Content

• To step
• Tips
• Warnings
• Necessities

Facebook is a social network consisting of more than a billion people. Some people on Facebook don't always have the best of intentions. They can screen you for information, they can steal your identity or even ruin your reputation. How can you protect yourself from these criminals? We'll show you a few ways to avoid getting cheated on Facebook. Read on!

To step

1. Understand why it is important to be able to spot a fake account. First of all, you need to understand that someone with a fake account is very likely to have criminal intent. You don't want these people in your life unless you are a criminal yourself.
   • They will pretend to be a friend or someone with romantic intentions, but their sole purpose is at best to play a joke and at worst to steal your money or belongings.
   • It could also be that the impostor is out to steal your identity or valuable information with which to manipulate others.
2. Never talk to strangers. Think carefully before accepting friend requests from people you don't know or who you don't understand how they found you on Facebook. If you are unsure, you can do the following:
   • Ask questions: Why do you want to be my friend? How did you find me? Who are our mutual friends? If you click on their name you can check if you have mutual friends. If so, you can contact that mutual friend. No mutual friends? Then watch out.
3. Do some research yourself. This can even be fun to do. You may find that the person is not pure coffee. You can do the following things:
4. Read the information on the profile page carefully. Does it sound credible or are there things that can never be right?
   • For example, there may be a photo on the profile of a very young person and at the same time the claim that the person is a PhD student. Trust your gut. It could be that someone is just trying to make themselves innocent, but it could also indicate a fake account. You can ask for proof if necessary. He or she approaches you and not the other way around, so you have the right to find out if they really are who they say.
5. Look closely at the profile picture. Is there only one photo? Is it too perfect? Does it look retouched? Have you seen the photo before? A good photo or an edited photo doesn't have to be a bad sign, but someone might have pulled a photo from Google to create an imaginary profile. Try the following:
   • Drag the profile picture to your desktop.
   • Open a new window on your browser and go to Google Images.
   • Click on the camera icon on the right side of the search window. Select "Upload an image". Choose the location of the profile picture (desktop) to upload.
   • Google uses facial recognition and other algorithms to recognize an image, you can either find the image (with information such as a name) or images that look like it.
6. Enter the name that appears at Google and view the result. With a common name, this probably won't yield much, but it can provide interesting information.
   • With a frequently occurring name, you can add other information found to the search, such as location or age.
   • Is the person tagged? A real person will likely be tagged here and there.
7. Check out the friends. Does the person have local friends or friends around the world? If someone only has local friends, they are much more likely to be a real person. Someone with friends all over the world and no local friends at all is suspicious.
   • The lack of local friends often indicates a fake account. This is often the case with profiles of (nonexistent) attractive young women. It often happens that they connect with a phrase like "I saw your picture and you looked nice".
8. Block the request. If you don't feel good about someone, there is a simple solution: don't reject the person, block them immediately.
   • Click on their Facebook name and go to the timeline. Click on the gear icon at the top right. Click on "Report / Block".
   • You now have the choice to block someone or report the person to Facebook if you feel that illegal activity is taking place.
9. Set a "conditional period". You expose yourself to accepting requests from fake accounts if you have a habit of always accepting all friend requests just because they have the same taste in music, for example.
   • Of course this could lead to interesting friendships, but always try to find a mutual friend so that you know it's okay. If that is not possible, you can at least be alert to strange behavior, for example if you notice that they are busy with you and your messages every day.
   • If you don't or hardly know someone, it would be normal for them to keep a little distance in the beginning, be polite and careful.
   • If it doesn't feel right after a week or two, it's a good idea to remove them as a friend.
10. Keep an eye out for multiple fake accounts that are linked together. It used to be good enough to see if someone had an active group of friends. Then you were almost certain that it was a real account. Unfortunately that is now over!
    • It's increasingly common for one person to control multiple fake accounts and pretend to be a group of people just to make the accounts more credible.
    • A good example of this is the case of Natalia Burgess, a woman who made many young men believe they were dealing with all kinds of young women - just because she wasn't getting enough love herself. Cheaters like Burgess spend a day making fake accounts credible, including accounts on other social media and personal websites.
11. Look carefully for contradictions. There is always something in the web of lies that shows that something is wrong. If someone has multiple fake accounts, that person will at some point get confused and start scrambling stories.
    • If you notice discrepancies in answers to questions or in their comments, it is a good idea to record them and stay alert for more mistakes.
12. Be on the lookout for claims that are inconsistent with the profile they have outlined. For example, if an adult pretends to be a teenager, they might say something about a historical event that they normally wouldn't know about. It could also be that they know far too much about a certain subject, while that is not at all appropriate for the other interests.
    • Keep a close record of what the suspected person claims. Nobody is perfect, in the end they fall through the basket and then it may turn out that your feelings were right.
13. Always pay attention to declarations of love. It is always suspicious if someone says that you are in love when you hardly know the person in question and have never met them in person. Some people enjoy playing with the feelings of others, some are especially in love with the idea of ​​internet love, and some are looking for money, sex, or drugs.
    • Consult yourself if someone declares love to you on Facebook. Is it going too fast? Is it strange? Does it give you the jitters? Trust your gut and remove the friend.
    • If someone asks you for sexy photos, alarm bells should ring right away. A fake account is often used to collect nude photos that then take on their own lives on the internet.
14. Remove them as a friend! If you don't trust the matter or are unsure, always pull the plug. This is not about real friends or family and you can save yourself a lot of suffering.
    • Warn other friends if you know they are also friends with the fake account; one of the tactics is to befriend a number of people in the same circle to make it seem more credible.

Tips

• Be careful what you put online and what you tell people you don't actually know. Some people seem very caring until they have enough information and then they can start trying to blackmail you. Keep speaking in general terms if you barely know someone, never tell them anything that is private.
• Check the links they provide, for example to personal web pages and other social media. Check if the story is correct.
• Look for evidence of interacting with their friends outside of the Internet. But keep in mind that that too can be fake.

Warnings

• Keep an eye on your teenage children. Young people are very easy to influence and are more likely to establish an Internet relationship with a non-existent person. They fall in love with an idea of ​​the perfect person and can easily be used by criminals that way.

Necessities

• Facebook account