Our readers would remember, way back in January this year, we had featured FakeOFF, a Facebook app that’s designed to investigate Facebook profiles & rank them using a credibility score ranging from 1 to 10. Basically, this one searches & weeds out fake FB accounts.
The app’s developer Eliran Shachar came up with the idea of this app after chatting up a woman on an Online dating site, only to find afterwards that she was using multiple fake Facebook profiles. We are told that this new app is going great guns, & is now putting together a larger database of verified & fake profiles to aid its search algorithm. Through a pilot in India, the app acquired thousands of users, too & during the elections there, wrote about how some of its politicians set up fake FB accounts.
FakeOFF claims that according to fresh statistics, at least 10% of the 1.35 billion Facebook users are not genuine. Regardless of the exact number, it’s a fact that this is an area of concern for many reasons. It’s not just singles who can be duped by fake profiles.
One category of fake users includes psychos trolling for naïve users. This is far more dangerous than singles exaggerating their social profile, or social media marketing companies creating fake profiles to promote online sales & advertising.
FakeOFF works by scanning up to 365 days of the suspected profile’s timeline activity, checking their friends & looking for abnormal activities. One of the key components of the service is an image scan.
FakeOFF’s basic investigation is free for all users. It checks 10 days of the target profile’s timeline activity. A more comprehensive investigation includes image scans, a timeline check of 365 days, behavior history check & real-time alerts.
Image Credit: FAKEOFF/Facebook
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