they will surely have professional pictures on their album.
14. Add Feeds. Fake profile’s feeds will contain only friend request adds.
I didn’t say don’t accept any strange friend requests. Trust, but verify! 8)
So if you encounter any fake profiles, I mean if you really encounter, then you can report it to Facebook.
Did you encounter any fake profiles? Please share your experience, and at the same time, share and tweet! 😉
One celebrity have accepted my friend requested (but I requested him to accept) he is a big sports person and I am also a sports person but a small.I checked his friend list and I saw many celebrity like players.I also asked many people is it a real one they told yes since in his friend list many people like his mom , wife and his were there info provided are absolutely correct but friend in 475 Is it a real one?
Actually she was not asking for money she said she likes me but when I texting her she is avoiding me now a
days
Actually I got a request from a girl she said that ur handsome but I didn’t believe it but she said where she had fallowed me what she said is correct so i asked her to meet she diverting by saying some stories is it fake or real person
thankx for giving such a beneficial tips & tricks to avoid fake id’s, but u have to get a permanent method to get rif of those ids.thankyou:-)
look im preety mad …im not a facebook user at all ..but my friend has one and i looked an see if anyone was impersonating me and i did …. i am very upset at this moment im tryna contact facebook directly an no answer there telln me to log on Facebook i dont have one period ..please can someone help me
I have seen many fake profile on facebook, I hate these fake profiles. These profiles sometimes freak us by stealing our private content. facebook should do something
Many people make fake profiles for games but they say its a gaming account not their real one on it usually. this way they can add 1000 or more strangers to play the games. I had a friend who does star trek role playing online, has a fake star trek character profile and actually had people email her telling her they were upset on a decision she made in such and such epoisoide. She actually had to put on her profile that she is not the star playing the character and is not the character; that the character is fictional and there really is no voyager. LOL There are 1000’s of people with sci fi profiles for fun but again they are not trying to pass off as someone real. same goes with peoples pets.
That said I know of an artist who found out that someone made a fake account pretending to be him with all his sculpture photos on there scamming people into thinking they were buying from him, sending him money. This artist even would like his page and keep telling people they are being scammed but no one would listen. he emailed fb and was at his wits end on what to do about it, I told him he should get the police involved. So artists need to be aware that there are people who will try and copy their accounts to scam money out of others.
I used the reverse image search to identify weather the profile is fake or real. know more on how to
do reverse image search on google
Short Time large friends ..That is good.Also look at her Location….
I usually don’t accept request from strangers, but thanks for the tips…!!!
I would also suggest, if you are suspecious, as I was of one, if you can google the facebook profile and the picture appears with it (and that would depend on their own privacy settings), worth a try to then click on images. Look for the profile picture, click on it, the google will provide options of: similar or like pictures or exact image. Click on the option for exact. If it has more than one, or there are many, especially, if they are facebook profile pictures, more than likely this person, has down loaded an image that he thought would catch a female’s attention, the he uploaded it as his profile pic. This specific person used a familiar Mad Men Character Name. His origonal purpose was to set up his girlfriend. However, she fell for it because there was a classmate who grasuated same year with the same last name. But, because the girlfriend, was a little suspicious and kind of knew that this certain classmate did not live in the said area. She discovered she was being set up. Her then boyfriend refused to delete the account and has become friends of her classmates to which he recieved nude pics of women, some classmates of hers. To this day she informs all of her friends of this, however facebook was given proof of the fake profile, to which he owns about 4-5 of them. It would be nice to see fb to delete all of his accounts that are fake. HE IS A CREEP THAT SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED ON FB, ESPECIALLY IF HE IS GETTING NUDE PICS OF WOMEN. Please contact me for more specific details on this facebook account holder. Assuming that you can have his accounts deleted.
Hey I’m not 100% sure but I think I was a victims of a fake FB attack. Hot Christian girl requests me we end up talking for months. “she” always avoided phone conversations. Pics and comments all over profile. Logged in 2009 photos since then till 2011 last pic. Never recent pics always old pics as updates and at the end I found one of her male friends who typed and had same type of writting not to mention same unique way if sending messages. Word, enter, word, enter, word, enter. Cripped me the fuck out and deleted them both. After I wanted to ask what the fuck was going they weren’t on FB any longer. Yeah. Weird! And tripping
Alertnatively try to search for that person on twitter, linkedin etc. If a person has no identity outside facebook, then extra caution advises
somebody has created fake fb account in my name .. kindly help. what are the procedures to close that account permanently.
Lol… So true…
I've just had about 500 fake accounts like my Facebook business page. And the number is going up by the second! How do I find out where they are getting the link from? I'm after quality not quantity. How do I stop this?
Hmm, normally if you have used any 3rd party service for optimizing your Facebook page, then there is a chance that they would have used such profiles to increase the likes.
is there a way to pull up an IP address on a fake FB profile??
There are ways, but you should in a position to chat with that fake profile. 🙂
Your tips are very details and useful thank you for sharing 🙂
There are plenty of fake accounts,,,some by SEO guys
What I do is save their profile picture and google it 😛 It will show many such images if fake lol
Gud advice…
People really need to read it. I enjoyed a lot 😛
I really love your way to find fake profile on Facebook. I also get so many friends request but hardly accepts after verifying the account. Thanks for the informative tips
hahaha dats good finding.but after visiting your page they will try to overcome all these flaws 🙂
Is it possible to have a profile as private and unable to be found on the search tool? I’m receiving messages but can’t validate the party and they won’t accept my friend request…any ideas?
Sherrie, you can give a look at this, it'll be useful :
http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Make_Your_Facebook_Account_Private
hey man , nice job , no……… i got some clue to identify a fake profile ………….. thanx buddy.
Nice tips Man!
Actually I have myself found fake profile of many Indian cricketers on facebook. Your tips were good and from now onwards I will keep my inner detective alive on fb. 😉
This is for normal profile. Actually I don't care about normal profile what I care is 'Fake Celebrity Profile'. Thus, 'Fake Celebrity Profile' can make full filled profile. You said fake profile creator don't have time to to create long and interesting profiles, that wrong. If it is a 'Fake Celebrity Profile' they can copy all the info from other website. Sometime they copy from Wikipedia. Even photo they also download from other website, then upload to FB.
So why are fake profiles made? I don’t get the point of them? I know that certain ones are made as people have sad lives and want to live a pretend one! But I don’t get it?
Yes, it's hard Emma. People create such fake profiles to imitate and cause misery on others life. Need to screw them! :X
People make Fake profiles for
-Phishing attacks
-To Get Private Photos ( Fake Girls for Girls -If fake Girls made relations bw Real Girls ,they can collect private Photos,other things)
-To get more visitors for there blogs/Website ( Newbies )
-To sell product or service
-For fun,Time passing
-For cheating teens and minors
This a question to follow my earlier post . If this is a fake profile that I mentioned earlier then is there any possible way to learn whom the pictures are really of . Somebody please help me with this . Thank you so much , Worthy-Knight.
I have talked to someone for two months that has a profile on Facebook and I want to believe they’re whom they say but my instincts tell me that they are not . She originally had three photos on Facebook and now has added three more and has sent me a few different ones .At first she told me she was from a state close to me and then I traced her I.P. Back to California not Ohio . When I told her that I knew where she actually is she confessed the state and city before I said it .I have talked for hours with this woman on AIM but never on the phone because she claims that she cannot hear and needs surgery to be able to hear because of a beating suffered from her ex boyfriend. I want to trust her but with her requesting me to send money to help her makes it so very difficult to trust . Can anyone verify this profile of her facebook.com/gmarenmelissa . Somebody please help me my heart is being torn apart.
This article could elaborate on it's ideas, and cover some more as well. For example I am a fake Facebook account. I like plenty of things and establish many good relationships between both BOYS and GIRLS
I've found sooo many fake facebook accounts and not just the ones for games. I had a whole group of friends who turned out as completely fake and succesfully ruined my life after I dumped one of them. (Yes I was stupid for dating one don't hate) They wouldn't stop texting me and messeging me on facebook, I blocked them and it got to a point where I told them all I would have no problem getting restraining orders. One of them went so far as to say that she was going to get revenge by murdering my family and I knew it wasn't true but it put pictures in my mind that no one should imagine. I have a huge imagination and the nightmares still haven't stopped… Let's just say I get less sleep than any normal human being could ever live off of. To conclude… people who spend their life on a fake account on facebook just to get into someones head should be shot. 🙂
i’m also an computer expert considered as guys don’t i consider:-D i know some more few tips and hot matter on facebook profile and many other accounting problems for this follow me on twitter\nickronman
I think someone whose frnd request i declined is sending me frnd requests by making fake profiles.Because whenever I remove the request,I get another 1-2 ,and they have only 1-2 frnds and very basic profile info.
This is really frustrating…pls tell me what to do to get rid of them permanently.
Does FB have any mechanism to deal with this?
Mia, that'll be really frustrating!
Facebook cannot control that unfortunately, since it is a social network, every profile has the right to send friend request. But you can control your profile, like you can permanently restrict all the Facebook users to send requests. 🙂
Absolutely mentioned Pradeep. I started filtering fake profiles from Facebook network. Now i can see clean stuffs. Thanks dude.
Awesome man… you will be soon awarded the "Blogger of the Century" soon … 🙂 Just kidding.. But you are truly a genius. Keep it up !
Cool post 🙂
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002034309602 , Check this profile and tell me whether it is a fake profile or not……I guess it is a fake profile anyway u visit and clarify me…The reason is she/he never gonna explicitly reveal their info…
This profile is hard to conclude Ganesh, maybe that girl is illiterate or not that much tech-savvy!
Point number 10 and 11 made me laugh! 😀
Yeah, even I have observed this thing about fake profiles. there are many bloggers who run multiple fake blogs for their blog promotion.
every unethical.
but no one even bothers to point a finger.
nice write up.
a very useful tip buddy 🙂
yeah ..
Thats true.. most fake profiles are complete and looks too gud 🙂
Yea thanks man diz post is very useful!
Great tips Pradeep. And I think these guidelines also hold good to spot fakers on any other social media site like twitter etc too.
gr8 article da…very much useful!!
There are some awesome tips buddy 😉 ..! Thanks for sharing this great post. !
Like your theme.That's very coool
i usually don’t worry about fake profiles, ultimately they get filtered by facebook itself… facebook is smart, its not like orkut 🙂
but yes, some of the points are good, especially about the model girls photos, and the beautiful the pictures more chances of it being fake 😛
what if its a male and not a females profile? How to determine fakes?
Hi,
Good to Know This
Thanks for Sharing
Regards.
Great tips Pradeep. One of the reasons I killed my account last year was too much garbage like this. Way too distracting.
Don't get caught up in the excitement and act out of desperation to be with someone" I know, you've been single for a while; you want to meet someone that exceed your expectations but take your time and be cautious! lol lol 🙂
If it sounds and looks to good to be true, more likely it is…..there should be more than just 3 professional modeling pictures in thumbnail sizes, pictures with friends, with family, goofy pictures, etc…… 🙂 🙂 🙂
Social networking sites are meant for the people to socialize with others, some of the people migrate themselves only using their fake profiles, Initiatives should be taken by the FACEBOOK to stop these things, i personally feel steps wont be taken by them. The best way is what you’ve done here. Its is a brilliant work done by you, hope these tips will be useful for Facebook users to identify fake ones & so that they can restrict themselves by adding fake users.
Cheers for your work man 🙂
Unfortunately, when you have a blog, you get a lot of friend requests… It’s hard to reject them as well.. I tried to create a fan page to direct blog friends there but they keep joining my main profile.
Thanks for the post..
You have mentioned some real fact, Before I was working as SMO executive is one company and I worked by using orkut. The same thing happen is orkut. People used girl’s profile for promote their service and friend list is full of guys. Now I can easily distinguish which is fake and which is real profile on any social network site.
I don’t agree to all of the above mentioned points. If the person is new to facebook but wanna catch true buddies how could they, If we follow certain instructions? We may lose them.
Of course Dadhakumar, all the above mentioned points may not be valid.
And if a person is new to Facebook, he/she can find their Gmail friends easily by connecting it with FB! 😉 He/she don’t need to add all the people irrespective of country, age, and gender! 😀
I don’t know weather to laugh on this or no! Bang on target..Do u remember a female in bikini requesting you to be her friend? She had about 80% of her friends as Males..And her profile was basically created to promote other blogs..
Yup! 😀 I know her.. I believe her name is K*y M**re! 8)
I had substantial amount of fake profs in my list , have already cleaned up. I used to chat with them too lol, while doing so they get caught very easily. Thanx for the tips.
Great tips on how to spot a fake facebook profile, Fakers spotted are the ones that aren’t good, alot of them have been sitting at the computer just as long as you have and have learned a few things…
After reading this article, I am sure that I’ll be able to filter those junk profiles. Thanx for the tips Pradeep. 🙂
I actually encountered one.. she was too smart (she thought like that 🙂 ) she made 5 of my friends as a friend in her list and started chatting with us. As we were asking her real pic to be uploaded she still used picasaweb to grab some pictures to validate.
as we figured out that she is fake, we reported to facebook. so far nothing done from facebook end. She removed 5 of us and joined another set of 5 people in her list now.. 🙂 she continuing her ride to cheat others..
i confirmed its she after talking to her via phone… and she is from chennai. 😉