Recent Study Finds the Key Differences Between Real and Fake Facebook Accounts
A recent study by a Californian based firm, Barracuda Networks has revealed some interesting information regarding fake Facebook profiles. Thousands of fake Facebook profiles were analysed to collect information regarding their differences to an average real Facebook profiles. The key differences between a fake and real Facebook profile are revealed below.
- Around 97% of fake accounts have female selected as gender. 40% of real users are female.
- Fake accounts are 60% likely to claim to be interested in both men and women, over 10 times the norm for real users.
- Fake accounts apply over 100 times as often as real accounts. The fake accounts use an average of 137 tags per 4 photos and the real users apply 1 tag per 4 photos.
- 43% have not updated their status, whereas 15% of real users have not updated their status.
- Real users have a 77% likelihood to list an entertainment interest. Fake users are only 35% likely to have listed an entertainment interest.
What Does This Mean For Us
Hopefully, the above data is enough to let the average user know some of the key ways to spot a fake account. However, surely a lot of this was obvious to people that the attractive looking young lady wanting to be their friend for no reason at all, might be the start of a con job?
Why Do These Fake Profiles Exist?
There are a number of ways that having fake friends in your social media account can be a risky proposition. Firstly, the accounts can be used to supply you with dodgy links that lead to websites running cross-scripting attacks to install malware, adware and viruses.
Secondly, by moving up the ‘circle of trust’ the fake friend can run a trusted friend account recovery on your account. This is obviously a more direct hack on your account, but less common than the first method of simply spamming links.
Thirdly, by acquiring more friends to their Facebook profile, there is the theory that extra social weight can be given to ‘likes’ and other social voting methods. This is why the average fake account seems to have such a large amount of friends, despite performing less updates than most.
The Circle of Ghosts
It is undoubtedly true, that fake Facebook profiles would befriend fake Facebook profiles. It may in fact be possible, if bot driven communication is in play that private message threads spamming links between two or more fake profiles have occurred, choking up the network and forcing administrators to put a stop to the email volley.
Take Home Message
Don’t accept dodgy Facebook friend requests. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. If you must investigate the request, then do so, but don’t leave the nice looking girl picture you don’t know on your profile for vanity’s sake. This is a security risk. It’s also a risk to other people’s security and internet experience.
This look at social media comes from Ryan Wilson. Ryan is a blogger for HirePulse, a great connecting service for all businesses and contractors, especially mining consultants.
Hi there!
Wow, i didnt know about these facts, thanks for pointing them out to us. I never thought that exist so many fake facebook accounts. Luckily, i dont accept to the circle of my friends anyone for who i dont know who is…