Fake Profiles and Hackers In Social Networking Websites

Hello Friends,

I know we are all addicted of social networking websites, but i found many fake profiles and hackers in our social networking websites, some make fake profile only just for fun, some for any personal reasons, some for taking games.

So my questions are :
What you think about fake profiles?
How we can stop them?
How we can recognized them?
How we can tell them that you are doing something wrong, don't do this, it hurts feelings.
Why social networking websites don't take any action amongst them?
Why hackers troubling innocent simple users?
How we can stop hackers and fake profile makers?
Privacy policy of social networking websites strong enough but still hackers getting success to hack passwords, How?

I want needful suggestions and your thoughts about this issue.

 

What you think about fake profiles?

They hurt the community image. However they are easy to spot. It is moderation - just look at how DP handles things. It starts slow and at first asks for a LOT of captchas, then it won't let you post live links right away, then it won't let you participate in buy/sell forums, etc.

How we can stop them?

Here are few ideas:

• Block traffic from proxy sites
• Put the big offenders IP on a black list and just refuse connection to them
• In fact I'd be suspicious of any traffic that comes from an IP address that also has a web server on it
• Put aggressive CAPTCHAs
• Put no-follow tags on your links - that would discourage link farmers

How we can recognized them?

You can't always automate that. But you can put "flag this post" button so your community members can alert you to bad behavior.

How we can tell them that you are doing something wrong, don't do this, it hurts feelings.


There are no feelings on the other side - just blatant spam. They know very well that what they are doing is wrong. In fact it is their business. It would be like trying to teach a thief that stealing is bad.

Why social networking websites don't take any action amongst them?

Some do.

Why hackers troubling innocent simple users?

That's the million dollar question, why do people do what they do?

How we can stop hackers and fake profile makers?

Just need to keep weeding them out, enforce strict policies, etc.

Privacy police are strong but still hackers getting success to hack passwords, How?

I don't exactly understand that question. But the answer to how they hack - it's simple - they find exploits and exploit them.

• Get a private server, so no shared users can harm you
• Harden your server by ONLY allowing web connections on port 80 (and/or 443 if you do https)
• Only allow your own IP address to get to ssh (be careful it could change)
• Just follow the basic security guidelines

Get a managed box if you don't know how to do these things - but ask them to do them for you...

Good luck!

 

Thanks bizhobby, you cover all most all points and give me answers very technically and intelligently, thanks for sharing this information with us.

 

i need more suggestion, feel free to post your valuable comments!

 

Allow only one account per IP. Make sure that your users have to confirm their email address.
There is no 100% full proof method to prevent fake or duplicate accounts.

 

How we can stop them? No, you can't
How we can recognized them? Learning from their habit
How we can tell them that you are doing something wrong, don't do this, it hurts feelings. They've known it already. It's wrong, and they did it.
Why social networking websites don't take any action amongst them?How can you know social networking website didn't take any action? Are you an admin of any social networking website?
Why hackers troubling innocent simple users? Because an expert users would be harder and takes more time
How we can stop hackers and fake profile makers? same question with the #1
Privacy policy of social networking websites strong enough but still hackers getting success to hack passwords, How? lol, privacy policy? excusme???

I want needful suggestions and your thoughts about this issue.[/QUOTE]

 

I run a few free dating and social networking sites. My biggest problem is dating scammers who create fake profiles, and then email a whole bunch of members asking them to email them at their yahoo addresses.

These scammers are usually using two different schemes:
a. They want to deposit a whole lot of money into your bank account
b. They want to get to know you better ... so they can try to get money from you down the road.

I usually end up deleting at least 3-5 of these scammers every day (their emails disappear as soon as I delete their profiles).

Sometimes, however, they get past me and members then complain. I am tempted to start blocking whole countries (like Nigeria and the Ivory Coast), as most of these scammers come from these countries.

Any suggestions?

 

What I would suggest is to set a limit on number of messages they can send for any new members.

In fact... what you can do is this... keep the messages in an outgoing box.

But only release 1 or 2/day for the first week, then release more as time goes on.

and always keep an eye on the ones that send the most first messages.

You can also set sending limits per country.

 

if we report spam still there is no effects on them, they keep on spamming.Why those type of website didn't take any action against them? spamming is one more pathetic stuff.