What to Do with Fake Facebook Accounts #social media #hackers

What to Do with Fake Facebook Accounts

Recently I've had to deal with fake Facebook Accounts in my name.  The experience of seeing someone else using your identity is disconcerting, but this has happened to me before and I knew what to do.

Before getting into how to remove the fake account, let me tell you how to find these fake Facebook Accounts. It's very simple: search your own name in Facebook.  There you will find the impersonators (if there are any). Sometimes the account will not have a profile picture; sometimes, the account will have your picture; sometimes, the account will have your name but some other picture.

What you need to do is go to the fake account - click on the name, and you will be brought to the profile page.  On the big picture above, on the righthand side, you will see: "Following, Message, then three dots. Click on the three dots. You will find a menu, choose "Report." Next, click "Report this profile."  Continue. You will be asked "What's going on?" Click  "They're pretending to be me or someone I know." Continue. Choose "me."

Right away, you will receive notice that the account is being reviewed.  Later on, you will receive a message that the account has been removed.

As a precaution, I warn my FB friends about the fake account with the screen shot of the fake account. I advise them to check for any fake accounts with their names and teach them what to do if they should discover impersonators.

It's important for all of us to be vigilant and do our part to remove fake Facebook Accounts. Hackers, even possibly Russians using social media for propaganda, may be responsible for these fake accounts. For further information, please read the articles below, and note that fake accounts seem to be used for political purposes.

Read also
Facebook admits up to 270m users are fake and duplicate accounts
Fake Russian Facebook Accounts Bought $100,000 in Political Ads
Facebook says it took down "tens of thousands of fake accounts before German Election

Tags: social media, #facebook #fakeaccounts #hackers #Russian