According to a report published by Facebook in May 2018, fake profiles on its platform account for around 4%, at most, of their monthly active user count. That means, out of 2.2 billion active profiles, there are around 88 million fake profiles.
People create fake profiles for all sorts of reasons. Some people use it for spamming, spreading promotional content, building fake page likes, testing purposes, etc, then there is another group of people who use the platform to stalk or libel other people.
The fact is these days, you can make friends with anyone on Facebook and they do not have a clue who you really are or where you really live. So there is a high chance of you being friends with fake Facebook accounts.
It is pretty much easy to spot fake accounts on Facebook, take a look at this piece of article by @apokerplayer. However, It can get very difficult to identify fake profiles operated by professional scammers.
Scammers usually hire Photoshop professionals to modify profile pictures & social-engineering professionals to bait their victims. This makes the fake profile look very real. A social-engineering professional will talk to and even treat you like he or she has known you for years and will gain your trust easily.
If you are looking for any “Facebook Fake Account Finder” programs, Let me tell you there ain’t any of such programs available. If you see any website promoting the same, rest assured it’s either scam or a malware program.
If I am not mistaken, you are here for either of the 2 reasons listed below:
- You found someone who is impersonating you i.e someone has created an account pretending to be you and you want to know the person behind this fake profile.
- You came across certain Facebook profile through some sort of group, a new friend request, or through messenger and you just want to be sure that the person is for real and not a scammer.
Impersonation is often accompanied by fraud. So if you are a public figure and find someone who is pretending to be you, immediately report the concerned impersonator’s profile to Facebook. Here is how you can report someone on Facebook.
If you believe you have suffered reputation damage as a result of Impersonation or If the situation is extremely serious (a matter of life or death), File a police report asap.
On the other hand, if your concern is just to find out who made a fake Facebook account, here is how you can do it:
Revealing the face behind fake profile user
Before we begin, please read my existing post: Finding an IP address of a Facebook user, wherein I have discussed how to reveal IP address information of the fake user using the IP grabber tool.
The technique mentioned in my last post requires that you first befriend the fake account user and start casual conversations with him/her, gain their trust, and then convince them to click the link sent by you. This IP address technique works only if the user is not using any proxy service or VPN.
With the new messenger trick, we do not have to send the person any kind of crafted links. Instead, we will make use of social engineering to reveal the face behind a fake Facebook account.
This new technique involves convincing the fake account holder to use the Facebook Messenger app and tricking them into sharing their selfie picture.
All you have to do is, get your victim on Facebook messenger and while you are in conversation with him/her and make them click on the camera icon to send you their selfie. Watch this video:
You can send them instructions on how to do it by luring them new secret emojis.
Example:
“#Trick to unlock Secret Camera Emojis: You see the camera button next to where you type at? Hold it down and slide your finger up to the other camera button that’s gonna come up and hold it then release it…”
The fake Facebook account holder unaware of the trick accidentally ends up sending your his/her hilarious selfie.
I hope this helps you unmask the fake user.
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