Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The fake Facebook profile industry

ici.radio-canada.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 274 posts

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#131

Post by tmpz22 »

Throwaway to share a valuable perspective. My dad is a chronic target for scammers, and falls for them at a rate where I can only think it intentional on some level. He'll allow fake MSPs to install programs as root, on the same machine he does banking and legal on. He'll call numbers when strange javascript alerts tell him he has a virus. He'll then pay people to "remove" said malware, giving them full access to the machine via teamviewer etc.

I've managed to limit his internet usage to an iPad and a chromebook - but as mentioned above that does little good. He is extremely proud and talking to him is useless. A good chunk of these events come while browsing porn, which he refuses to admit. I feel hopeless and am in the process of separating any financial connections with my mother for fear I'll become a victim. My mother has been saving cash for years to insulate herself (my dad also refuses to write a will - but thats another problem entirely).

I know a major event is coming soon. While I'm fairly certain his porn usage is tame, all it would take is a fake $THAT_ACTRESS_WAS_ACTUALLY_17_WE_WILL_REPORT_TO_FBI email and he could probably be extorted for everything he has. I don't know what to do honestly. This is a real threat to millions of Americans and it seems there is no solution.

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#132

Post by rvkn »

I'm glad others are digging into this. It's a fairly common problem. I had to deal with my with my deceased friend's account being hijacked by a 'bait' account a few months ago. Facebook seemed fairly indifferent to the issue.

Wrote about the process here: https://medium.com/@vonkunesnewton/facebook-parasite-the-sec...

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#133

Post by [deleted] »

Mz wrote: post #120
willvarfar wrote: post #62

The article explores sextortion, but doesn't ponder too deeply whats going on the with sharing images of disabled people etc. Perhaps people who respond sympathetically are also easy marks for sob story and pleading for money?

Off the cuff opinion: Sex has a strong emotional component. People who are "sexually needy" are often really emotionally needy and emotionally unhealthy. They are attracted to things with a strong emotional component, but low commitment. Liking pics of people who have cancer or whatever fits those criteria. The people gushing at pathetic photos of that sort are (probably) more likely than others to also be vulnerable…

[deleted]

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#134

Post by [deleted] »

MarkPNeyer wrote: post #125

All of the problems with fake profiles are fixable if we just use the social graph. It drives me nuts that this a problem. I have a solution, which i'll share here. I'm sharing it because i hope SOMEONE can build this or share it with someone at a high level at FB or twitter. I have a mortgage in silicon valley and a young child, so i'm not in a position to take the time and risk to do this. But i really desperately…

[deleted]

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#135

Post by ChuckMcM »

I find it amusing and sad at the same time when I get targeted with these sorts of things. Amusing because they seem so obviously 'honey traps' of one form or another, and sad because I'm sure there are many people that fall for them (this article just confirms that suspicion).

I had hoped they would have done a bit of work to track the money flow in these scams. Clearly there is an opportunity here to disrupt that cash flow since most use electronic payment providers with at least some level of tracking. I want the electronic equivalent of 'marked bills' which have mandatory reporting requirements at all financial institutions that process them.

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#136

Post by cwkoss »

This is why Facebook's new Non Consensual Image Program seems like a really bad idea.

The technical implementation is fine, seems reasonable, only concern is that a human has to screen every image.

The real problem is that internet users have learned "Anything you upload to the internet is as good as public." Facebook is trying to teach people a new precedent: "Images uploaded to facebook in the right way will REMOVE images from the public".

People are going to fail to read the fine print, and thousands will be phished for nudes through facebook with similar schemes.

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#137

Post by dredmorbius »

segmondy wrote: post #73
throwawayfish wrote: post #32

Using a throwaway account to keep things private Last year I was "sex-torted" on Facebook but not by a ring of French criminals. Instead, it was by someone I had chatted with on the internet years ago (while we were both still teenagers) She had recently gotten divorced and contacted me after many years away. We spoke about intimate things (I never shared intimate images, though she did) and were getting closer and c…

File a civil suit. For those still reading, practice social media isolation. No one on my LinkedIn is on my Facebook. Only 1 person on my LinkedIn is on my twitter and only 2 people on my facebook are on my twitter. Facebook & Linkedin are not open to public.

This works if there are assets to be seized, or if you are independently wealthy enough to sustain a suit despite a lack of assets.

Lawsuits are incredibly expensive. Figure $10k before going to trial, and $50k for a relatively simple case. Few or no lawyers will take such a case on contingency (plaintiff is not sufficiently flush).

I'm not saying don't do this, but you're going to want to think through the process very carefully, and be very much aware of what the process might, or might not, produce. There are downside costs that might emerge as well, including the prospect of paying the plaintiff's legal fees, and undergoing discovery yourself.

Talk to a lawyer, or several, if you like. Be aware that they also have their own incentives, and might be quite happy to run up billable hours, so long as you're good for them.

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#138

Post by cwkoss »

grownseed wrote: post #82

Facebook recently started sending me notifications that somebody unknown was trying to log into my account, that they'd temporarily blocked it, and later re-enabled it. The emails actually come from Facebook, the problem is that the email address they're contacting me on is one I've never used for Facebook. The email contains a link to log into Facebook to "fix" the situation, but I obviously can't log in. The other…

Try forgot password?

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#139

Post by jjtheblunt »

tmpz22 wrote: post #131

Throwaway to share a valuable perspective. My dad is a chronic target for scammers, and falls for them at a rate where I can only think it intentional on some level. He'll allow fake MSPs to install programs as root, on the same machine he does banking and legal on. He'll call numbers when strange javascript alerts tell him he has a virus. He'll then pay people to "remove" said malware, giving them full access to the…

How about don't look at questionable sites, as a solution?

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#140

Post by emodendroket »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #108
throwawaykite wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really sorry to hear about your ordeal — I was once wrongly accused by a woman of something heinous and it took me a while to recover from the shock and PTSD. In particular this part of your post bothers me: “The experience haunts me to this day..” No - This shouldn’t be the case. You did nothing wrong. While there is no magic wand to “fix” how you feel - and esp low probability that an online post from a stranger wo…

I think your situation is very much connected to the current wave of revelations of wrong doing against (mostly) women. Every time one of these celebrities denies a true accusation it causes a whole new wave of damage not only to the victim but, to every person who will ever have to fend off a wrongful accusation, because it muddies the waters and creates FUD. Yes, the data suggests the percentage of false accusation…

I recall reading that something like one in ten people on death row ends up being acquitted, so the idea that only a small percentage of people are wrongly executed is factually wrong in the first place.
Post reply on HN