We often receive spam offers: to spend an unforgettable evening or quickly earn a huge amount of money while sitting on the couch. Usually messages are sent from fake accounts. It is necessary to be able to identify and neutralize such recipients, since they take up a lot of time, which is always short.
Why identify and remove fake subscribers
It is necessary to find fakes among subscribers for several reasons:
- They will never buy anything. There is no reason to be “friends” with them.
- Bots reduce campaign performance indicators. After all, they do not like, repost, or engage in heated debates when publishing provocative posts.
- In addition to reducing the final results, fakes also complicate the calculation of indicators. After all, the presence of 3,000 people in a group does not mean that they are all real people.
It should be noted that not all fakes are equally dangerous:
- The real threat to information and finances is spammers who are able to “bombard” publication space with advertisements. They may post indecent posts. Among them are many scammers who make money by infecting users’ computers with viruses.
- Bots designed to increase authority may offer friendship or join a group, but do nothing else. They are quite harmless, but they interfere with obtaining the correct result of statistical data.
Below, you will learn how to distinguish “live” subscribers from bots. They usually look like inactive or dormant users.
How to identify bots on social networks yourself
To ensure that fakes do not flood the account and interfere with the full administrator's work groups, it is advisable to identify and block them at the stage of adding friends.
To identify a fake account, you need to pay attention to the following signs:
- Photo of a celebrity, abstract image, indecent pictures as an avatar.
- Thousands of friends and subscribers, most of whom are not real people either.
- There are no photos from vacations, events, or photos with family on the page.
There is little handwritten page content - either reposts or nothing at all, although this situation is also possible in the case when the account belongs to a real user.
How to identify fake accounts among friends on social media. networks
Automatic bot search tools allow you to quickly sort the list of friends in each social network. networks in which the moderator works
The following services will help you quickly find bots:
You can quickly find fake followers on Instagram using the IGExorcist service, which identifies fake accounts when they interact with other users. For the service to work, you must have an account without visibility restrictions; the account must contain at least 10 photos.
The application generates a report indicating the number of fake accounts after analysis.
Find blocked subscribers in AntiDogs will help - a service that checks the number of users blocked by the system. The service works very simply; to get information you need to enter the group URL in the provided field.
The service will show not only permanently, but also temporarily blocked users. TO paid service refers to the removal of all “violators” from the group. You can set to delete only temporary or only permanent users.
The VkFake service will help you check fake accounts. To do this, enter the URL of an account that looks like a fake one into the required field and select one of the verification options. The developers promise to introduce community verification soon.
The VKBot service will help cleanse the community of users blocked by the system.
It is better to search for bots on networks such as Google+ and “”, since there are practically no applications for checking here.
You can, for example, search for avatar photos in Google by clicking right click mouse over the photo and selecting the desired option. Based on the results obtained, it will already be possible to draw conclusions.
From automatic methods introduced FakeOFF, which generates friend lists. Then the service offers to check each individual separately, for which you need to click on the verification activation button for each account.
The service asks additional questions to obtain clarifying information, after which clicking the Submit and get basic results button will display the final results.
What to do with fake accounts on social networks
Fake accounts must be deleted maximum quantity, leaving only active bots that form a user account and participate in all discussions. Such bots are usually controlled by operators, so in essence they can be equated to full-fledged accounts.
It is better to identify fakes and not allow them to your page at the stage of asking for friendship or registering a user in a group.
Using automatic programs After clearing the group, it would be a good idea to double-check the results manually. The services listed above are far from ideal, therefore, in order to preserve everyone real subscribers and friends, it is better to review the accounts selected by the program again.
Sincerely, Nastya Chekhova . Your existing address cannot be used for a fake profile. Email, it is better to create a new address that will only be used when registering a new account.
- This new email address should not be used for other sites or services that require an email address to be associated with you (such as logging into a bank account or for any subscriptions).
- To create a new one email address use another postal service(different from the one on which your main email address is registered). For example, if when registering a real account you used Gmail address, use Yahoo or Outlook for a new email address.
Consider new personal information. You shouldn't give away too much personal information on a social network, but there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Interests and hobbies- come up with a list of things that will interest your fake user. Think about hobbies, daily activities, favorite pastimes.
- Date of Birth- select a date of birth that matches the approximate age of your imaginary user. Your date of birth may vary depending on the preferences and interests you indicate in your new profile.
- Name- Choose a name that is common enough that it won't attract too much attention, but not so common that it raises any suspicion. You should not choose common pseudonyms (for example, “Vasya Pupkin”). Think about the name that was popular among children in the expected year of birth.
Understand what the “less is more” rule means. It's okay to add a few believable details to your account that no one can confirm or deny, such as photos, interests, current location, but don't overdo it! By adding information that people can check (and realize is false), you undermine people's trust in your new profile, and it may even end up getting reported as fake.
- For example, you shouldn't list a specific school or job on your account because it's fairly easy to determine whether you actually worked for that company or attended that school.
- The less precise details there are in your new profile, the more believable it will look.
Try to minimize the similarities between your real and fake profile. This includes the fake profile's current location, age, name, interests, job, and so on. All these points should be noticeably different from your real profile. In addition, you need to change the way you communicate.
- For example, if on your real page you always pay attention to correct spelling and punctuation, on a fake page, try not paying attention to the grammar.
- Things like your age and interests cannot be verified by anyone, so feel free to make them up without fear of getting caught.
- Also, on a new profile, you shouldn't add as friends more than one or two people that you have as friends on your real page, and never add two people that you couldn't know unless you were in a certain place (for example, at school or at some event).
Add real photos to your profile. Once you post a photo from Google or Yandex, you will probably be caught for stealing content. So make sure to take real photos and post them on your new profile. But first, make sure that these photos do not contain any details that would give away your actual location.
- For example, instead of a photo of a street in your hometown, you could upload an image of a field or meadow.
Don't show your real face. Of course, you don't want anyone to match your real face with your fake profile. Therefore, you should not post photos with your own image.
Like the pages. Like pages that the owner of your fake profile might like, and they will be added to your profile information in the Likes section. This easy way give the profile “depth”.
Show, don't tell. People rarely talk about their personality and other mundane things. Simply listing facts about yourself in hopes of filling in the blanks on your profile will only make people on your friends list suspicious.
- Instead, you can show what kind of person you are by adding information to the About section, liking pages, indicating your interests, and so on.
Limit communication via Messenger. This is another example of the “less is more” rule: the more you talk about yourself or your activities, the easier it will be for another user to understand that your profile is fake. Unless you absolutely have to discuss something in private messages, consider not using Messenger at all.
- If you do use Messenger, be aware of the grammar and other communication techniques specific to your posts (for example, if you write informally in your posts and do not pay attention to literacy, do the same in Messenger).
Be an active user. Majority Facebook users are quite active throughout the day, so it is important to add friends, leave likes on posts, publish posts occasionally, update information about your place of work or contact information.
- You can use incognito mode in your browser so that you can use your fake profile without leaving your real profile.
- If you want to take a break from using a fake profile, consider posting a relevant status, such as “Going on Vacation.” When you log back into your profile after a break, you can even post a few “vacation” photos.
- Publish posts from time to time - this way you can build trust in your page and your updates among users. For example, you can publish a post about your work anniversary.
I’m writing this post from under the table... hiding. What did you think? Today we will engage in illegal activities, just shh!
Well, okay, in fact, in what I write, there is nothing inherently illegal, but these actions violate the rules for using the social network VKontakte.
And this means that creating fake pages, in theory, can lead to blocking of your accounts, and not only fake ones, so think twice if you need it =)
Well, what did you think? Is it good? Well, if anything I warned you. The other day I needed to create another account on this social network. network, but I didn’t like the limit of 1 account per 1 person. First, a little theory.
What is fake VKontakte
This is fake user pages with fictitious data, i.e. in reality such a person does not exist. Of course, according to the rules of social media. This is prohibited on the network, but not all users are ready to share their personal data.
I think you’ve met people like this quite often - their profiles are not filled out, their first and last names are unnatural ( for example Bublik Tumbochkin🙂), there is either no photo on the avatars or some kind of left picture, the albums are empty, etc. However, a high-quality fake with a completed profile is difficult to distinguish from real ones. Some even impersonate other real people, but this can already smack of a real violation of the law.
Why do they create fakes on VKontakte?
In fact, there are quite a few reasons, and the ways to use a fake on VK are limited only by your imagination. Starting from getting likes, voting, distributing the necessary information, etc. and ending with pumping gaming applications, which became very popular.
Those who are smarter make good money from this. If you wish, you can add thousands of friend requests to each account in a couple of days. And then you can register on sites that allow you to monetize social media. networks, for example, and earn money by placing advertisements on fakes. Although, in my opinion, it is faster and easier for a beginner to make money on the Internet on a freelance exchange - everyone can do at least something from the list of services (drawing, layout websites, edit videos, write texts, promote public pages, etc.), and you get at least 500 rubles for 1 order.
Imagine that you have 100 different accounts under your control, all with different names, surnames, ages, etc. Thus, you have the weight of 100 people in this social colossus, and this is no small amount. You can practically shape public opinion alone =)
In short, I think you understand, there are a lot of ways to use it. Now let's get to the heart of the matter.
How to make a fake in contact
If you have a VKontakte page, then log out of your account and click the Registration button.
Enter the First Name and Last Name you came up with.
The fact is that previously accounts were linked only to email, and there were no problems creating fakes) Then you could unlink your phone number from your account, and thus you could register several pages on one phone. But now, Comrade Durov realized that this was not the case, and registered on the site via SMS activation without connection.
And for one phone number You can only link 1 account, that’s the problem. Durov did not take into account that we may need 5-10 or even more pages on social media. networks :)
Of course, buying 10 different SIM cards or asking all relatives to activate accounts is not the best option, there are simpler and cheaper ways.
At first, of course, I tried to link several pages to one number) The system suggested that I unlink the number from the old one and link it to new page, I kindly agreed, thinking that there was nothing wrong with it) The page was created, everything is ok. However, when I went to my main page, a message so unobtrusively crawled onto the floor of the screen, saying that your page is not linked to a phone number, link otherwise, ah-ah-ah, and so on)
I thought about it and decided to return the old number back. As a result, it jumped across the pages 3 times and I received the last Chinese warning from VKontakte :) It read something like this - your phone number is not a toy, take this seriously, damn it, this is your last attempt to link a number, we no longer intend to tolerate this disgrace )
Tough guys in a word) I had to look for other ways to create fakes.
SMS account activation VKontakte
After torturing the search engine a bit, I found several ways. I’ll say right away - you shouldn’t use any dubious free services, super programs, bots, etc. because you risk losing access to your account altogether or infecting your computer with a virus. Among the safe ones:
1st This means buying ready-made fakes from your hands. I didn’t really like this option, since I had to first find the seller online, then contact and negotiate with him, then make a deal, and there are no guarantees that you won’t be deceived and you’ll just waste money ( Although not large, accounts cost around 10 rubles. a piece)
2nd This is through intermediaries to activate the account on their SIM card numbers. It’s also not particularly expensive, from 10 to 100 rubles depending on the account, but as in the previous version, there are still the same disadvantages. No one will give guarantees, besides, they usually work with bulk orders, if you need 1-2 fakes, then it’s unlikely that anyone will waste their time on you.
3rd The one I settled on are special services that provide the ability to activate via virtual SIM cards for a small fee (15-50 rubles per SIM card, depending on the service and tariff).
The demand for rooms is quite high, and sometimes there are not enough for everyone. Therefore, you can often see the inscription “ No numbers. Try again later." Well, there is no choice but to follow the advice and try later. Ideally, do these things at night, then there will be less queue)
Sometimes it happens that someone has already used this number before you, then when registering, VK will give an error that the number is already occupied. There is nothing wrong with this, in the Activations section on the website you can click the Cancel button and indicate the reason that the number has not already been activated by me. The money will be returned to your balance and you will be able to purchase another virtual number again.
Congratulations on the new fake, use it with caution, fill in at least the minimum data so that you don’t get burned so much) By the way, I completely forgot to say - you won’t be able to top up your votes through a fake page, because... confirmation via SMS will be required... however, I don’t think anyone will need to do this :)
Do you use fake accounts on social media? networks? And if so, for what purposes?)
By the way, if you are interested in how your fresh fake can quickly gain friends up to several thousand, then that’s what I’m talking about
What are fake accounts for?
You should not think that “dead souls” are neither useful nor harmful: they can bring a lot of benefits to their creators and a lot of problems to their virtual “friends.” There are many reasons why fake “accounts” are created. Among them are three:
Network fraud
Formation of public opinion
With spam, everything is clear: a certain Vasya Pupkin appears among your friends and begins to bombard you with links to miracle weight loss belts or unique patented wolf goji berries. These spammers are generally harmless, although they are very distracting. Network fraud is a matter of jurisdiction, so attackers are as cunning as they can (last time we wrote about such tricks).
One of your friends may look like an ordinary person, post photos from barbecues and corporate events, change their statuses to more abstruse ones from time to time, and like your posts every now and then. And then one day he’ll drop a link with the words “Look at that laugh,” which can infect your computer or even leave you with your nose, but without your own account. And if this is a fake celebrity account, then the number of people caught could be incomparably larger.
By the way, on the Internet it is very easy to find advice and master classes on the topic “how to create a fake account.” So this is a very popular business.
How to identify« dead souls»
As we have already noted, sometimes there are very highly pumped up accounts that look like pages of living people. But very often, fake accounts are created using a simplified scenario (to quickly create as many accounts as possible), and they can be successfully caught.
Time of creation
Fake accounts very often have a very recent creation date. If direct information about the date the account was created is not available, you can roughly calculate the year from the profile ID number. If this number is close to 100 million, then the account was created around 2010, if the number is close to 180 million, then it is more likely 2012, and so on.
personal information
Very often, such information is hidden, missing, or filled with ridiculous data that immediately reveals a fake. For example, if “Vasya Pupkin” is written less and less often, then the simplest combinations like “Katya Ivanova” or “Petya Sidorov” are quite common. You can also often find a combination of a rare old name with an ordinary surname, such as “Mitrofan Petrov” or “Pafnuty Kuznetsov”.
Avatar
Most often, fakes feature abstract landscapes or portraits of others. Moreover, in the case of portraits, these are often very high-quality portraits, with proper lighting and post-processing, or even erotic photographs. To find out whose photo was actually used, you need to do a search on the image and find duplicates. This is called “reverse image search” - this opportunity is given search engines http://tineye.com/, https://images.google.com/ and https://yandex.by/images/. This is where it turns out that Asya Tyutyushkina from Syktyvkar is actually Sasha Gray from Sacramento, California.
Filling
Reposts and tests are what distinguishes fake accounts. Creating real records is long and troublesome, but stealing something from someone is easy. So the pages of non-existent people are full of all sorts of “Choose who you are in the Game of Thrones” and reposts of other people’s posts.
Update frequency
Living people maintain their pages gradually, filling them from time to time, sometimes more often, sometimes less often. For fake pages, the following is almost always true: most entries were made, if not within one day, then in a very short period of time (tens and hundreds of posts over several days).
Tricks
When trying to expose the “dead soul,” its creator (he is a real person) gives excuses like “The page was blocked, I had to create a new one” (they say that’s why it’s so fresh and empty) or “I specially made a second page” (for some there goals).
It is useful to know that the real owner of the page can return a hacked/stolen account if he proves his authorship (paper documents and various security questions will help here), so the first argument is not an argument. In the second case, you can ask to send a message from the main page to make sure that everything is clear.
Often a fake “goes into denial” and states, “If you don’t want to, don’t believe me, I’m not going to prove anything,” - usually this is a reaction to a question about the person’s identity or his hometown (which, of course, is only native in the questionnaire).
Friends and followers
Don’t be surprised if you see that a fake’s friends are the same fakes and robots, the number of which amounts to many thousands. And every post or photo is liked and reposted by a couple of hundred bots at once.
We look for fakes automatically
You can check all your online friends for account falsity manually, or you can try one of the services that can identify active, silent or blocked users in different social networks. Yes, good for Twitter
The State Duma has developed a bill according to which a person will be able to complain to Roskomnadzor if he sees that an unauthorized, fake account is registered under his name. AiF.ru found out why and in what cases users create such pages on social networks.
What is a fake account?
A fake (or “fake”) account is a page that is created on a service using fictitious information or data from another person. They are registered for the following reasons:
- Reason 1. Security
Many people create fake accounts on social services due to fear of threats. This is what a user can do to protect themselves from cyber attacks. A clear example is the high-profile scandal involving the theft of customer data at the largest online auction site eBay in the spring of 2014. The attackers managed to obtain information about 145 million people, and such data could well be used for unauthorized entry into any electronic accounts of these people, including those that do not even exist yet. Fortunately, it turned out that the hacked database did not contain any financial information, including bank card data.
- Reason 2. Trolling
Trolling is the deliberate posting of rude messages on the Internet; in this type of virtual communication, one of the participants - the “troll” - provokes a conflict and spoils the mood, while insulting the other participant or participants. Few people these days have not encountered deliberate belittlement, insult and outright provocation on the Internet. More often than not, people troll to entertain themselves. Thus, a person can register in a large community of atheists and declare there the absolute need to teach Orthodoxy in school. Of course, the administration of the service will block such a participant, so the accounts of “trolls” are always fake.
- Reason 3. Socio-political speculation
Sometimes, when a major and significant event occurs, the Network is replenished with accounts of non-existent people. So, after the recent Facebook, several dozen fake accounts and even communities belonging to the alleged victims of the Boeing crash in Ukraine. They all offered to watch a video from the scene of the tragedy, but in fact the links led to a Romanian website advertising drugs and child pornography. Users were outraged by the cynicism of the authors of the fake accounts; it was especially emphasized that the victims of the plane crash had not yet even been found or identified.
And in June of this year, the government of Sevastopol announced its intention to contact Roskomnadzor with a demand to close fake pages in in social networks Head of the Agency for Strategic Development of Sevastopol Alexey Chaly(former “people’s mayor” of Sevastopol) and acting governor Sergei Menyailo. At the same time, in May of this year, Chaly reported that he was not registered in any of the social networks. At the same time, in June 2014, at the request of Roskomnadzor, the fake page was deleted Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea Vladimir Konstantinov.
- Reason 4. Financial
Very often, people create false accounts for financial purposes. Non-existent “dead” pages, so-called “bots”, fill groups on social networks and create the appearance of popularity of communities. People registered on the social network, in turn, willingly join the “popular” community and use the services and goods offered there. Groups are also often moderated using fake accounts; this is much more convenient than using pages with real data.
Other personal reasons
A user may have completely different motivations for registering with changed information. Thus, there are often cases when a person creates a page of the opposite sex in order to communicate with people and feel “in someone else’s shoes.” Unfortunately, attackers can also choose a similar technique to, for example, track a victim. In any case, it is important to remember that fake accounts fall under the current the federal law about personal data, and Roskomnadzor deals with issues in this area.
