# Fake Profiles on Facebook **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 11, 2010, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718 "2010-04-11T08:28:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/1 "2010-04-11T08:28:30Z")
Is anyone else starting to get a bunch of obviously fake profiles adding them? A “hot” girl will show her pics, and have in her info some random webcam/porn site, claiming there are pictures of her naked there. It used to be popular on MySpace before they added filters. I’m hoping Facebook will do the same, though I don’t know how well they’d work, since you have to use your real name on Facebook. ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/2 "2010-04-11T08:45:10Z")
Just another reason Facebook never should’ve allowed registration from non-college emails. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/3 "2010-04-11T08:58:19Z")
> [@magnusblitz](#): > > Just another reason Facebook never should’ve allowed registration from non-college emails. Huh? That makes no sense at all. I’m 27 years out of college and I find it useful to reconnect with old friends. When I was in college, I was still in physical contact with most people I cared about. Websites are all about market share. Limiting Facebook to college students would be idiotic. I only friend people I want to communicate with. If I don’t know a person on a personal level, then I just don’t bother. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/4 "2010-04-11T12:42:44Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > Huh? That makes no sense at all. I’m 27 years out of college and I find it useful to reconnect with old friends. When I was in college, I was still in physical contact with most people I cared about. I think the poster was getting at that the focus of Facebook should’ve stayed on college students. You certainly have a legitimate point, but perhaps your needs could’ve be addressed with a “sister site” or another social network for people out of college now. But in the end a website has to make money and they have to expand to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/5 "2010-04-11T14:15:26Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Is anyone else starting to get a bunch of obviously fake profiles adding them? A “hot” girl will show her pics, and have in her info some random webcam/porn site, claiming there are pictures of her naked there. > > It used to be popular on MySpace before they added filters. I’m hoping Facebook will do the same, though I don’t know how well they’d work, since you have to use your real name on Facebook. You can be suspended if you use a fake name on Facebook, but I am here to tell you that there is not an identity cop checking for fake names. ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/6 "2010-04-11T18:49:27Z")
> [@Neptunian\_Slug](#): > > You can be suspended if you use a fake name on Facebook, but I am here to tell you that there is not an identity cop checking for fake names. I never use my real identity on the 'Net, including Facebook. Hasn’t been a problem, except my family members keep rejecting my friend requests since they assume I’m a spambot. (Maybe I should stop using Miss October as my profile pic…) ---
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/7 "2010-04-11T19:52:29Z")
> [@fuzzypickles](#): > > I never use my real identity on the 'Net, including Facebook. Hasn’t been a problem, except my family members keep rejecting my friend requests since they assume I’m a spambot. > > (Maybe I should stop using Miss October as my profile pic…) It was never a problem. When I got shanghaied into using Facebook, I set up a fake name in order to get myself use to the privacy and figure out how to lock everything down. Once I got comfortable, I migrated over to a real name. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/8 "2010-04-12T01:26:55Z")
> [@Neptunian\_Slug](#): > > You can be suspended if you use a fake name on Facebook, but I am here to tell you that there is not an identity cop checking for fake names. That’s the problem. I’m getting tired of having to do their leg work and report all these obvious spammers. Come on. If you have a scantily clad profile pic, a fake sounding name, and your only two profile posts are “Hey, I just joined Facebook” and “Come check out these nude pictures of me that Facebook wouldn’t let me upload.” (And it often links to a porn or webcam site that doesn’t even have that person.) Plus, if you try to change your name, you have to wait for it to be approved. I know, because I misspelled it when I first got on. But the point of what I was saying is that I can’t conceive of a way to create a filter that will allow legitimate people who actually may know you to add you, but not random person off the street. MySpace used to use your Last Name as a way to figure that out, but that’s insufficient. It also uses email, but you can use my email to find my profile, so that’s useless, too. The best thing they have is capchas, which don’t seem to be sufficient. Oh, and pickles: You’d better hope you don’t try to add someone like me. I try to be fair and not report people who are just using nicknames, but you never know. Especially since you have a scantily clad woman profile pic, which often means a spambot, as you mentioned. (Especially now that they are hiding their first posts. I don’t want to have to accept to block. It makes me a target.) I’m actually thinking of starting a group where I put up the profiles of these fakers to get multiple people reporting them. ---
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/9 "2010-04-12T04:13:47Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > That’s the problem. I’m getting tired of having to do their leg work and report all these obvious spammers. Come on. If you have a scantily clad profile pic, a fake sounding name, and your only two profile posts are “Hey, I just joined Facebook” and “Come check out these nude pictures of me that Facebook wouldn’t let me upload.” (And it often links to a porn or webcam site that doesn’t even have that person.) Reporting people does absolutely nothing. Believe me I have reported some spammers on a regular basis. And the last I checked, they were still doing their thing. FB does not care. If I had to guess, they are all using fake names and fake pictures. Unless FB decides to take action against spammers, reporting is worthless. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/10 "2010-04-12T04:31:36Z")
> [@Neptunian\_Slug](#): > > Reporting people does absolutely nothing. Believe me I have reported some spammers on a regular basis. And the last I checked, they were still doing their thing. FB does not care. If I had to guess, they are all using fake names and fake pictures. > > Unless FB decides to take action against spammers, reporting is worthless. I’ve gotten accounts suspended before. If this doesn’t work now, it’s a new thing. Funny how MySpace handled this just fine, even back in the day. Oh, well. All that means is I’m not going to cry when their lack of doing anything to stop pedophiles from preying on kids comes back to bite them in the ass. The more profit they make, the juicier a target they’ll be for the overly litigious. ETA: Does anyone know how to get those annoying forwards started? My experience is about half the facebook population actually believes them. Tell them that Facebook allows porn spammers to target their children, and they’ll have a lot of fun dealing with the complaints. ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/11 "2010-04-12T05:05:06Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Oh, and pickles: You’d better hope you don’t try to add someone like me. I try to be fair and not report people who are just using nicknames, but you never know. Especially since you have a scantily clad woman profile pic, which often means a spambot, as you mentioned. That’s okay, I only use Facebook for the games anyway. Oddly, I’ve never gotten a friend request from a spambot, at least not any from scantily-clad women. Met lots of friendly young men from Africa, though… ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/12 "2010-04-12T21:28:23Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > (And it often links to a porn or webcam site that doesn’t even have that person.) If you can’t even trust a spam-bot masquerading as a real person on Facebook to post honest links to porn, these internets have really gone down the tubes. ---
**Author:** ![maplekiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@maplekiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maplekiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/13 "2010-04-12T21:34:20Z")
Trawling through Facebook lists of friends, I see plenty of obviously fake names. I’ve just assumed if they aren’t causing trouble, then Facebook isn’t going to shut them down. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/14 "2010-04-12T22:35:12Z")
I have several “fake friends”\* in my friends list at Facebook that have very obvious fake names. they are all people who have set up separate profiles for game playing. \*I call people I friend solely for the purpose of playing the games with fake friends. I don’t know them so they really aren’t friends, but that’s the word Facebook uses. I do filter my lists, however, so the fake friends can’t see my personal stuff. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/15 "2010-04-12T22:46:25Z")
People create fake accounts all the time. I play FB games and have lots of friends with names like “Castle Age Playah.” Pretty sure that’s not real, and pretty sure FB doesn’t give a hoot either, unless you’re doing something else they don’t like and go out of your way to call attention to yourself. @the OP: I’ve gotten the hot breasty chicks with nothing in their profile but a link to their private pictures I can see if they give me the password which of course I have to follow porn links to get. What I want to know, is how do they accept a friend request I haven’t sent? That’s what the last one did. I got a notification saying “Busty Boobs just accepted your friend request” and when I looked I sure hadn’t sent her a request. So how do you force a friend request that way? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/16 "2010-04-13T02:53:28Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > People create fake accounts all the time. I play FB games and have lots of friends with names like “Castle Age Playah.” Pretty sure that’s not real, and pretty sure FB doesn’t give a hoot either, unless you’re doing something else they don’t like and go out of your way to call attention to yourself. > > @the OP: I’ve gotten the hot breasty chicks with nothing in their profile but a link to their private pictures I can see if they give me the password which of course I have to follow porn links to get. > > What I want to know, is how do they accept a friend request I haven’t sent? That’s what the last one did. I got a notification saying “Busty Boobs just accepted your friend request” and when I looked I sure hadn’t sent her a request. So how do you force a friend request that way? I’ve only heard of that happening when someone’s account had been hacked. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/17 "2010-04-13T03:21:13Z")
I’ve gotten three requests from users shilling for [fling.com](http://fling.com) and reported them. Two are gone now. But it won’t let me report the third one again. No big deal I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/18 "2010-04-13T14:50:38Z")
How timely, one of these eager young lasses fired up a chat with me less than an hour ago while I was playing Mafia Wars. I strung her along for a while, even told her I had to talk with one of my cops about a controlled substance arrest (true) when I didn’t answer her for a bit. She was apparently shilling for webcams dot com, which appears to be a sexcam-only site. Yeah, sure, I’ll rush my credit card right over, rolleyes rolleyes. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/19 "2010-04-13T15:57:13Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I don’t know how well they’d work, since you have to use your real name on Facebook. How is Facebook to know my name is not Joaquin Bigpantsky? I know a few people who have multiple Facebook accounts. I also know a girl who was unable to get a Facebook account (a few eyars ago, I asume things have changed) under her real name because Facebook thought the variation of the name “Celeste” was an avatar name like “Cellphone”. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718/20 "2010-04-14T07:42:46Z")
I’ve been getting a lot of suggestions for fake profiles lately. The profiles are all the same, maybe a dozen scantily clad pictures of some 19 year old, and a bunch of those “tagged” apps in their photo profile. They look real enough, but I report them anyway. I figure if it’s a spam profile it’ll get deleted, and if not then they’re just pathetic attention whores and will set up another one. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-profiles-on-facebook/535718.md?page=2)