Like many other social networks, Facebook also contains tons of fake profiles unfortunately. Those fake profile holders use Social Engineering tactics to attack innocent people. Facebook has almost 500 Million Users and it is not surprising to have few thousands fake profiles. Below I have mentioned some funny but true tips to check whether a profile is fake or not.

1. Profile Picture. Always be suspicious of profiles featuring photos of professional models. Most of the fake profiles, especially that of females, have only one profile picture and that too a beautiful or sexy (ahem) picture!

2. Many Males. Their friends list will contain males mostly (Well, that’s not their fault, gender issue  ). It could be around 1000s or even more than that.

3. When Did They Joined? Check when she/he joined. If they have lots of friends and have only been on the Facebook a short amount of time, it’s likely to be a fake one.

4. Tag Me! He/she would be tagged in tons of cartoon pictures than his/her own picture.

5. Apps Requests. If he/she is in your friend list, then you will get lotta application or like requests from them. I got many requests like that, some include “Can you send me a chicken?”, “Can you send a buffalo?”.. LOL.

6. Facebook Albums. Most of the fake profiles photos are open to everyone. Well, not a promising tip, but worth it. It may contain lot of pictures but they would not have tags indicating other profiles. They may also contain really tiny photos.

7. Full Filled Profile. If a profile is lengthy and detailed, then you can be sure that it is a real person. Fake Profile creators won’t have time to create long and interesting profiles.

8. Favorite Pages. Most of the fake profiles have less than 20 pages, well almost.

9. Description. Most of the fake profiles have descriptions like “Accept My Farmville Request”, “Add Me In Mafia Wars”, and many more.

10. For Boys : Girls don’t send friend requests to strangers, I mean good girls!  So if, by chance, you get a friend request from girls, don’t confirm it without verifying the details. If you are not a handsome looking guy and you got a friend request from a hot babe. Then you really need to triple check!

11. For Girls : Who said? I support boys too! But some boys usually send friend requests to girls. So it is better to confirm with others and verify. If you are not a hot babe and you got a friend request from a handsome looking guy. Then you should also really need to triple check!

12. Status Updates. Most probably fake profile’s status updates won’t get comments or likes. They may also share fake websites (Phishing attack). (Survey)

13. Celeb Request. If you are added by a celebrity!  Unless you are a celebrity please don’t add!  If they are claiming to be a model or actress or anything like that, then they will surely have professional pictures on their album.

14. Add Feeds. Fake profile’s feeds will contain only friend request adds.

I didn’t say don’t accept any strange friend requests. Trust, but verify!

So if you encounter any fake profiles, I mean if you really encounter, then you can report it to Facebook.

Did you encounter any fake profiles? Please share your experience, and at the same time, share and tweet!

Tired of wading through spam every time you check your mail? You’re not alone. Every day, millions of people receive large volumes of unwanted and even fraudulent emails. Here are a few things you can do about it.

Create and use a temporary email address.

Yahoo and Hotmail provide this feature in order to keep your private email address strictly for your friends and family members and only. The secondary address, you can use for your subscriptions and other purposes. If your secondary address is abused from spammers and your inbox is filled with spam messages, then you can delete it and create another secondary email address.

Dont Reple to Spam Mails.

Don’t reply to spam emails. Some spam emails contain a link for you to click on if you want to opt out. Some spammers simply use this link to determine whether or not they have a live address. .

Use your e-mail’s filters.

Almost all email applications have this feature. You can create filters blocking spam words like “make money, opportunities, Viagra, sex, e.t.c” .Doing that, you will block many of your spam messages but not all of them.

NEVER post your email.

Don’t post your email on forums, websites, message boards, guest books and other online places. You should also avoid posting your contact email address on your website. Spammers use software robots and extract email addresses from thousands of websites. If you want to display your email at your website change it to jpeg photo with Photoshop or other image design software.

The use of email blocking tools.

Yahoo for instance has this excellent tool which can block up to 500 email addresses (the Free option, the paid one provide more) and this amount of spam emails will never reach your mailbox. Other web mail services provide similar features too. The preinstalled filter in your email application.

If you use outlook express you can click “message” (from windows 98 versions and later) and then click “Block sender”. Just doing that you will block many of your unsolicited emails.

Do Not respond to spam at all costs.

When you receive a spam message which asks you to click a link for whatever reason (fake unsubscribe and other) do not click it. If you do that, the spammers will now instantly that they deal with a real email address. Do Not Ever open unknown messages with attachments.

This is critical. Most of the times the attachment will be a virus (especially if it’s exe or zip format) If you open it you will activate the virus it contains and harm your computer. Accept email attachments ONLY from well known resources such as friends, business colleagues e.t.c. You should also have installed an antivirus which scans your emails before they are saved into your hard drive.

Spam can be more than a nuisance. With these tips, you can cut down on the amount of spam you receive.