Beware of Fake Mark Zuckerberg Accounts Scamming Users on Instagram, Facebook

While Facebook is already struggling with data privacy related issues andworking to fix is policies, a recentreportfrom theNew York Timeshighlights another major problem on the social media platform which also extends to its other app Instagram. The report talks about fake accounts on the platforms and how scammers are impersonating Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg to scam users out of hard-earned cash.

The fake Zuckerberg and Sandberg accounts contact gullible users on both Facebook and Instagram on the pretext of a lottery. They then proceed to gain the confidence of the user and ask them for a ‘delivery fee’ to safely deliver the lottery winnings. The con artists keep asking for additional funds until the user realizes that they’ve been scammed and then move on to their next victim.(Image: NY Times)

TheNY Timesfound over 200 such fake accounts impersonatingZuckerbergand Sandberg on Facebook and Instagram, which doesn’t include fan pages or satire accounts that are permitted by the company. 51 of the fake accounts, including 43 on Instagram, ran lottery scams like the one mentioned above. The fake accounts still exist on the platform despite the presence of dedicated groups which have been tracking and reporting such accounts since 2010.

Soon after the original report was published, Facebook removed all 96 fake Zuckerberg andSandbergaccounts. The 109 fake accounts on Instagram were also removed shortly thereafter. Pete Voss, a Facebook spokesperson, thanked theNY Times, but couldn’t comment on why Facebook was not able to track down the fake accounts on its own, some of which existed for over eight years.

While both Facebook and Instagram require users to enter real information while creating profiles, this can be easily circumvented and fake accounts have always been a major problem for the platforms. The company estimates that around 3 percent, or around 60 million, of all the accounts on the platform are fake. The company is currently working to improve its software to automatically detect and remove such fake accounts.

Featured image courtesy: SNL

Pranob Mehrotra

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