Fake Facebook Profiles Scammers, Bullies and Thieves

Is flattery the sincerest form of imitation? if so, then this may just explain the things you are seeing on social media today.I do not know about everyone,but I do know about millions using social feeds,Facebook or what I prefer to call Spacebook.

The paranormal Herald (E-paper has seen it’s share of folks with fake profile pages, assumed incorrect names and general profile information.The problem is bullies,have used this sort of faked profile as a targeting way to harass,stalk,bully millions of people.

Facebook, has their own private policies,when dealing with these types of bullies,however they have openly stated,”they can not police everyone.

The most common scenario is someone copies the name, profile picture and other available photos of their intended victim. The next thing they do is block the person they are impersonating and send friend requests to everyone on the victim’s friends list. This is done to infiltrate their social network. Once this part of the mission is complete, the scammer has a variety of options at their disposal.

1. Data mine the accounts they have friended under the bogus profile. Even if you have your privacy and sharing options set to ‘Friends Only,’ you are still at risk if you accidentally accept a duplicate friend request.
2. Gather enough information and target close friends and family members with something called the ‘Grandma Scam.’ The scammer contacts people close to the victim and tells them that they are in trouble of some kind, usually stranded on vacation, arrested or in some other legal trouble, etc. This is accompanied by an urgent plea to send money ASAP via Western Union.
3. Spam scam links to everyone on their friends list. This is a common social engineering tactic used by online fraudsters. The goal is to use the trust of the victim’s social circle to make the scam more believable. We have seen scam messages promoting diet pills, free gift cards and pleas directing people to check out photos and videos. (These are just a few examples.)

Unknown con artists aren’t the only ones creating duplicate profiles and pages. Bullies often create fake profiles with the intention of humiliating or harassing their intended victim. If this happens to you, then we encourage you to report the incident to Facebook and contact your local law enforcement authorities. Most places have laws against online harassment and bullying.