Facebook fake profile, who to report to?

[horribleblob]

Finnish/Lapdancing - a connection there.

[dosxuk]

There are hundreds and thousands of fake profiles on Facebook, many constructed using other peoples photos, and becoming friends with each other in order to appear as real as possible. The vast majority of these profiles are used to spam other members, once they've added a significant number of contacts (as they get blocked after a mass spam message).

 

I wouldn't neccessaraly jump to the conclusion it's a paedophile, but I would use it as a good lesson for your daughter in successfully identifying someone who's not got her best interests at heart, and to ensure she knows how to block and report people who act suspiciously.

[Cyclone]

You probably just need to speak to someone slightly more in the know in the police force.

They may not have any power over facebook, but they could if they had reason get a warrant and from this get the IP address of the computer using the profile (from facebook) and then the address of the computer (from the ISP).

[hennypenny]

Her profile has now been deleted, so facebook have taken notice and acted - quite efficient of them

[boyfriday]

You probably just need to speak to someone slightly more in the know in the police force.

They may not have any power over facebook, but they could if they had reason get a warrant and from this get the IP address of the computer using the profile (from facebook) and then the address of the computer (from the ISP).

 

The police would be fully employed if they acted on every report of a fake profile on FB, with nothing to corroborate illegal activity. Everytime I log on to MSN there are dozens of add requests waiting, invariably from 'Natasha in Poland' or 'Claudia from Germany', who always want to be my new best friend, sadly experience tells me their claims are insincere

 

There could be a million reasons why someone's created a fake FB profile, not all of them criminal or even sinister, I think the rational approach is to impress on our children that they should only add people they know, as the OP has done, and the probability that someone they don't know actually being a Brad or Angelina look alike being much less than them being a double for Bernard Manning or Susan Boyle.

[Forumosaurus]

Good investigation work!

[ukstudent]

Her profile has now been deleted, so facebook have taken notice and acted - quite efficient of them

 

That is good. But you can bet your bottom dollar that this person will create a new one and as another poster mentioned there are thousands of people with fake profiles etc.

 

A good lesson for your daughter though.

[Cyclone]

The police would be fully employed if they acted on every report of a fake profile on FB, with nothing to corroborate illegal activity. Everytime I log on to MSN there are dozens of add requests waiting, invariably from 'Natasha in Poland' or 'Claudia from Germany', who always want to be my new best friend, sadly experience tells me their claims are insincere

 

There could be a million reasons why someone's created a fake FB profile, not all of them criminal or even sinister, I think the rational approach is to impress on our children that they should only add people they know, as the OP has done, and the probability that someone they don't know actually being a Brad or Angelina look alike being much less than them being a double for Bernard Manning or Susan Boyle.

 

I did say could, not would.

If they'd said that there was no criminal activity and that's why they wouldn't investigate then fair enough. But they claimed they couldn't, which isn't true.

[boyfriday]

I did say could, not would.

If they'd said that there was no criminal activity and that's why they wouldn't investigate then fair enough. But they claimed they couldn't, which isn't true.

 

Well if the account given to the police was as hennypenny described, then there is nothing the police can do. However if the the 'fake' had been encouraging juveniles to engage in sexual dialogue and meet them, then the police would have wanted to get very much involved. I think that needs to be established before the OP considers escalating the matter with the police.

[Cyclone]

Surely they can investigate potential grooming without actually having a smoking gun. They are certainly free to investigate most things only on the suspicion that a crime might have taken place.