Question
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Topic
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“Fake” Facebook profile and personal information
Hello all, first post.
So it seems, for the third time in all my years on Facebook, I’ve had someone try to pass themselves off as “me”, or at least use a photo of me as a profile picture. It is, however, not using my own name. I have, of course, now changed password.
However, some interesting, and worrying points. The profile picture on the most recent attempt was the same one “they” tried three years ago, so it’s undoubtably a bot. It doesn’t even have my whole face in it. I’ve now deleted the original photo. It was, however, from a Friends Only album.
And here’s the biggie. They were using an image of my block of flats as a cover photo, perhaps to make Friends all believe it was me, even though only about three of them actually know my block. I assumed it was a photo I’d taken, but no, it’s not. Search on Google Images for my block’s name, and the very same photo (same cars, same cloud formations) appears as the first hit. It comes from an estate agent’s website. So..
1. How does the bot know where I live? I’ve never mentioned the block by name, nor is my address anywhere on Facebook.
2. Is it honing in on my GPS and finding a stock image of the area based on those coordinates? Let’s face it, my phone hasn’t travelled far this past fortnight.
3. Should I worry? Am I in imminent danger of being burgled, or a stranger knowing my address? It is, as I say, almost 100% a bot.
It’s somewhat freaked me out, as you can imagine. And Facebook help pages/customer support have been no use, hence me finding this place.
Many thanks, all.
Brad
