The Facebook social networking site offers a variety of features, including photo-sharing, instant messaging, and notifications. One of the newest features is the ability to create a profile with your cover photo and personal information, such as your hometown and relationship status. The site also offers the ability to send messages to friends via chat or email and even photos automatically tagged with names. Facebook also has an entire section devoted to managing friendships.

As people communicate more via mobile devices and social networking sites such as Facebook, cyber-criminals engage in identity theft and child porn rings. As Internet criminals have become more sophisticated, so have the methods by which they have attempted to gain access to the personal information of their targets. There are many fake accounts on Facebook who consider to buy Facebook likes to fool people, which you should be aware of, so it’s a must for you to know how to figure such accounts out.

Do Your Research

• Fake Facebook accounts lure you into sending out information that can identify you and allow cyber criminals to target you with spam messages. You must research a person before sending personal information over email or chat. 
• If the party requesting this type of information is someone you don’t know well, it’s a good idea to verify their identity via email or telephone before you get too far in your conversation.

Take Care of Your Personal Information

If the person or site requesting your personal information is a new acquaintance, ask questions you can verify by referring to their Facebook profile to see if they have ever posted anything similar. Also, try to find the person’s “About Page” to get more details about them before you begin your conversation. If a person requests financial information about you, you should verify their identity before sending any personal information.

Limit Your Social Networking 

• The more contacts you have on social networking sites, the greater your chances of being targeted for identity theft. So limit your number of friends, or at least ensure that the new friends you add don’t have hundreds of contacts. 
• Facebook makes it easy to communicate with people from across the globe; it’s not uncommon for cybercriminals to target people they suspect are not as confident as they are.

Be Suspicious of Requests For Your Password

Many fake Facebook accounts consider to buy FB likes and utilizing the names of people you know to get you to reveal more information about yourself. One of the easiest ways a cybercriminal can access your personal information is by requesting your login password via email or chat. Please do not give out any such information unless it is someone you trust implicitly. Suppose a request for this type of information is made. In that case, it’s a good idea to have someone you trust (such as a family member or friend) verify the identity of the individual requesting password information.

Keep Your Web Browser Up to Date

• Your web browser will often generate warnings if an individual tries to get you to visit sites that may be malicious or if they try to redirect you to web pages that contain questionable content. 
• Keep your browser as up-to-date as possible and close out of web pages you do not trust. In addition, make sure that you have installed anti-virus software to protect your PC from infection by malware. Finally, if you visit any sites outside of Facebook, you should verify that the URL is one you recognize.

Do Not Reply to Spam Emails

If you receive spam email that contains requests for personal information, do not reply to such email. Just delete it immediately, then delete the sender from your list of contacts as well. If a friend sends out similar emails, insist on learning how they got your email address in the first place.

Think Before You Click

• If you receive a message via chat requesting personal information, think carefully before clicking on any links contained within such messages. 
• Also, don’t respond to requests for access to your webcam unless you know the person’s identity. Most importantly, if something doesn’t feel right, do not do it. If someone appears to be too good to be true, they probably are.

Conclusion

The more you know about how cybercriminals operate, the better you will be at spotting them when they attempt to commit identity theft. The critical thing to remember is that many scammers are good at what they do and often try to use social networking sites to gain access to as many people as possible. Therefore, if you suspect a specific Facebook account is fake, you should report it immediately so that it can be removed from the site. So that other person who the same scam may target can avoid falling for it.