Social Networks are key for any company that intends to grow both informatively and to increase customer acquisition thanks to the traffic they produce. However, there are also threats like the fake profiles. Accounts on social networks that seek to negatively affect the image of a company either with negative comments, unfounded opinions and with the aim of doing harm or pure spam.
This is the name given to profiles that imitate or falsify the identity of another person or that invent one from scratch. Fake profiles can be created one at a time, manually, when the one behind the screen only wants to do harm through a few profiles or they can be created through robots and computer programming to create spam and do great harm. scale. Not only do they exist to communicate erroneous information or spread negative opinions, there are also often profiles that try to carry out virtual scams without leaving a trace.
How can we identify fake profiles?
▸Always check if the name of the accounts has the verification icon. It is a blue ‘check’ that serves to confirm if the account is authentic. If the icon is listed, then the profile is reliable.
▸Check the posts and comments of the accounts to verify their age.
▸Avoid communication with any entity or organization from people’s profiles. They can be false and are a good possibility to steal personal or banking information.
▸Verify additional information for each account such as location, website, etc.
Why do they do this? What are there goals? This depends on who they are aimed at and can be for:
▸Insult, hurt without anyone knowing who is behind these acts.
▸They take advantage of identity theft or invention to create a bad reputation for the company or even person and publish negative opinions or photos. Even if it is only one person, it can cause major crises even in the largest companies.
▸Increase the number of fans or followers of a social network.
▸Contact privately someone within the targeted company and get information from it
▸Create scams, advertising campaigns with hidden benefits.
See also:
How to prevent Identity Theft (and what it is)
Types of phishing to be careful about
