Why People Create Fake Profiles?
Many have asked this question and to be honest there are various reasons... I'll
try to cover some of them below...
1. Most obvious - for financial gains... There are many ways person can profit from fake internet profile:
- By having lots of friends (counts in thousands) and promoting some online service, product or their own commercial web site... In this case scammers gain either money by selling something or by driving big amounts of visits to their web sites...
- By running groups and fan pages... In this case person administrates big groups (fan pages on facebook) and promotes them on his profile in order to gain even more members... When groups or fan pages grow to few hundreds or even over million members owners can sell them and make pretty good cash, or they can use groups and promote their site or sell something to members...
- By scamming people and taking money from them... These can be really anything, from a beautiful girl asking for some money she will use for a plane ticket in order to meet you in person to various scams related to banks and percentages of huge wealth someone needs to transfer to other country (most commonly known as Nigerian scams)...
- By inviting you to paid web cam show... In this case most of the times it's fake women profiles that invite guys to watch them live over web cams, or in other case to join some dating web site where she has more pics... In both cases victim is asked to pay some cash, either for dating site membership or to buy minutes needed for watching web cam show...
2. To satisfy their sexual needs... It is well known that there are sick people in all parts of the World... pedophiles, people with sick sexual preferences and fetishes, people with unsatisfied sexual wishes, etc...
- Pedophiles will open fake profile pretending to be a teenager or will use fake picture of some model and try to get in contact with younger members of social networks... If successful, after some time person will try to arrange a meeting, and we all know where that can lead to...
- People with sick fetishes and sexual orientation are more common... Those are guys who open fake accounts pretending to be lesbian or bisexual girl looking for other similar girls...
3. To control someone...
- For long time it is rumored that Facebook (and some other social networks) are watched by FBI... To be worse in some rumors it is stated Facebook cooperates with and works for FBI and similar government managed structures... Is there easier way to spy on someone then being friend with him? You don't need a warrant, and can't be accused of privacy violation because person accepted you freely and willingly :) think about this...
- I've read about wives and husbands making fake profiles in order to test their partner loyalty... It's easier and cheaper then hiring private investigator for sure :) Make fake profile, add your partner as friend, chat for some time, start chatting about sex, and in the end try to arrange a meeting... In most cases, you'll know where you are long before you get to arranging a meeting...
4. One of the most horrible reasons - people trafficking and organs harvesting...
- You could all read about kidnapping of people by persons they met online... Read: link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4, link 5... One thing i have noticed - there's unexplainable large number of fake profiles that present themselves living in Albania and other south-eastern Europe countries (but Albanian profiles make most of them)... If you read news and watch movies you should know Albanian mafia is one of the strongest in Europe, and that organ harvesting and trafficking is wildly spread in Albania and rest of south-eastern Europe... From there trade circles go into western Europe and other wealthier parts of the World.
5. For fun or as a joke...
- I know of a joke that 3rd level friend of mine (friend of friend of my very good friend) pulled at one of his friends... He opened fake girl profile and added his good friend... They started chatting and after 2 months they arranged a meeting... Guy who pulled joke worked in office with other guy who was victim, forgot to mention that... So one day, at the end of work time "victim" left office to meet with his "to be girlfriend"... They have arranged meeting in front of company building he works in... He waited for 5 minutes there and then sent SMS to girl asking her when is she arriving... "Girl" replied that she is already there and that she stands close to him... That she wears red shoes and yellow clothes... Guy looked around and saw guess what - statue of Ronald McDonald (McDonalds mascot), and immediately after that received SMS from "girl" informing him to wave to his colleagues in office who watched it all through window :)))
I had to leave this funny part of creating profiles for the end, to improve your mood a bit after this long read about fake profiles and all bad things people are doing with them :)
Internet is not a bad thing, remember that... Only some people are... I wrote this article to spread awareness about this very important issue, not to scare anyone... But be careful and be smart !!! Social networks are filled up to the top with fake profiles, believe me on this one...
1. Most obvious - for financial gains... There are many ways person can profit from fake internet profile:
- By having lots of friends (counts in thousands) and promoting some online service, product or their own commercial web site... In this case scammers gain either money by selling something or by driving big amounts of visits to their web sites...
- By running groups and fan pages... In this case person administrates big groups (fan pages on facebook) and promotes them on his profile in order to gain even more members... When groups or fan pages grow to few hundreds or even over million members owners can sell them and make pretty good cash, or they can use groups and promote their site or sell something to members...
- By scamming people and taking money from them... These can be really anything, from a beautiful girl asking for some money she will use for a plane ticket in order to meet you in person to various scams related to banks and percentages of huge wealth someone needs to transfer to other country (most commonly known as Nigerian scams)...
- By inviting you to paid web cam show... In this case most of the times it's fake women profiles that invite guys to watch them live over web cams, or in other case to join some dating web site where she has more pics... In both cases victim is asked to pay some cash, either for dating site membership or to buy minutes needed for watching web cam show...
2. To satisfy their sexual needs... It is well known that there are sick people in all parts of the World... pedophiles, people with sick sexual preferences and fetishes, people with unsatisfied sexual wishes, etc...
- Pedophiles will open fake profile pretending to be a teenager or will use fake picture of some model and try to get in contact with younger members of social networks... If successful, after some time person will try to arrange a meeting, and we all know where that can lead to...
- People with sick fetishes and sexual orientation are more common... Those are guys who open fake accounts pretending to be lesbian or bisexual girl looking for other similar girls...
3. To control someone...
- For long time it is rumored that Facebook (and some other social networks) are watched by FBI... To be worse in some rumors it is stated Facebook cooperates with and works for FBI and similar government managed structures... Is there easier way to spy on someone then being friend with him? You don't need a warrant, and can't be accused of privacy violation because person accepted you freely and willingly :) think about this...
- I've read about wives and husbands making fake profiles in order to test their partner loyalty... It's easier and cheaper then hiring private investigator for sure :) Make fake profile, add your partner as friend, chat for some time, start chatting about sex, and in the end try to arrange a meeting... In most cases, you'll know where you are long before you get to arranging a meeting...
4. One of the most horrible reasons - people trafficking and organs harvesting...
- You could all read about kidnapping of people by persons they met online... Read: link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4, link 5... One thing i have noticed - there's unexplainable large number of fake profiles that present themselves living in Albania and other south-eastern Europe countries (but Albanian profiles make most of them)... If you read news and watch movies you should know Albanian mafia is one of the strongest in Europe, and that organ harvesting and trafficking is wildly spread in Albania and rest of south-eastern Europe... From there trade circles go into western Europe and other wealthier parts of the World.
5. For fun or as a joke...
- I know of a joke that 3rd level friend of mine (friend of friend of my very good friend) pulled at one of his friends... He opened fake girl profile and added his good friend... They started chatting and after 2 months they arranged a meeting... Guy who pulled joke worked in office with other guy who was victim, forgot to mention that... So one day, at the end of work time "victim" left office to meet with his "to be girlfriend"... They have arranged meeting in front of company building he works in... He waited for 5 minutes there and then sent SMS to girl asking her when is she arriving... "Girl" replied that she is already there and that she stands close to him... That she wears red shoes and yellow clothes... Guy looked around and saw guess what - statue of Ronald McDonald (McDonalds mascot), and immediately after that received SMS from "girl" informing him to wave to his colleagues in office who watched it all through window :)))
I had to leave this funny part of creating profiles for the end, to improve your mood a bit after this long read about fake profiles and all bad things people are doing with them :)
Internet is not a bad thing, remember that... Only some people are... I wrote this article to spread awareness about this very important issue, not to scare anyone... But be careful and be smart !!! Social networks are filled up to the top with fake profiles, believe me on this one...
