Faking it on Facebook

Facebook has over 1.18 billion active users in the world. But not everyone is genuine. In what is turning out to be dicey development that screams ‘menace’, fake profiles continue to crop up every so often, rendering to inconsequential the social network’s efforts to wipe them off.

With more than 2.5 million users, Facebook is Sri Lanka’s most popular social media platform. It is also the most abused, requiring users to tread with caution when posting personal information or images.

Abusing the facilities in this social media platform or any other, for fun or with malicious intents constitutes a cyber crime, a transgression handled by the Criminal Investigations Department and the Technical Unit of the Sri Lanka Police. Cyber crimes are punishable offences, but the police are not in a position to swoop down and apprehend the perpetrators of this crime, due to myriad reasons, placing the onus on the users to be vigilant and extra cautions about the safety of their accounts. Not unlike a motorist or a pedestrian, or even a home owner.

2000 complaints

There are privacy policies that protect the large numbers of active users from people intent on mischief or harm. Despite these precautions, the Coordinating Centre of the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team Coordination Centre (SLCERT CC) had received more than 2000 Facebook related complaints by the end of September 2015.

SLCERT CC, Senior Information Security Engineer Roshan Chandraguptha says 60 percent of the complaints are from females and 40 percent are from males, and that the age rangers from 17 to 45. Pointing out that people who create fake accounts using real pictures are not monitored, he says there are several reasons why some resort to creating fake accounts. “Some people create one to take revenge, some for illegal purposes, and some others to tarnish the image of a person,” he says, admitting that many children under the age of 13 open accounts by providing false information. “This too is considered as fake,” he claims.

He says SLCERT CC has also received complaints regarding unauthorized pictures published in Facebook and on other website. “You can make a report to Facebook claiming that your pictures are being used in different pages without your consent. Then FB will remove these pictures,” he explains, pointing out that when Facebook users publish pictures they need to make sure that the pictures are visible only to the relevant parties.

Unknown people

“If you have used the public setting any one on Facebook can see the pictures. That is how your pictures get into the hands of strangers. If you make sure that your Facebook settings are correctly used, then you don’t have to face such types of incidents.” Chandragupta elaborates, acknowledging that the public can report about any fake accounts to the Facebook team. He also warns that it is dangerous to have unknown people in the friends list as that can cause a lot of harm.

Users and those abused

Active Facebook users and those who have been abused by people using fake accounts:

Maheshika Perera –

“Recently I was abused by a fake account. When I was using the FB account I saw a list saying people you may know, when I was checking it I saw a profile of someone using my profile picture. Analysing it, I realized it was a fake profile. I reported it to the FB team and I told all my friends to report it. Then the Facebook team deleted the account. It was a very bad experience.”

Bhagya Pieris –

“I am very social person and most of my friends are abroad. So Facebook is really helping me to get in touch with them and share my stuff. Actually I am addicted to Facebook and very active but I never got abused by people because of my privacy settings. I never add unknown people to my account. I have thousands of pictures of myself but luckily I have never got hurt. My advice is to use Facebook correctly. Do not add unknown and disturbing people if you want to be safe. One should have the ability and common sense to identify fake Facebook profiles.”

Faumi Fauz -

“I think FB is great because you get to keep in touch with the people in your life. The people you grew up with but are no longer in the same place. So it is a great and cheaper way to stay connected. We get Facebook pages of various user interests, news, entertainment; latest updates on pretty much everything you need to know about in this technologically advanced era we are living in currently. Fake accounts are very common these days. I see a bunch of them and I do get friend requests from them time to time. It is very easy to identify a fake account. I would say at least for me. Not all people would use Facebook for the same purpose. Another user may use it to make new friends virtual since he or she could have a social anxiety problem.”

Gayan Fernando –

“It is good to have one as long as you know your limits and use it with caution. I use it to keep in touch with friends overseas, outstation, childhood friends, close colleagues and contacts and to know the important happenings in their lives, such as jobs, achievements, marriage and kids. I have heard some cases related to FB, in one of them I heard that the victim of a blackmail case could not even step outdoors for months. Sadly some cannot even take legal action in fear of repercussions. Especially for girls, if they do not want to get involved in complicated issues or troubles, it is best to keep away from total strangers at all times.”

Contrary to Chandraguptha’s views, Managing Director, Red Pinnacle (PVT) LTD, Buddhika Fernando, says he does not see anything wrong in a person having a fake account and that people come across situations where they will have to hide their real identity. “The most important thing is the way one uses the account,” he says, adding, “If we should add only people whom we know, and then it will not serve the purpose of networking. We normally are not really having relationships with 5,000 people in our lives but on FB it is possible. Then why did the FB team allow 5,000 friends into the list as the maximum amount? For example if I want to raise my voice to legalize prostitute in Sri Lanka, I will have to hide my identity due to social barriers so everything lies on the purpose. The people in Sri Lanka are not yet advanced enough to properly use the technical tools.”

Regulate and monitor

Fernando believes that the government along with the Ministry of Technology should take steps to regulate and monitor social media and that parents and teachers should monitor and control how children/students use social media.

Science Writer and new media researcher/commentator, Nalaka Gunawardene says it is essential that Facebook be used with some precautions, in a manner similar to how roads are used with a sense of road safety. “There is no foolproof way to verify an account holder’s identity online, so vigilance is always needed and verification is a good idea,” he says, elaborating that on Facebook, when we accept a friend request from someone, we provide our new friend access to lots of information about ourselves. The updates, photos, messages and background information that we provide he says, can be misused by the ‘friends’ we have accepted.

Prevent problems

“This is why it very important to add only those individuals we know personally, in real life. Even then, if we are not sure if a given account actually belongs to someone we know, it is always good to check with him or her through a phone call. This sounds tedious, yes, but it can prevent problems later,” he says, pointing out that Facebook also has privacy settings, which can be used to decide who gets to see what in the account. “Most users are unaware of these facilities, or just do not bother. The price they pay is loss of privacy and potential misuse of their personal info or images,” he points out.

Gunawardene says many of the computer and social media users are also not careful with their passwords. They either choose a password that can be guessed easily, or worse, they share password with friends, family members or lovers. “Very often, accounts are hacked into or ‘hijacked’ by known persons who had access to password. In particular, when some lovers fall out, they now resort to this kind of hacking and account hijacking activity,” he says.

He is also critical of how people also keep their Facebook accounts open all the time. “This is not a good idea, especially if the computer terminal is shared. Anyone can then access our account. On shared terminals, we must always log out when finished,” he says.