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Some scammers on Facebook have seized on to my aunt's name and image as the front for their operations. As family, they friend us from fake accounts on at leas

Some scammers on Facebook have seized on to my aunt's name and image as the front for their operations. As family, they friend us from fake accounts on at least a weekly basis. Despite reporting these fake accounts more than 100 times, I got a new one today. They ask me for feedback every time I report an account. They are not getting positive reviews. Based on this experience, I'm not optimistic in their abilities.

Natsu 9y ago
I've heard reports that a non-trivial percentage of their accounts are fake. I share your lack of optimism, though I also wonder how hard they've really tried until now.
- ams6110 9y ago
  Why should we believe they're trying now?
  - CamperBob2 9y ago
    There are persistent rumors that Zuckerberg wants to get into national politics. The spin will ramp up to neutron-star velocities when that happens. It's probably safe to stop believing anything they say, starting right about now.
    - jessaustin 9y ago
      Haha I started at least five years ago, the fourteenth time I heard someone complaining about automatically-changed FB privacy settings. Fool me thirteen times... Thus I wasn't surprised by #JeSuisCharlie or the recent wall-building kerfuffle.
    - pharrlax 9y ago
      He is literally doing a whistlestop tour around America right now, replete with bizarrely folksy essays laced with nakedly political rhetoric. Not so much a rumor as an impression he appears to be intentionally cultivating
      - kbenson 9y ago
        Well, Trump has shown that the populace is accepting of businessmen as leaders. I'm sure if the rumors are true Zuckerberg won't be the last to think they can parlay success and fame into political power, and he wasn't the first (Reagon comes to mind).
        elevenfist 9y ago
        Reagan was an actor, not a businessman. He did shill though. Zuckerberg is waking up to how easily manipulable the portion of Americans who voted for Trump are. It's too easy. Just look at the republican response to sb18 in CA. The counseling association was suppossed to be working on an initiative to help but I'm starting to worry.
        Caveman_Coder 9y ago
        I believe it's fair to say that both sides are easily manipulated...not just those on the right.
        elevenfist 9y ago
        I used to believe the same thing until the aftermath of this election. It's not even remotely in the same ballpark. It's like the Dunning-Krueger effect except there's two more peaks in the 0-20% range, and a lot of people with an island of intelligence in their career path outside that range.
        beaconstudios 9y ago
        it's actually very much in the same ball-park. The sheer fact that many liberals believe that a sizeable portion of Trump's supporters are fascists, or that he himself is a fascist, is proof of this. In fact, in my experience right-leaning people tend to be more skeptical than left-leaning people - too skeptical in some cases, leading to things like conspiracy theory and climate change denial.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - bigbugbag 9y ago
      > It's probably safe to stop believing anything they say, starting right about now. It was safe to stop believing anything they say after facebook got caught neck deep in wrongdoings and apologized for the first time. IIRC this was circa early 2004 or late 2003 and it's been downhill from there.
      - disgruntledphd2 9y ago
        Facebook was founded in February 2004, so they probably didn't do much bad stuff in 2003.
    - stupidhn 9y ago
      There are persistent rumors that Zuckerberg wants to get into national politics. First,let me say that I respect Zuckerberg and what he's accomplished. But... Does middle America care what "the Facebook guy" thinks? This seems like more SV delusion. The guy is literally running Big Brother.
sandworm101 9y ago
I've got a similar problem with my own face. Scammers take public information from bar associations (I'm a lawyer) and build fake profiles using photos from firm websites. As I don't have any facebook account myself, finding and reporting these is a real difficulty. Most large law firms have someone dedicated to protecting the firm's name on social media but small firms just don't have the time. FYI, don't believe anything said by a "lawyer" on facebook. We don't ever start communications that way. Visit the local bar association's website and check the lawyer's real contact info before saying anything.
- 15155 9y ago
  > Most large law firms have someone dedicated to protecting the firm's name on social media Which, in cases of fraud or scams, is a fine effort - in the cases of SLAPPs, not so much.
  - sandworm101 9y ago
    Law firms arent coke or pepsi. They generally dont care about public opinion. Only client opinion matters. What they dont want to see is thier name being used for criminal activity. But being seen as dark and scary isnt always a bad thing (see Wolfram & Heart).
- mirimir 9y ago
  It sounds like they're using your name, not just your face. Or are they just creating plausible fake lawyers? And what's the game? I can imagine that they're soliciting "customers", who they'll go on to dupe and rip off. I do like your profile, by the way. It sounds like the lawyer-expert dynamic to me.
  - sandworm101 9y ago
    They send threatening messages to people that include links and data from firm/bar websites to make it seem as if it comes from a real lawyer. In extreme cases they setup entirely fake websites with data harvested from legit law firms. No lawyer will send a threat via facebook. And no lawyer will ever demand a payment via bitcoin or gift cards.
devrandomguy 9y ago
I should start photoshopping a fake scar onto my face in profile pics, so that I have a chance to be believed when I cry "Doppleganger!" with no scar on my real face. I think a small lighting bolt on the forehead would look dashing.

Natsu 9y ago

I've heard reports that a non-trivial percentage of their accounts are fake. I share your lack of optimism, though I also wonder how hard they've really tried until now.

ams6110 9y ago
Why should we believe they're trying now?
- CamperBob2 9y ago
  There are persistent rumors that Zuckerberg wants to get into national politics. The spin will ramp up to neutron-star velocities when that happens. It's probably safe to stop believing anything they say, starting right about now.
  - jessaustin 9y ago
    Haha I started at least five years ago, the fourteenth time I heard someone complaining about automatically-changed FB privacy settings. Fool me thirteen times... Thus I wasn't surprised by #JeSuisCharlie or the recent wall-building kerfuffle.
  - pharrlax 9y ago
    He is literally doing a whistlestop tour around America right now, replete with bizarrely folksy essays laced with nakedly political rhetoric. Not so much a rumor as an impression he appears to be intentionally cultivating
    - kbenson 9y ago
      Well, Trump has shown that the populace is accepting of businessmen as leaders. I'm sure if the rumors are true Zuckerberg won't be the last to think they can parlay success and fame into political power, and he wasn't the first (Reagon comes to mind).
      - elevenfist 9y ago
        Reagan was an actor, not a businessman. He did shill though. Zuckerberg is waking up to how easily manipulable the portion of Americans who voted for Trump are. It's too easy. Just look at the republican response to sb18 in CA. The counseling association was suppossed to be working on an initiative to help but I'm starting to worry.
        Caveman_Coder 9y ago
        I believe it's fair to say that both sides are easily manipulated...not just those on the right.
        elevenfist 9y ago
        I used to believe the same thing until the aftermath of this election. It's not even remotely in the same ballpark. It's like the Dunning-Krueger effect except there's two more peaks in the 0-20% range, and a lot of people with an island of intelligence in their career path outside that range.
        beaconstudios 9y ago
        it's actually very much in the same ball-park. The sheer fact that many liberals believe that a sizeable portion of Trump's supporters are fascists, or that he himself is a fascist, is proof of this. In fact, in my experience right-leaning people tend to be more skeptical than left-leaning people - too skeptical in some cases, leading to things like conspiracy theory and climate change denial.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - bigbugbag 9y ago
    > It's probably safe to stop believing anything they say, starting right about now. It was safe to stop believing anything they say after facebook got caught neck deep in wrongdoings and apologized for the first time. IIRC this was circa early 2004 or late 2003 and it's been downhill from there.
    - disgruntledphd2 9y ago
      Facebook was founded in February 2004, so they probably didn't do much bad stuff in 2003.
  - stupidhn 9y ago
    There are persistent rumors that Zuckerberg wants to get into national politics. First,let me say that I respect Zuckerberg and what he's accomplished. But... Does middle America care what "the Facebook guy" thinks? This seems like more SV delusion. The guy is literally running Big Brother.

sandworm101 9y ago

I've got a similar problem with my own face. Scammers take public information from bar associations (I'm a lawyer) and build fake profiles using photos from firm websites. As I don't have any facebook account myself, finding and reporting these is a real difficulty. Most large law firms have someone dedicated to protecting the firm's name on social media but small firms just don't have the time. FYI, don't believe anything said by a "lawyer" on facebook. We don't ever start communications that way. Visit the local bar association's website and check the lawyer's real contact info before saying anything.

15155 9y ago
> Most large law firms have someone dedicated to protecting the firm's name on social media Which, in cases of fraud or scams, is a fine effort - in the cases of SLAPPs, not so much.
- sandworm101 9y ago
  Law firms arent coke or pepsi. They generally dont care about public opinion. Only client opinion matters. What they dont want to see is thier name being used for criminal activity. But being seen as dark and scary isnt always a bad thing (see Wolfram & Heart).
mirimir 9y ago
It sounds like they're using your name, not just your face. Or are they just creating plausible fake lawyers? And what's the game? I can imagine that they're soliciting "customers", who they'll go on to dupe and rip off. I do like your profile, by the way. It sounds like the lawyer-expert dynamic to me.
- sandworm101 9y ago
  They send threatening messages to people that include links and data from firm/bar websites to make it seem as if it comes from a real lawyer. In extreme cases they setup entirely fake websites with data harvested from legit law firms. No lawyer will send a threat via facebook. And no lawyer will ever demand a payment via bitcoin or gift cards.

devrandomguy 9y ago

I should start photoshopping a fake scar onto my face in profile pics, so that I have a chance to be believed when I cry "Doppleganger!" with no scar on my real face. I think a small lighting bolt on the forehead would look dashing.