Social media have invaded our daily lives and have become indispensable for some. While practical and entertaining, these communication and sharing tools are addictive and sometimes dangerous. On Facebook especially, shared data is not really secure, since all your "friends" have access. Read the story of this woman who discovered that someone used her photos and pretended to be her on Facebook.
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook ... Social media have become ubiquitous in our daily lives, to the point of becoming an addiction. Indeed, we can no longer detach ourselves from our phones always connected, for fear of missing something. Facebook, especially, which represents a real platform for sharing and communication, is one of the most popular and most used social media.
This network is distinguished by the richness of its content, including status, photos, videos, articles ... but also advertising.
But while Facebook is convenient for many reasons, it also has a hidden face. Indeed, this platform where many people share their photos, ideas, locations and videos does not guarantee their security. Even if we believe we are protected because we know all the people on our friends list, there may be others who are not trustworthy. Who among us has never accepted the request to add a stranger just because he has pretty pictures? Let's do our mea culpa!
Indeed, many people hack Facebook accounts to use the user's profile data or add it to then retrieve this data and exploit it for questionable purposes.
Between scam, diverted pictures and fake profiles, the risk is there. This platform therefore does not guarantee the security of the data shared by the users, nor the veracity of the profiles. How can you be sure that the person who is speaking to you is the one you believe?
A young blogger had a terrible experience when someone used her photos to create another profile under another name. Here is his story.
No, it's not me !
Vanessa is an airline stewardess and travel blogger who recently discovered that her photos were being used by a fake profile on Facebook to attract men.
It all started when someone contacted her and asked her if her name was Ellie Reece. She looked for the name to find out what it was. This is where she was surprised to see many of her photos. Someone had, in fact, taken photos of his Facebook and Instagram account and used them to create another one.
The 28-year-old from Cork, Ireland, says the person who created the fake profile used it to talk to men. Moreover, the one who contacted him confessed to him that he spoke to this false profile for already 3 months.
Shocked to discover all this, Vanessa contacted the people who commented on her photos to inform them that it is not about her. It was there that these men told her that they had received pictures of a naked woman and that they had done the same in return. After knowing that this is a fake profile, they are now afraid of what can happen to their photo.
The fake profile had about 1,200 friends, including more than 1,000 men who had almost all been contacted by the person behind this act.
Following these facts, Vanessa immediately shared this story with her followers on her Facebook, Instagram and Snapshat accounts and asked them to do the same. But to his surprise, Facebook has blocked his real account.
But after several attempts, his account was reactivated and the wrong profile was blocked.
This kind of situations can happen to everyone. That's why it's important not to share everything on social media and especially to be sure that the people you have in your friends list are true and not fake profiles.