Facebook admits up to 83m profiles could be 'fake'

Published Aug 2 2012, 15:12 BST  |  By Andrew Laughlin

Facebook has confirmed that up to 83 million profiles on the world's largest social network are believed to be fake.

The BBC reports a recent Facebook company filing as saying that 8.7% of the firm's 955m worldwide users may not be legitimate.

It was revealed that 4.8% of the suspected profiles were outright fakes, while 2.4% were misclassified accounts - essentially users who have created profiles "for a business, organisation, or non-human entity such as a pet".

However, 1.5% were put in a category labelled "undesirable" - profiles that have been deemed to be in breach of Facebook's terms of service, such as spammers.

In total, the listed company believes that there could be 83.09 million fake users of the site.

The revelation, held the Risks category of Facebook's results report, comes at a time when companies are increasingly doubting Facebook's value as an advertising platform.

The business relies almost solely on online and targeted advertising for its revenue, with a major lure for brands being the process of users 'liking' their pages - meaning they can post promotions in their status updates.

However, a recent BBC investigation revealed that the value of 'likes' may be inflated by fake profiles sometimes 'liking' thousands of different products with seemingly little value.

Last week, a digital distribution firm called Limited Press claimed that its own analytics had suggested that 80% of clicks on its Facebook ads had come from fake profiles.

In a post on its own Facebook page, Limited Press said: "Bots were loading pages and driving up our advertising costs. So we tried contacting Facebook about this. Unfortunately, they wouldn't reply.

"Do we know who the bots belong too [sic]? No. Are we accusing Facebook of using bots to drive up advertising revenue. No. Is it strange? Yes."

Facebook acknowledged the risk of advertisers growing sceptical in its filing, saying: "We generate a substantial majority of our revenue from advertising.

"The loss of advertisers, or reduction in spending by advertisers with Facebook, could seriously harm our business."

Simon Ellson, internet security expert at software firm Norton, warned that another risk of fake profiles is security, as criminal gangs often use them to monitor potential victims. He said that fake profiles on social networks could be "worrying".

"Criminal gangs have been known to monitor people's social profile status updates to find out when they're on holiday or have left their home empty and vulnerable," said Ellson.

"They also use sophisticated and targeted spam attacks on the social networks to lure people onto malicious websites, which can infect your system with malware.

"Remember that, unless your privacy settings are on high, social media networks and profiles are public arenas and can be viewed by anyone. With so many fakes out there, it's important to think before you post."