My first social network experience was hi5. If you had used it, you would agree, it was quite a boring social network. People eventually started to move towards facebook era. Facebook provided more interaction between cyber buddies. Simply it gave everything what hi5 gave and much more. Today there are several social networks in the internet connecting people all around the world. However I am not writing this to educate you on the social networking or any technical aspect related to social networking. I am about to share my point of view on an issue about which, each and everyone who are involved in social networking (more specifically, facebook) should be aware of.
There are no safe zones in the cyber space. Once you’re in it, there’s no guarantee that your privacy is protected from the weirdoes live there.
Nowadays fake profiles have become a trend in the facebook. While the facebook seems to pay a very low attention to this issue, people’s lives are being ruined due to cyber crimes involving fake profiles. I started to wonder what sort of a person would have a mentality to create a fake profile and what the possible reasons behind this weird action are.
1. I am gonna win this game…
Some people do this with no intension of harming or fooling anyone. They just do this for fun. Known to my knowledge, one of my friends maintains around 15 facebook profiles each and everyday. I asked him why and he said that he uses those profiles to play games. So his ultimate goal was to win in certain facebook applications (games) by getting some sort of a help from his fake profiles. Because he has control over several profiles he can manipulate those profiles the way he wants and he has the advantage of winning the game rather than a person who plays a fair game. Nowadays lots of people who are addicted to facebook games are doing this just to be the best in the world. I wouldn’t say this sort of a fake profile is bad, but…I don’t know…
2. Hey guys wanna have some fun….
While some people create fake profiles to win, there are some psychos who have some weird desires (specially sexual). Some of these people create fake profiles pretending to be opposite sex. In simple words guys create fake profiles with a hot girl in the profile picture and vice versa. These people tend to display abusive behavior via these fake profiles by fulfilling their sexual fantasies. If you’re one of this kind, I got three words for you, “YOU ARE GAY!!!”
3. Be careful, I’ll be watching….
Although Sherlock Holmes is a fictitious character, everyone wish to be a Sherlock at some point in their lives. If I wanted to spy on some one, I would consider pretending to be someone else. In cyberspace, easiest way is to use a fake profile. Some lovers do this to check loyalty of their partners.
While some do this for a reason, some do this because they are sick, I mean literally. These are the people you need to be stay away from. They’ll monitor you always. Sometimes they might not do anything, but come on, if someone is watching me all the time without my understanding, I’d freak out!!!!
4. I’ll see to it that you’ll pay for this….
Revenge is not acceptable. However none of the people in the world have the full control over their emotions and motives. So I guess it’s somewhat normal to have hateful feelings, but putting them into action is completely a different aspect. Some people create fake profiles solely for this reason. I don’t think I need to explain, but you can imagine what they would do if someone created a fake profile of you, because they wanted revenge.
5. I can laugh, when you are crying….
This is not exactly revenge, but some people are literally sick, as I said earlier. There are psychos and maniacs. They do not have a reason to hurt someone, but they seem to have fun just by doing that. A person with such a weird mentally does not have an intellectual capacity to understand the magnitude of the consequences of their actions. And even if they do, they would increase the intensity of their actions and look for more fun. Intention of such a weirdo would vary from humiliating or insulting someone to breaking up a relationship. Why would a person go for such actions? May be because their parents didn’t love them when they were kids, or they were sexually abused when they were kids, or they are ashamed of their personality. It’s even possible that they are sexually disabled.
I am not a psychologist, so I guess this is just my point of view. Even though you would not agree with some of my views you’d agree that there are such weirdoes live in the cyberspace. You might think that there are no legislations associated with fake profiles. Well then you are wrong. An IT engineer from Morocco was arrested few years ago for creating a fake profile of their Prince. He went to jail for some 5 or 6 years. I know the victim was a Prince, and when it comes to royals, anything is possible. But it’s a starter. Further in 2008 a businessman won £17,000 by suing a school friend for creating his gay fake profile. If you are a victim of a cybercrime and lives in Sri Lanka, you can go through the following links and get some assistance.
So I guess you realize, whatever your motive is, creating a fake profile is not funny. Well it’s okay to have a little fun fooling someone, or by playing a game, but just be careful. After all, “what goes around, comes around.”
And all the good people, you have to realize facebook is not a safe place to share all your personal stuff, photos and everything. Lot of weirdoes are eagerly looking till you make a mistakes. May be one of them are already in your profile, or may be one of them are already secretly monitoring your activities. So set up your security and privacy settings accordingly, and think before you say or put anything on facebook or internet itself for that matter.
Be safe out there…Happy facebooking!!!
