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The fake Facebook profile industry

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Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#191

Post by jmcgough »

djsumdog wrote: post #29

I think the saddest part of this is that they prey on people. Many of the peeps here on HN can look at a profile and say "spam," so it's hard to imagine the people who can't. The 1% return from SPAM that click on those links, or put in their credit card details. There was a ReplyAll podcast episode where one of the reporters actually tracks down a shop in India; even goes there and talks to people who've worked at a…

It's easy to dehumanize people when they live thousands of miles away, and are comparatively wealthy.

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#192

Post by emodendroket »

CaptSpify wrote: post #173
emodendroket wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in Facebook's case it has more to do with having highly detailed information about their users, which fakes go against. Anyway, a lot of fake accounts get deleted quickly, as mentioned in the article (and I've observed this myself, as obviously fake profiles I've gotten friend requests from usually end up deleted in a day or two).

And a lot of other fake accounts don't get deleted. FB doens't really care about the detailed information about their users, as long as they advertisers keep sending them money. Don't mix up what FB says they want, and what they actually want.

OK, but if the information is obviously bogus will advertisers keep paying? I don't think deleting fake accounts is necessarily an easy problem. Particularly when we consider that a false positive is much worse than a false negative as far as user impact goes.

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#193

Post by emodendroket »

musage wrote: post #182
emodendroket wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like James Damore has almost nothing to do with this scenario, not least because in his case he voluntarily shared his manifesto publicly.

To get subsequently smeared to hell and back. Oh, and he didn't even share it publically. He shared it with an internal group discussing these issues . It was then "leaked", and everybody piled on. And you now took part in exactly that, repeating the slander.

Yeah I'm sure the guy who was immediately itching to do an interview with all the luminaries of the alt-right was a shrinking wallflower who didn't want to draw any attention to his manifesto or himself.

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#194

Post by emodendroket »

cisanti wrote: post #177
emodendroket wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like James Damore has almost nothing to do with this scenario, not least because in his case he voluntarily shared his manifesto publicly.

He was talking about emphaty, because media simply lied about him, without even reading his manifesto, and crucified him.

Is the party in this story lacking empathy the media? Or the guy who wrote a manifesto about how women just aren't fit for jobs as engineers, genetically?

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#195

Post by username223 »

wingworks wrote: post #166
trifidpaw wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered running OpenWRT / LEDE or a pi-hole ( https://pi-hole.net/ ) to block adverts / known websites where such scams occur at a network level? (There are publicly available lists of known botnet / scam IP's)

I've use OpenDNS at my parents house to help block most of the worst scams, works pretty well.

So far I have just installed Ghostery for my parents, since it doesn't break most sites, and they are sharp and AFAIK don't visit sketchy sites. But I have seen one grandfather turned into a Fox Geezer and ripped off by scammers, despite his children trying to clue him in, so I suspect I will have to do something more aggressive at some point in the future. Thankfully, I think they have enough distrust of humanity that I should have no problem installing a firewall.

Also, they thankfully show no interest in social networks.

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#196

Post by dudus »

mkoryak wrote: post #127

Lately I have been getting contacted by random 'women' on gtalk who 'just want to be friends'. I usually just block them but last week I decided to play along. Long story short: they wanted me to cam with them and to see my picture. I sent them a link to non-existent page on my domain and logged their IP. I confronted them with their IP and the fact that they were in Nigeria and not south Carolina. The account was im…

I had one contacting me on my Playstation messager account. I didn't even know that was a thing to be honest.... Same story about cam.... "She" wanted to go on cam with me.... sounded more like a bot. I didn't follow through so I don't know what was the final plan.

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#197

Post by CaptSpify »

emodendroket wrote: post #192
CaptSpify wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a lot of other fake accounts don't get deleted. FB doens't really care about the detailed information about their users, as long as they advertisers keep sending them money. Don't mix up what FB says they want, and what they actually want.

OK, but if the information is obviously bogus will advertisers keep paying? I don't think deleting fake accounts is necessarily an easy problem. Particularly when we consider that a false positive is much worse than a false negative as far as user impact goes.

> OK, but if the information is obviously bogus will advertisers keep paying?

Apparently yes. It's no secret that FB's numbers are not accurate, but they are still making a ton of money.

> I don't think deleting fake accounts is necessarily an easy problem. Particularly when we consider that a false positive is much worse than a false negative as far as user impact goes.

Nobody said it was easy. Only that FB is incentivised to do detection poorly. FB doesn't really care about user impact, they only care about profit. If it's not enough user impact to cause a dent in profit, they aren't incentivised to care.

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#198

Post by hank_pank »

scarmig wrote: post #147
addicted wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a completely different situation. Assuming that such a tape exists, the issue isn’t that Trump has sexual kinks. The issue is that the President is subject to blackmail from a foreign power. If such a tape existed for anyone else and was in the hands of a foreign government, that person would not be able to get the lowest level of security clearance in the US because the opportunity for blackmail places them a…

Interestingly, the "pee tape" as described doesn't really even depict the typical self humiliation-oriented urination kink. The allegation is that Trump hired five prostitutes to pee on a bed , not one that he was in or using but one that Obama had used years earlier. It's unclear to me whether that even counts as a kink: if it's true, I'm not sure Trump was getting a sexual thrill out of it. My guess is that it's mo…

I'm really sorry, but...

Captain Trump's risking blackmail by chasing The Great Black Male?

I don't think I share your views, nor do I know if this pee stuff was real and not just a meme, but you had me doubled over in laughter. I hope that was your intention, thank you either way.

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#199

Post by Tech-Noir »

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…

> Judge [Louis CK’s] apology/non apology anyway you like, at least he ended it decisively, instead of propagating it for enternity by sowing doubt.

What are you talking about? It was "ended" by the NYT publishing, in this current Weinstein/Spacey climate, an article about his offences[1] and leaving him absolutely no other choice but to finally come clean.

He was publicly painting his victims as liars (which you quite rightly condemn in your second paragraph) as recently as a couple of months ago[2]:

    NYT: So [the accusations are] not real?

    CK: “No. They’re rumors, that’s all that is.”
Even now, not only does he not apologise, he tries to excuse his completely inexcusable behaviour by trying to pretend he thought it was even remotely acceptable.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/arts/television/louis-ck-...

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/11/movies/louis-ck-rumors-wo...

Re: The fake Facebook profile industry

#200

Post by loopdoend »

scarmig wrote: post #147
addicted wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a completely different situation. Assuming that such a tape exists, the issue isn’t that Trump has sexual kinks. The issue is that the President is subject to blackmail from a foreign power. If such a tape existed for anyone else and was in the hands of a foreign government, that person would not be able to get the lowest level of security clearance in the US because the opportunity for blackmail places them a…

Interestingly, the "pee tape" as described doesn't really even depict the typical self humiliation-oriented urination kink. The allegation is that Trump hired five prostitutes to pee on a bed , not one that he was in or using but one that Obama had used years earlier. It's unclear to me whether that even counts as a kink: if it's true, I'm not sure Trump was getting a sexual thrill out of it. My guess is that it's mo…

Surely they must replace the mattress between presidencies, right?
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