It has come to light that several blank and duplicate Facebook accounts using names of existing accounts have been newly created. It is unclear what the purpose of these fake accounts are, but here’s what you can do to have them taken down.
How to identify fake accounts
So far, it seems that the fake accounts use the same format for their profiles: (First Name).(Last Name).(Number). The fake accounts typically have blank or empty profiles but some have already gone to the extent of stealing photos and content from the original accounts.
There have also been reports of fake accounts attempting to send friend requests and messages to contacts of the original account.
How to report fake accounts
(LOOK: Students, Alumni of Various Schools Raise Alarm on Fake Accounts)
- Go to the profile of the fake account.
- Click the 3 dots under the cover photo and select Find Support or Report Profile.
- Choose the “Pretending To Be Someone” option and provide the real account it is posing as or choose the “Fake Account” option.
- Finish the report by flagging it as “against Community Standards.”
What else can we do about these fake accounts?
- Get help from friends and family in reporting fake accounts by informing them and sending the links to these profiles. You can either do this via private message or posting on your social media accounts.
- Create a Google Alert for your name to be notified for any of its uses or mentions.
- Simply go to Google Alerts and enter a topic you want to follow in the box at the top.
- Enter your name and click create alert. You will receive emails for matching search results.
- You may change your settings under show options to narrow down the search and choose what kinds of search results you will get notifications for.
- Join community efforts in taking down these fake accounts. Different Facebook groups and threads for the mass reporting of these accounts have sprung up all over the platform for this purpose. However, we are unable to link them all here as doing so might harm the privacy of these posts.
- Use the When In Manila thread to get help in reporting fake accounts.
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