Create a Fake Facebook Profile
Facebook is just about the number one way for people to connect, share their lives, make new friends, and get back in touch with old friends. Sometimes, though, you want to enjoy what's available on Facebook without sharing your likes, comments, and posts with everybody—or even anybody—you know, yet you still want to look like you're a "real" person. For that, you'll need an "alt," a fake or anonymous Facebook account with enough friends and activities to look convincing.
Contents
Steps
Facebook Profile Help
Doc:Facebook Profile Information,Facebook Work History,Internet Safety Rules
Creating an Identity
- Choose a name. Your alt's name can be anything you like. You can blend into the crowd with a name like John Smith, or you can stand out with an outlandish name such as Aloysius Cornwisky. Just be aware that the more outlandish the name, the less likely you'll be seen as being "real." After all, Aloysius has not been in the top 1000 baby names any time in the last 50 years!
- Whatever you choose, there's no restriction on duplicate names.
- Create an email account with your new name. Use a service such as Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail to create an anonymous account. Not only are they free, you'd need a court order to learn the identity of the real person behind the fake name.
- Add photos from your life. While anybody can have a name, photos tell the story. As the saying goes, "Pictures, or it didn't happen."
- Avoid using images from Google, or from stock photo websites, or any other public site—those are too easily investigated by anybody, thanks to Google Images. To test if your image is easily discoverable, navigate to images.google.com, and drag your image into the search field. If it can be found on the web, Google Images will find it.
- Some possible alternatives include dating sites such as Zoosk or Match.com, Flickr, Tumblr, and even that "other" social media website, Myspace.
- It's even harder for Google images to find screenshots of newly uploaded YouTube videos. Search a keyword for the image you want to find on YouTube (or another video-sharing site), then select "upload date" under filters. It might be hard to find a relevant video, but the photo (unless it's the thumbnail of the video) will not be easy to discover.
- Avoid using other Facebook accounts, as their sophisticated facial recognition algorithms might cause you to accidentally tag somebody's image, who would then be on to your ruse. It could cost you your fake account, and primary account as well!
- If you're in your late teens or early twenties, Vampire Freaks is loaded with images, but they are discoverable with Google Images.
- Once you find a profile picture, make sure there are other pictures of that person for later use. If you want to use multiple people as "you," make sure you pay attention to details like nose type, lips, skin color, hair cut and color, height, weight, eye color, and various other attributes.
- Many people use childhood pictures for their Facebook profile, or even pictures of a cat, a favorite sports team, or even a shrubbery—there's no specific need to put a picture of any face at all in your profile.
Building Your Profile
- Create your alternate life. As you build a profile for your alt, you will want a place or community for it to "Rabat"
- Your alt can live in the same town as you, or can live on the other side of the world!
- Search for middle schools, high schools, or colleges in that area, and add them to your page.
- Pick several different things for each category in the interests section. For music pick bands you like that fit the style of the character you're creating .
- Create your alternate self! Talk about yourself—but remember, you're not talking about the "real" you, you're creating a character. You can be younger than you are, or older. You can even be the opposite sex!
- The more details you add, the more convincing your fake account will be. Just be careful to "act" the part you're playing.
- Add people. Search for people in your alt's hometown that look like they might be interesting. If they have a lot of friends, even better. The goal here is to build a network of "friends," and by finding people who have a very large number of friends, you'll accomplish two things:
- First, if their list is huge, there's no way they know everybody on the list well. Find out their main interests, and when you friend them, say something like "Hey, remember me? We met at the concert last week." They'll just assume you met, and friend you back.
- Second, if they have that many friends, you will soon have mutual friends—even friends that are not quite as well known. That way, you can say "Hi, remember me? I was with Joe Popular at the concert last week."
- Friend people of both sexes. That will really help you develop a well-rounded profile.
- Do not add people you know! If you get a lot of people saying you're fake, just ignore them and move on. Keep adding people, and get to know them on chat and messages.
- Keep it fresh. Update your profile pic and cover photo from time to time, and make sure you attend events in "your" neighborhood.
- Set up Twitter, Yelp, and Instagram accounts, and check in at various places around town. By keeping it current, you will give the impression that you are the real deal.
