The California-based tech giant, Facebook has over 2.37 billion monthly active users (last updated April 24, 2019). Despite being one of the biggest social network, an important issue is yet unsolved, the fake account problem.
The Company itself estimated that it has around 116 Million fake accounts on the platform.
The world's biggest social network, Facebook is overrun by the fake accounts in the names of well-known chief executive offices (CEOs) from technology industry.
The fraudulent accounts list includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and many more.
There are many fake personal profiles on the platform claiming to be the tech Gurus, often misleading the ordinary users who visits their profiles to interact with them and ask questions.
Most of these fraudulent accounts are available on Facebook for many years, challenges the diligence with which the tech giant's deal with the fake accounts.
In 2018, according to the New York Times, Facebook was overflowing with the fake accounts named after the Company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook.
The Company took action against these accounts, but the new fake profiles prove that Facebook is still not able to secure the platform effectively.
The Company's spokesperson said that they use AI technology and reporting tools to detect and remove account which pretends to be someone else, as this is a clear violation of our privacy law.
Moreover, he explained that the engineering teams are continuously working to improve the technology that keeps imposter accounts like these off Facebook.
The fake accounts aren't just embarrassing for the company, but they could put ordinary users at risk as well.
With the discovery of the fake accounts of Company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the COO Sheryl Sandberg, it also came to the knowledge of the Company that some of these accounts were involved in a scam called the "Facebook lottery."
Some of these imposter accounts are dead, and some are still active and post regularly on their topic.
Some have been created as early as 2013, and have managed to avoid Facebook's faux account detection systems for many years.
Facebook also verify (blue check-mark) on personal profiles or pages of high-profile personalities as many celebrities have verified Facebook pages.
Facebook lets in users to create groups and fan pages for public figures — however, those accounts are all non-public profiles, governed through the actual name coverage.
According to Facebook, its policy is to keep you and other users safe from imposters, frauds and phishing.
On the other hand, some tech stars (including, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi) were lucky enough that no one tried to create a doppelganger profile on them.
Read next: Facebook brings back ‘view as’ feature
The Company itself estimated that it has around 116 Million fake accounts on the platform.
The world's biggest social network, Facebook is overrun by the fake accounts in the names of well-known chief executive offices (CEOs) from technology industry.
The fraudulent accounts list includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and many more.
There are many fake personal profiles on the platform claiming to be the tech Gurus, often misleading the ordinary users who visits their profiles to interact with them and ask questions.
Most of these fraudulent accounts are available on Facebook for many years, challenges the diligence with which the tech giant's deal with the fake accounts.
In 2018, according to the New York Times, Facebook was overflowing with the fake accounts named after the Company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook.
The Company took action against these accounts, but the new fake profiles prove that Facebook is still not able to secure the platform effectively.
- Also read: Facebook Comes Out With "One Strike" Policy To Protect Its Live Streaming Service From Misuse
The Company's spokesperson said that they use AI technology and reporting tools to detect and remove account which pretends to be someone else, as this is a clear violation of our privacy law.
Moreover, he explained that the engineering teams are continuously working to improve the technology that keeps imposter accounts like these off Facebook.
These fake accounts are everywhere, and it's not difficult to find them
By searching them using the Facebook search tool, these fake accounts pretending to be Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and many more could be easily found.
The fake accounts aren't just embarrassing for the company, but they could put ordinary users at risk as well.
With the discovery of the fake accounts of Company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the COO Sheryl Sandberg, it also came to the knowledge of the Company that some of these accounts were involved in a scam called the "Facebook lottery."
Some of these imposter accounts are dead, and some are still active and post regularly on their topic.
Some have been created as early as 2013, and have managed to avoid Facebook's faux account detection systems for many years.
Impersonation is not allowed on Facebook
Facebook introduced a real name policy that requires all users to create an account with their real name, unlike other social platforms like Twitter or Instagram that allow users to use any made up usernames.Facebook also verify (blue check-mark) on personal profiles or pages of high-profile personalities as many celebrities have verified Facebook pages.
Facebook lets in users to create groups and fan pages for public figures — however, those accounts are all non-public profiles, governed through the actual name coverage.
According to Facebook, its policy is to keep you and other users safe from imposters, frauds and phishing.
On the other hand, some tech stars (including, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi) were lucky enough that no one tried to create a doppelganger profile on them.
Read next: Facebook brings back ‘view as’ feature
