WOW. I can't even say more than wow for a moment. Why are people so trusting online?? Doesn't everyone see the horror stories on the news like I do? SMH.
Anyway, today I logged on and found out Facebook had discovered my fake-ness. I needed to confirm my identity. I applaud Facebook for picking up on it so quickly, yet boo them for how easily I was able to get past this.
First step was to identify my "friends" on Facebook. Well crap, I don't know these people! I was shown three photos, and six names, asking to confirm who they were. Five set too! My first try was terrible, I fail miserably and assumed this would be the end of my catfish story. I had to wait a few minutes before I could try again.
Second try I did a little logical thinking. Looking at the photos, who was in them, style of clothing, gender, even ethnicity helped me choose the names a little more carefully. A photo with religious tchotchke's in the background and a Puerto Rican flag would lean me towards the photo owner being named Jose or Ricco more likely than Shawn or Pete. By the grace of catfish gods, I passed. But the test wasn't over.
Now I had to confirm my identity with a phone number. I had already used mine for my personal, my husband's for his, and my husband's work phone for my back up personal, so I didn't have another phone option. To google Batman! How to create a phone number able to receive texts. It took a little bit of searching, but I discovered Burner. Burner is an app for Android and iPhone that generates a false phone number in the area code of your choice, while sending all calls and texts to the app on your phone. Perfect. My only concern was if Facebook could somehow pick up on the fact that it was a fake number. Not even close, text went right though and Amanda had been confirmed.
*Phew* What a relief! I would have been fine if it didn't work, but I felt like I did something sneaky and awesome by passing it. My inner Anonymous is very proud.
I relogged in to Amanda's account. Holy notifications. 17 friends requests, 13 messages and 48 notifications. Uh wow! And all I had done was upload three status and 5 pictures. Dayum. I accept all the requests, glance over the likes and head to messages. All of them are men, with most of the opening lines saying "hey girl, you are so beautiful. I want to know you." Not a single question as to who I was, or how I knew them. I'm astonished. Today I'll see if I can engage with some of these people and see what they'll offer to a stranger. Considering all of their posts (their children, their spouses, their family, their workplace, etc) are already on my timeline, I imagine, I won't have much trouble.
Till tomorrow my loves. <3
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Why?
"Why? Why do this?"
The question I already know I will be asked. Why create a fake Facebook profile? It's a good question that I can't really answer. It started the other day, I was watching Catfish on MTV.com and I felt, inspired. Some of these people hadn't met, or even spoken with, the love of their life in 5, 8, 10 years! My mind felt boggled! How can you know you love someone without actually knowing them? I mulled over the idea for a few days until I got the nerve to do it.
I'm going to make a fake profile, just too see how easy it is to Catfish someone. Surely the people on TV must be the minority right? No one would just add someone based on a profile photo, would they?
First challenge, find my persona. I knew I wanted someone who I could kind of become myself, to help prevent mistakes in my storyline. I went with the name Amanda. Close to my real name, easy enough to remember. Email address created at Yahoo, with my personal email as a backup, now off to Facebook.
I logged out of my personal page, and went to the main log in. Entered Amanda's name, and gave her my birthday, again to help with my storyline. So far so good!
Profile created and I started the personalization steps. I choose to have her story mimic mine even more here, just moving from New England to Florida, giving her a hometown and current town close to my own.
Now I needed a photo, this was an important step. Amanda had to be beautiful, but real. Someone that looked like they were a real person you knew, but so pretty that you trusted her face. Some quick google searches and I found my Amanda. She had a public Facebook page, with all of her photos public. Her name was not amanda but her age was the same and she didn't live in either of the areas I listed, so there shouldn't be any mix up with her discovering herself. (Note: I don't condone this, I shouldn't have stolen someone's photos under any circumstances, but for the point of this blog, I had too. I was careful not to reveal any real details through photos like locations or children. Just took the selfies she had voluntarily shared on the internet. Lesson here: Lock up your profile kids.)
Photos acquired, some I posted immediately and some I saved to update with. Now to find friends. The easiest way to identify a fake profile, is by the lack of friends, either mutual or in general. Going with my story line, Facebook offered me people I might know, people who attended a school in my new hometown, or still lived in my hometown. Perfect. All I needed was one guy from this demographic to accept my friend request, then I could go through his friends and request them myself, giving us mutual friends and an established hometown network. But honestly, who is going to add someone they don't know?
Apparently everybody. I sent 25 friend requests yesterday and I was accepted by 18 of them, all men. Only TWO of them messaged me first before adding me, and a simple "Sorry! I thought I went to school with you and you're cute." was enough to get them to add me. I'm amazed. I now have a plethora of "friends" in common I can add, and add I did. I can't even keep straight how many I added. Looks like this might be easier than I thought. Let's see what tomorrow brings for Amanda.
The question I already know I will be asked. Why create a fake Facebook profile? It's a good question that I can't really answer. It started the other day, I was watching Catfish on MTV.com and I felt, inspired. Some of these people hadn't met, or even spoken with, the love of their life in 5, 8, 10 years! My mind felt boggled! How can you know you love someone without actually knowing them? I mulled over the idea for a few days until I got the nerve to do it.
I'm going to make a fake profile, just too see how easy it is to Catfish someone. Surely the people on TV must be the minority right? No one would just add someone based on a profile photo, would they?
First challenge, find my persona. I knew I wanted someone who I could kind of become myself, to help prevent mistakes in my storyline. I went with the name Amanda. Close to my real name, easy enough to remember. Email address created at Yahoo, with my personal email as a backup, now off to Facebook.
I logged out of my personal page, and went to the main log in. Entered Amanda's name, and gave her my birthday, again to help with my storyline. So far so good!
Profile created and I started the personalization steps. I choose to have her story mimic mine even more here, just moving from New England to Florida, giving her a hometown and current town close to my own.
Now I needed a photo, this was an important step. Amanda had to be beautiful, but real. Someone that looked like they were a real person you knew, but so pretty that you trusted her face. Some quick google searches and I found my Amanda. She had a public Facebook page, with all of her photos public. Her name was not amanda but her age was the same and she didn't live in either of the areas I listed, so there shouldn't be any mix up with her discovering herself. (Note: I don't condone this, I shouldn't have stolen someone's photos under any circumstances, but for the point of this blog, I had too. I was careful not to reveal any real details through photos like locations or children. Just took the selfies she had voluntarily shared on the internet. Lesson here: Lock up your profile kids.)
Photos acquired, some I posted immediately and some I saved to update with. Now to find friends. The easiest way to identify a fake profile, is by the lack of friends, either mutual or in general. Going with my story line, Facebook offered me people I might know, people who attended a school in my new hometown, or still lived in my hometown. Perfect. All I needed was one guy from this demographic to accept my friend request, then I could go through his friends and request them myself, giving us mutual friends and an established hometown network. But honestly, who is going to add someone they don't know?
Apparently everybody. I sent 25 friend requests yesterday and I was accepted by 18 of them, all men. Only TWO of them messaged me first before adding me, and a simple "Sorry! I thought I went to school with you and you're cute." was enough to get them to add me. I'm amazed. I now have a plethora of "friends" in common I can add, and add I did. I can't even keep straight how many I added. Looks like this might be easier than I thought. Let's see what tomorrow brings for Amanda.
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