Social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have become essential to life for most of us, and despite the benefits and facilities that these platforms have provided us in bringing us closer to our friends and relatives - especially during the period of the Covid-19 crisis - there is a dark side that we must pay attention to, this is The aspect of the spread of fake accounts that cause a lot of damage, whether on the individual level or even on large societies, and for this we have found the purpose of writing this article to clarify some simple steps to detect fraudulent accounts on any social platform.
Why are fake accounts created in the first place?
Blackmailing victims in return for sending money (Blackmailing):
In most cases, fake accounts are created to blackmail victims, especially in our Arab world, which is crowded with fake accounts that aim to attract male and female friends and blackmail them with the pictures they send, as we saw in the Egyptian series "B 100 W" when the Egyptian actor " Aser Yassin " Creating these fake accounts and extorting his victims in exchange for sending money.
*Speaking on someone else's tongue to harm him:
Certainly, many of us have been exposed to the situation that we find a fake account that carries our personal data and pictures and sends friend requests to all of our acquaintances and then publishes inappropriate content or causes any problem with our friends, this is unfortunately another popular goal for creating fake accounts. In other cases, fake accounts are opened of public figures to speak in their tongues.
*Promote false news and rumors (electronic armies):
In some other cases, these fake accounts are created in large numbers to be the target of spreading false news and promoting seditions.These accounts are opened using robots (bots) to repeatedly spread the same news in the form of posts or even comments on social platforms. Of course, in this case, it is very easy to detect fraud in these accounts, as we will know later.
*Increase the number of followers on social platforms:
With the same method mentioned previously, these accounts are also used to increase the number of followers on personal accounts. Some people may want to increase their follower numbers just to be proud or to enter a field.
How can we detect fake accounts?
In a few simple ways we can immediately discover the truth of these accounts; Because no matter how skilled the account holder was in showing it as if it was real, he would never be able to mislead all the points that we will mention.
Verify the name and account picture:
Most of the fake accounts are detected immediately from the name and the picture, as for the name, it may contain symbols or spaces, or it may be a strange name that is not used in your country, as for the account picture it may be absent, which increases the suspicion, and in some other cases a picture is placed Fake and here you can pull the image and search for it on Google or Russian Yandex drive , and its source will be shown to you, and if no results appear, the account may be real, but do not be very confident without going through the rest of the steps!
Account creation date:
One of the most famous failures that always expose fake accounts, as the largest percentage of these accounts are newly created, so if you receive an additional request from an anonymous account, the first thing you must do is check the date of opening this account by browsing its schedule or checking the date of the first picture that was placed . If the account is less than a year old, this increases the possibility that it is a fake account.
Number of Friends / Followers Has:
If the account has a lot of friends, it is most likely a fake account that tries to collect a lot of victims. Even some of his friends may be fake, and you can be sure by checking their comments on what he's posting. Or if the newly created account might have very few friends, that's also a sign that you are one of the first victims.
What about the content he publishes?
As for the content that he publishes, it is also one of the major failures from which the truth of these accounts is revealed, and if the account is continuously publishing the same topic over and over again, then it is from the electronic armies that we talked about at the beginning of the article and that try to promote a thought or rumor, but if it is publishing content Sex, it is definitely a fake account that seeks to blackmail or exploit its victims in one way or another.
Have you already received a friend request from your friend?
If your friend is added to your account and you suddenly see a friend request from the same person with another account that contains the same personal data and picture, you must ask your friend before accepting the addition request because it will often be a fake account that seeks to harm your friend as we mentioned in the second point of the reasons for creating fake accounts .
Well it's a fake account, how do I deal with it?
Immediately delete it from your friend list and report it:
Perhaps it is an obvious step, but nevertheless it must be mentioned, the first thing you must do is stay away as much as possible from this account to tighten the screws on it and prevent it from causing any harm to you, and to get rid of it completely you must report it immediately, ask your friends and acquaintances to report also because the more notifications increase The account will be closed faster.
Unfortunately I have shared my private data with him:
First, you must be calm and not nervous, this is not the end of the world, no matter how bad it sounds, if the information that you shared may cause your accounts to be hacked, such as passwords or even your email address, you must immediately completely re-secure your accounts and activate sending a code to your phone number in Every time you log into your account ( 2- step verification ). But if the data is more sensitive and the hacker begins to blackmail you, here's what you do:
If you are a minor, do not avoid telling your parents to prevent the hacker from blackmailing you, as they will help you get through this crisis and support you completely.
Take screenshots showing all the extortion messages he sent you.
Close your account for a temporary period so that it cannot access your friends list and carry out threats.
Head to the nearest police station and file a report in the cybercrime department with the screenshots you took.
Reopen your account, explain to the hacker what you did in the previous step, and then block it completely.
You can also, as a precaution, write a post stating that you are being blackmailed and that this data is completely fake.
Finally, never fulfill a hacker's requests to stop his blackmail:
The implementation of the hacker's requests to stop the blackmail will never be a solution, but it may add insult to injury because many times the victim is asked to send other pictures of her, especially if she is a female. Prevent any attempt to blackmail the hacker. Ask for support from the people around you, especially your family, do not receive and make sure that it is not the end of the world and that it is up to you to stop any blackmail, and in the end .. Never trust any friend from the Internet until you take the time to get to know him and always maintain your privacy.
Good information