Internet users often take online interactions at face value. Sometimes a little digging beneath the surface can reveal surprising details.

Nowadays, most Internet users have at least one social media account. However, is the photo on the profile page the true self of the account owner?

While some fake profiles are easy to spot, some might not be so. Here are some ways you can spot them:

  • Using keywords like “Prince”, “Widowed”, “Royalty”, “Engineer/Architect”, “PhD”, or capital cities of developed countries in the profile section.
  • Only has one photo and the person in the photo is extremely attractive.
  • They steal your family or friend’s photos, impersonate them and repost the images that are tagged with recent dates.
  • Their social media timeline contains a lot of fake news or false information.
  • The profile has thousands or almost no social connections.
  • Brand new profile with thousands of followers.
  • They are too forward or flirty in their conversation with you.
  • They ask for your personal or sensitive information.
BE A SMART INTERNET USER
Take up the following interactive elements to learn more
While you think the person you see in their social media profile photos may be real.
Sometimes a little digging may get you to find other similar profiles. This is a warning sign for fake profiles.
Did You Know?
Scammers work through Facebook to get you!
A scammer would download the victim’s friend’s photo and use to create a fake account. Using this account, the scammer would then contact the victim and tell them about how they had lost their mobile phone and now need the victim’s handphone number so that they can save it in their new phone. Once the victim surrenders their number, the victim will receive a verification code 'to help the friend'. Meanwhile, the scammer is actually making online purchases making online purchases and charging it to the victim's phone number. Unfortunately, the victim would only find out about this when they receive their bill.
Beware of romance scammers.
These scammers will use an attractive photo and create a fake profile to allure their victims into establishing a relationship with them. They would first get the victims’ attention, build their trust, and eventually trick the victims into giving up money, credit card details or even nude images or videos (which they would blackmail the victim to constantly pay them money).
What would you do?
Which of the following can you do to protect yourself from a fake profile user?
Give them all the details they requested.
Secure your profile with a strong password and two factor authentication.
Accept their friend request without checking the profile.
Put all information about yourself on your own account.
Create another profile to befriend them.

CORRECT!