Jackie's tips for recognising fake Facebook profiles

I can't even believe this made the news.

Fake Facebook profile busted

A New Plymouth man who set up a fake Facebook account to con love-seeking men using a female friend's photo was busted when someone spotted the likeness.

Brook Tako-Clark, 23, used the photo of Mel Schweiger, who he had met on Facebook, to create the profile of "Christine Kardashian Cooper-Clarke".

The profile attracted about 350 friends, mostly men. They were encouraged to send explicit photographs of themselves; in return she would send them pictures, the Taranaki Daily News reported.

"Christine" told friends online she had lost an 18-month-old son to leukaemia, and even threatened to kill herself to get men to do what she wanted.

Mr Tako-Clark told the paper he felt "pretty stink" about the ruse and would not do it again.

"I apologise to anybody that I've hurt or upset and a big apology to Mel," he said.

He denied asking for money from "Christine's" male friends but did get some of them to top up his phone.

Miss Schweiger said people had started to treat her strangely and then a friend pointed out the fake profile.

"I felt sick; my stomach dropped and I thought what the hell is going on ... I felt violated. I didn't think anyone would do that."

Ruan Pieters spent eight months talking to "Christine" on Facebook.

He said he had paid to top up Christine's cellphone once but became suspicious after further requests and discovered the deception.

He warned others using the social networking site to make sure they know people they befriend.

NetSafe says fake profiles are rampant. Chief technical officer Sean Lyons says setting up fake Facebook profiles is forgery, which under the law carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' jail.

However, police were under-resourced to deal with the enormity of the problem, especially those involving small amounts of money, he said.

Facebook was usually quick to act and remove fake sites but awareness among individual users needed to increase, he said.

I have fake profiles adding me all the time. They are pretty obvious. I don't usually care, or spend much time on them though. I mean i have nothing to hide so who cares if some nutter wants to create a fake profile to spy on me?

Not me.

Sometimes, if they are overly obvious, i will delete and block them - like i did recently when someone calling them self "Adele Tork" turned out to be Michael Laws' "nanny" Trina Severinsen.

Seriously - if you can be bothered, or have the time to create fake Facebook profiles in order to waste your life concentrating on people that don't give you a second thought - then you need help.

Big. Time. Help.

Men are funny when it comes to this though. Put a pretty face on a profile, with a name like "Kardashian" and they start sending it money?

You gotta be kidding me.

Jackie's Tips For Recognising Fake Facebook Profiles

No photo is a sure sign that something is amiss. Likewise - photos of robots, animals, cartoons, characters from The Wizard of Oz, people that resemble supermodels etc etc - you get the idea.

Less than 50 "friends" - especially if 25 of those friends are local celebrities. I have never won any popularity contests but even i could muster 100 or so people that i actually know to add to my little friend list when i first joined Facebook.

No comments or posts on their wall - Their wall will be blank because no one actually knows them or cares enough about them to post on their wall - because they don't actually exist!

Photos - lack of photos and no one tagged in their photos. No one will have had their photo taken with this person - again - because this person does not exist.

They start adding all of your friends - In order to make their profile appear more realistic, they need more non celebrity friends, so will start sending friend requests to everyone on your list.

They will be overly friendly - posting and commenting all over your wall with overly suckie uppie comments. They also tend to send overly supportive emails when they think you might be having a bad day which will make you wonder why this stranger gives a toss about your day.

That is all for now.

I will add more, as i think of them.

Feel free to add to that list!