Spotting fake profiles

A whole lot of talk has been circulating as to tell what content is fake on social media and what is authentic. Truth be told, it is not the easiest thing to do to try and spot fake content on social media platforms because they are basically ‘almost authentic’. Fake users try as much as possible to present themselves in a way that can be believable and acceptable to their prey. As well, pictures can be edited with Photoshop to an unbelievable extreme extent.

Basically to spot fake content on social media, you will have to do some digging and searching so as to not fall prey to this cancer. I will provide steps on how to spot fake profiles on social media from an article that I read recently.

Step 1

Read through the updates posted on the profile of the suspected faker. Accounts that only broadcast or push out updates and content instead of having conversations and engaging with other community members are often fake.

Step 2

Keep an eye out for accounts that repeatedly push out spam.

Step 3

Look for a verification indicator on the social media accounts of high-profile users. Accounts without verification might belong to an impostor.

Step 4

Watch for profiles created to provide phony reviews on social ratings and reviews sites. Fake reviews often do not comment on the specifics of a company's product or service. Instead, they tend to give overwhelmingly positive or negative feedback about only the brand.

Now, these steps are just suggestions that prove to work most of the time but this does not justify that an account or profile may be fake. Whatever the case, there is no harm in going through these steps if you wish to avoid any fake users, accounts and profiles. A fake user can harm an innocent teenager who has only intentions of gaining attention but can be taken in the wrong way. Going through these steps can save one person from going through any harm due to this act of ‘cyberbullying’ which can have extreme consequences.

 Aksana Nikolai (2008) How to spot fake profiles on social Media, Retrieved by, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/spot-social-media-fake-46150.html