Over the past few months, I’ve received a succession of friend requests from Facebook accounts that are clearly fake. Often, they are accounts with photos of fairly young, attractive Chinese women – perhaps as I live in Hong Kong. Also a very few from outrageously buxom women, even a man or two, and a woman masquerading as a benefactor spreading lottery winnings.
While the latter is clearly allied to phishing spam – just give bank details and I’ll send money; I’m not sure quite what the reasons are behind various requests. Done a little investigating online, and put together Snippets of info on fake accounts that are rampant on Facebook and send umpteen friend requests.
At times, I have alerted Facebook regarding fake accounts; usually get a message back quickly, saying they found no issues. Fat lot of use! Seen others posting about similar experiences. [Also, some of the messages I’ve been sent by fake accounts have been deleted by Facebook, for not meeting community standards apparently; so FB powers that be can catch some of them.]
Facebook does indeed delete fake accounts at times, sometimes boasts about it (Facebook has deleted four planets’ worth of fake users); but really it’s still infested with them, and they’re not always real clever fakes either. It’s fortunate, perhaps, that we’re in early stages with AI – later might be much harder to tell if accounts are from real people, including as message responses improve, and there’s way greater ability to create realistic looking images from scratch, not just pilfering pix from around the web. Against which, the energy demands and hence expense for such AI could be mostly prohibitive, not cost effective for small fry phishing etc.
At times, I message back, curious to see responses. Often, these responses are very limited, clearly automated; just occasionally seem to have reached a human operating behind the facade.
Had a range of the automated responses: examples include one about wanting to marry a godfearing man; another with married woman wanting sex with me; plus that powerball giveaway.
One face, many Facebook profiles – Helen Chan and dopplegangers
While I’ve seen online that fake Facebook profiles can reuse images of real people, I’ve noticed some related accounts that share images of the same person [or someone very similar] – ie Helen Chan, or is it Dora Wong [x2], or Stella Wu, or even William Linda [Cathy Wong in parentheses], living in Liverpool or Los Angeles…
That familiar face soon sent another friend request. Again in oil and gas industry – and not ashamed to be contributing to climate change. Asked where I was from and lived, I gave Kirkby and West Kirby, both right by Liverpool, but not a flicker of recognition, tho maybe was a human replying here not just autobot:
Another day, another “Dora Wong” request:
Identical photo for Fen Lee Wong and Sonia Wong.
Anita Wong cloned and cloned again as fake facebook account!
After receiving another friend request from “Anita Wong” with an image exactly as above, I did a FB search for Anita Wong; and woah! – what a lot of near duplicate accounts; somewhat differing photos in many.
So it seems a fake facebook account creating bot is at work; perhaps also utilising AI image creation. Here, the near duplicate account results; 32 by my reckoning:
Beaty comes from the inside out … NU oil and gas pipeline again but bloke this time
I googled the quote from Sonia Wong, wondering if it turned up with yet another of these images … instead, a man:
So here, looks like “Steven Lee” is off the same fake account production line as many of the fake friend requests sent to me. Has this rather banal quote – an odd one for a bloke, too!; and Univ of Oxford, NU oil and gas pipeline employer as with several of the dora wong etc profiles above; also Chinese origin.
Shapeshifter: Annie Benson
How flattering to get a hot sexy babe sending a friend request; yet Annie Benson seems to be more than one such babe – look beyond the boobs, and evidently a shapeshifter. Not much good at conversation, either!
Mary John looking good for 40 year old
Another shapeshifter here; this time looking very different in video.
Plus, first post is of date of birth, in 1984; after which nothing till 2023.
A reverse image search reveals the images are of porn actress Mia Malkova, actually born 1992; and can even see this name on images lazily grabbed from web:
Well, it might be obvious to me – or you – that this is a fake account; but it’s ok with Facebook, just replying like this after a report. No way of responding to this, either; can’t tell em, hey, using porn star’s pix for fakery.
Generous Julie with Powerball winnings to give away
Here’s one that I googled, and found is a relatively common scam attempt on Facebook; seems a woman with this name did win Powerball lottery, but sadly she is not giving money away to random strangers. Had a bit of chat with person behind the account, but alas no meeting happened for my fictional friend:
Aruba wants trustworthy Godfearer – and photos
Aruba, here, looks kind of hot in profile pic; but also like a kind of hot different woman, and like some kind of car. Well, got a lot of spiel from this account, about the kind of god loving trustworthy husband she’s after; but after that the chat not so good, or friendly…
Porn star / escort lookalikes
At times, reverse image searching can reveal other places with the same or very similar photos; as with “Mary John” above, and a couple more accounts purportedly by young ladies with supersized bosoms – in both of these cases, there were results indicating the images may be of porn stars and/or escorts [who would know nothing about their fake accounts, let alone have any interest in adding me as a friend!].
Justina Rose an impossible girl
The improbably proportioned Justina Rose sent a request; a reverse image search revealed an identical image, with remarks on it being faked so much that even the buttocks are semi transparent!
Linda Tay: one photo many places
Linda Chung wants sex
Daniella changes sex from woman to man and back again – in pix anyway
I had another request from an apparently sexy looking woman, Daniella; yet soon afterwards, a profile photo of a man in little clothing appeared; then the shots of Daniella as a woman vanished, replaced by a couple of shots of man in skimpy gear; and then, in a further twist, back to entirely woman with just two pix.
Perhaps happily, I don’t have receipts of all these; you can see Daniella as woman here, also bit of chat from sometimes her/sometimes him while in male mode; notice the part about being with sister’s kids and not wanting them to see me:
“Daniella” has since unsent this bit about the sister’s kids, and the garbled text indicating request for me to buy a gift card.
Meg Yong in Philippines is Alice in Singapore
Tesla CEO Giveaway on April Fool’s Day
Appropriate this arrived just before midday on April Fool’s Day!
Or perhaps Elon Musk has indeed selected me to give some moolah to?!
Nigar of Afghanistan can’t remember
Not a porn star or bazillionaire; but a medic with a dire memory. Followed by 231 people; or maybe all bots?!
Wang Lee in Yemen can’t understand
Here, a medical doctor by the looks of it, in Yemen of all places… Seems to have photos of self as both female and male versions. Poor language skills though.
Andrew Cheng doesn’t look like a bloke
Comment bots triggered by post about fake facebook accounts
For one post I did on Facebook about fake accounts, I promptly got comments from people I don’t know, one with very odd name, recommending I go to some Instagram account for help. Err, no thanks; don’t think that would be a good idea somehow!
Lauren Vick has features in common with other fake friend requesters
Just what are these features, you may wonder: perhaps intelligence, sparkling wit, an interest in the world around us… Well, no, more physical than that!
