Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world and is responsible for bringing almost a communication revolution to the World Wide Web.
The use of Facebook today is really very large and has reached a level where the user base is estimated to cover around 37% of the total world population. Along with this huge user base, the fake user base has also risen to an unexpected level of 27% of total Facebook users. That means if you receive 10 friend requests a day, out of those 10 only 7 or 8 are real people and the rest 2 or 3 are fake.
Like the virtual world, the world of the Internet is also filling up with fraud. From phishing scams to hacking, today’s World Wide Web is said to be only 65% original. This in turn means that the remaining 35% is fraud. The same goes for popular social networking and microblogging sites like Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, etc. Some do it for fun and others for business.
Here are some of the reasons why Facebook is turning into a fake book:
1. fun book: The most common threat among young people is setting up fake accounts and tricking their friends and colleagues for social reasons. This amusing habit of tricking others has led to fake account holders, sometimes even bearing the name of a real person who never used Facebook in their life.
two. Business book: The danger of Facebook is very brutal when we talk about the dangers for business. Nothing can hinder business worse than a false prospect. And with these fake Facebook accounts on the rise, every business needs to be smart about turning a Facebook lead into a lead. Most of the fake business accounts are used by some companies to promote their products. Because people find it more convenient to believe in a product or service when an individual recommends or endorses it. If you take a look at any of the Freelancing sites like Elance, GAF or Guru, you can easily find a good number of posted projects to create massive Facebook accounts. In fact, these are fake accounts.
3. Niche book: You name any niche and find it within Facebook. either in the form of groups or fan-pages. And to increase the visibility of a group or a fan page, the use of fake accounts is the best source.
With the growth of these fake accounts, the risk of losing ground on Facebook is becoming very high for everyone. Therefore, it is a huge need for you to know about the precautions to be taken. I am mentioning some of these precautions here that I have found useful:
1. Find the address: Most of the fake Facebook users do not have a proper address on their information page. So look for that information page to clarify your doubts.
two. Profile picture: To amaze all of us, most of the fake accounts have photos on their profiles. And they are simply collected from dating sites and other image sources. Thus, it relates the image to the address or age provided by the user. Trust me, it will tell you a lot.
3. Friends: If you see an account where the user’s address is somewhere in Chula Vista, US or London, UK and you don’t have any friends from that region, you should be careful. This is rare for a person not to have any friends from their own place.
Keeping these 6 points in mind while accepting any Facebook friend requests will definitely save you from the danger of the fake book.