How to Identify a fake facebook profile

  Imagine something nice happens in your life.You are no more that lonely guy or girl.And it all starts from some social networking site say facebook.Out of nowhere some  God sent angel comes to your life and your life turns upside down.But life as we know it is not always that easy.Finally you came to know that the person was a fictional character and that person  never existed but its too late and you have shared some of your  darkest secrets or some information which that person  can use for his benefits or blackmail you.Or the person had sent you a trozan or key-logger in an email attachment   and without your knowing that  trozan got installed in  your system and now he  has got  all your passwords your credit card transaction details or may be he is getting your web-cam access. All these things might seem impossible to some but it happens and has ruined many peoples lives or have caused temporary troubles.People got robbed , got raped, lost their jobs.These are some of the scenarios that might happen to any random person who is too careless in choosing their online friend . Someone might invade your privacy.Social networking   has become an essential part of our lives and its good too.But to be safe in this cyber world we got to be more vigilant.

There are crooks, liars and scammers all around.In this post I will show you how to detect a fake facebook account and some tips for a safe journey in the information superhighway.

Identifying a fake facebook account

Analyse the  profile pictures and albums and info

Go through the persons photos.The first thing you need to analyze is the  profile photo.If the profile seem like that of some immensely attractive lady or man,you need to be alert.Next if the profile picture is that of some cartoon,film star ,celebraty it might not be a real one.Now go through the person’s another profile pictures in his or her albums and if you can find different photos or simply a few photos it’s a postive sign of a fake profile.Check if there are photos related to the persons life like family pics,office pics,with friends,or other such photos If you can’t find any such pictures then its most probably a fake profile.If the person's albums are filled with random pictures like flowers cars etc,It might be fake.  Look for tagged photos of the person.A real person will usually be tagged by his friends.It might also provide a clue.Usually some fakers donot neatly fills the info space,but many does.

Use GOOGLE  to check if a profile picture is fake!

Now here is a game changer.Google has introduced a cool new feature.Go to google image search.Drag any image and drop it in the search box and you will get results if that image exist anywhere or is linked in any website.Since most of these fackers uses pictures downloaded from various sites it is most probable that you will get your answer . Download the images of that person and drag it and drop it into the search box.The results might shock you.Even if the person has not enabled you to view photos since you have not accepted the friend request you can use screen shot tool  to  capture the Profile picture and search it in google.You can use a screen shot tool named greenshot,its easy to use.You can download greenshot from http://getgreenshot.org/.

Check  Out the wall

A  fake facebook profile owner will not have a uniform rate of posts on his wall .The person  will have lesser posts since he will have to maintain his original account too.Look carefully what content he posts.If it’s a fake profile you will find less posts related to personal life or work or other real life activities.There will be lesser interaction on his wall with friends, will comment less on others walls.There  might also  be  a lots of widgets that fills his walls with automated posts.They does this to make the page look more used.

Cyber Stalk that person

This might sound weird but it proves fruitful many a times in idetifying a fake profile. Try google and other search engines to search for that persons .You can try linkedin too.Try this if you know the person's e-mail id.There is a website called lullar www.lullar.com . It has various search options, I like the e-mail search option.Enter the e-mail id and you will get if the person is in any other social networking sites or have other online accounts with that e-mail id.

Some important points

An entire Album of some other person can be stolen.So You cannot always take it for granted that since there are many photos of the same person it is a genuine account.The person might already be friend with some your friends in facebook.These guys might be smarter than you assume. So use your common sense and don't go nuts even if it is too convincing.Do not click any links of apps posted by friends that claim to do more than expected.Always stay updated about the various viral images,spam status messages and hoax updates that keep spreading . Since for any cyber frauds the most vulnerable thing is the human element so choose your friends carefully and  share your updates and information cautiously.

Stay safe,Play Safe