A short time ago I wrote a blog, FaceBook Friend List Sham! It was about a profile that I assumed had to be fake, Michelle Fox.  I do not know if it is but I do know that there is another similar profile on FaceBook  that is currently circulating through many people I know, Earnest Hobson, that is completely FAKE!

Earnest Hobson had the same similar vague profile features as Michelle Fox

• Unnatural profile picture (looks like the back has been Photoshop-ed out)

• The person never comments, contributes content  or returns messages
• They have one picture that actually shows them and that is the Photoshop-ed profile picture.  The other pictures are nil or  too small for anyone to see who or what is on them
• A narrow subject of interest in fan pages, information and groups.  Often focused on a type of business.
• And lastly but most loudly is “friends” with the oddest combination of your friends!

Earnest Hobson an Asian man from Montana, is an experiment, but not mine:).  In less than a week he has 345+ friends from around the world, has people commenting on his fake pictures, and posting on his fake wall. Click here to see his quick addition of friends (Click on the picture to enlarge it)

What is the ultimate harm?

Since my last blog I have thought about this issue further and I now believe that fake profiles could become a real menace for FaceBook in the future.

• Email Harvest- yeah that is right.  Most people know by now that through a very popular network site you can pull up every one of your FaceBook Friend’s emails even if they are hidden or private.  It takes less than five minutes. So you could be friend-ing a person that is into grabbing emails and adding them to email campaigns.
• Fans for sale?-  Just this week as I look through the fan pages of Social Media Consultants, I noticed an odd trend of companies selling packages with a guaranteed number of fans.  What?  How do you guarantee a number of fans for a fan page, unless you have a pool of ready “fans” you can control?  And why would someone want to buy fans, when a business should want fans that will buy FROM it (that is another blog)
• Trust sabotaged – This is one of the many issues with  MySpace.  People grew tired of the fake profiles and the spam that ensued because of them.  Trust was lost  in building relationships on the network.
• Suggesting Fan Pages to friends – Similar to the first issue, but different.  The nature on FaceBook is that we will at least check out Fan Pages that our friends suggest to us.  These fake profiles suggesting Fan Pages that  you may end up fanning.  Thus, seeing how a farm of these fake profiles can be used by a company to cause false return on investments (ROI) or benchmark achievements to unsuspecting clients.   I know that Earnest has been suggesting a lot of pages:)

There are probably more issues, but FaceBook is going to have to address this issue eventually.  There may not be a profile for a Fork or Smiling Jesus on FaceBook as there is on MySpace, but I consider the FAKE profiles like Earnest Hobson to be more detrimental.  I can realize that “Fork” and “Smiling Jesus” on MySpace  are not real.

To stay up to date on security on FaceBook I suggest you fan the FaceBook Security Fan Page.  and make sure you keep your profile as safe as possible