Cyberstalked: How To Identify Fake Friend Requests On Social Media

"Social media users should think twice before accepting friend requests from strangers. They could be scammers trying to gain access to their personal information," said cyber security expert, Shubham Singh on the rise of catfishing cases in the country. Catfishing is a cybercrime where the scammer uses information, and images of other people to create a new identity for themselves on social media platforms.

The cyber expert shared that catfishing can damage the mental health of the victim, especially if they are emotionally invested in the catfisher. Following the scam, victims of catfishing find it difficult to trust someone and this can affect both their personal and professional life. Catfishing involves using your pictures and posts from social media profiles, using a similar name, and image, and reaching out to the followers of the real profile to scam them. 

How To Spot A Fake Friend Request On Social Media?

“Fraudsters often take pictures and posts from real high-profile pages, use a similar name, and reach out to the followers of the real page to scam them,” said Shubham Singh, a cyber security specialist. It all starts with the catfisher sending you a friend request on social media. To stay safe, it is important to keep cyber criminals off your social media handles. Here are some ways you can spot a fake profile on social media:

• If you don't remember meeting the person and have no mutual friends, the person is likely to be a scammer, avoid accepting a friend request from such users.
• Check their profile, if they have no personal content on their handle then they might be a catfisher.
• Look for activities on their social media profile. If there is an unusual activity like they follow similar suspicious accounts then decline their friend request.

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How To Keep Yourself Safe From Catfishers?

• Accept friend requests only from people you know.
• Remove and block all suspicious people from your friend list.
• There is an option of locking your profile on Facebook and keeping it private on Instagram.

• Use these options based on your preference.
• Scammers might send you inspirational messages, and videos but do a good scanning of their profile before clicking on any messages, videos, or links.
• Catfishers usually don't use a profile picture. Their profile might show zero followers or posts, if so, remove them from your account immediately.

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How To Report A Suspicious Account Or Page On Social Media?

If you find a profile or page on social media that seems suspicious then you can report it. Go to the profile or page. You will find a clickable arrow or hyphen around their cover photo. Click on it and you will find the option to report or block the profile. Follow the instructions. If it is a profile impersonating another user or page on social media then share their profile link with your followers and ask them to report it too.