Watch out! Fake profiles & scammers
We would never contact you on a social media channel to sell you something!
We are receiving more and more reports of fake accounts.
We can't stop it and we're very unhappy about it! In this day and age, with billions of social media accounts worldwide, there are more and more scammers who are up to no good - identity theft, phishing, rip-offs and other criminal intentions are unfortunately widespread.
The real profile of Marc Friedrich is recreated by these people in order to deceive you into revealing your personal data or, even more seriously, to transfer your money for a supposed trade/purchase.
There is only one profile of Marc Friedrich or Friedrich & Partner on each of the various platforms:
We are not represented on other platforms (e.g. Whatsapp)! If you come across a fake profile, please report it to the respective platform so that the profile can be blocked.
We take the problem seriously and would like to explain it to you in this guide so that you can protect yourself better. Often, it is not just one of the features mentioned that you can use to recognize a fake account, but a combination of several factors.
How can you protect yourself?
- Do not share any personal data: Do not share sensitive information such as passwords or bank details with strangers.
- Check profiles: Look out for incomplete profiles, unusual activities or pictures that are too perfect. Use image searches to check authenticity.
- Be careful with messages: Don't click on suspicious links and be wary of good offers or urgent requests.
- Pay attention to behavior: Avoid friend requests from strangers with no interactions or from very new accounts.
- Use security measures: Enable two-factor authentication and strong passwords.
- Trust your gut feeling: If something sounds strange or too good, it is often not trustworthy.
- Block and report suspicious accounts: Report fake accounts to the platform and block them immediately.
How do you recognize a fake account?
- Profile: Little or no personal information in the bio is a typical sign of an inauthentic profile. Also pay attention to the creation date. Marc has been registered on the platforms for many years.
- Profile picture: Fake accounts often have a standard profile picture or a photo that can often be found on the internet. Use the reverse image search. Pixelated or fake-looking photos can also be a clue.
- Activities: Too many likes, comments or messages in a short space of time? With fake accounts, there is usually not much time between the creation of the account and the first activities.
- Interaction: Little to no interaction with other users or posts. Bots usually concentrate on liking, sharing and retweeting.
- Copy of a real profile: The profile bears a suspicious resemblance to another account. Pay attention to the spelling of the name - is it incorrect or does it contain crazy combinations of numbers, spaces or underscores?
- Language: Watch out for posts with lots of spelling mistakes, bad grammar or repetitive phrases.
- Messages: You should be careful with very personal messages or offers that sound too good to be true.
- Number of followers: Either too many followers without real interaction or very few. Check the ratio of following to followers. If an account follows significantly more profiles than it has followers, this may be a sign.
- Contributions: Are the published articles authentic and credible? Is there little or perhaps no original content? How original are the texts?
- Links: Do the links match the theme of the profile? Are there a lot of links to suspicious websites in the messages?
Have you discovered a suspicious account?
This is what needs to be done:
- Compare profiles: Take a close look at both profiles and compare details such as pictures, bio information and posts. Subtle differences are often recognizable (e.g. a different profile picture or different spelling).
- Check the real account: Go to the original account (if you know it) and check if the suspicious account is a copy or just looks very similar.
- Avoid private messages: If the account writes to you, avoid replying immediately or revealing personal information.
- Block and report: If you are sure that it is a fake, block the account and report it to the platform.
- Ask friends and acquaintances: If you are unsure, ask friends or acquaintances whether they also think the account is suspicious.
Don't do that under any circumstances:
- Click on links: Do not click on links sent to you by suspicious accounts, as they could lead to phishing sites.
- Share personal information: Do not reveal any private information such as your password, address, birthday or bank details.
- Give in to the contact: Don't let yourself be pressured into responding to the message or doing something that seems inappropriate.
- Ignore the fake profile: Even if it is unpleasant, you should not simply ignore it, but report the account to protect other users.
Please be critical and even more important: report the account to the social media platform. This is the only way you can protect yourself and others from the dangers.
Have you already interacted with a fake account?
If you have fallen victim to a fake account, you should definitely take action! It is understandable that you feel overwhelmed in this situation. But the quicker you react, the better you can contain the damage.
1. block the fake account
- Report and block the fake account: Inform the platform (e.g. Facebook, Instagram etc.) about the fraudulent account and block it.
- Change your passwords: Immediately reset your passwords for all affected accounts (email, social media, online banking) and, if possible, activate two-factor authentication.
2. contact your bank
- Report the transfer: Contact your bank or the payment service provider where you transferred the money immediately. Explain the incident and ask whether a chargeback or reversal of the transaction is still possible.
- Check your account transactions: Also look at any other payments or suspicious activity that you may have missed and inform your bank.
3. report the incident to the police
- Report fraud: You should report the incident to the police, especially if the financial loss is involved. Many countries have specialized departments for cybercrime.
- Collect evidence: Have all evidence such as messages, screenshots and transaction details ready to help the police identify the fraudster.
4. inform your contacts
- Warning to friends and family: Inform your friends, family or colleagues that your account has been hacked or misused. This way, they can protect themselves from possible phishing attempts or other fraudulent activities.
5. learn from the incident
- Take security precautions: Review your privacy and security settings on social media and other platforms to minimize future risks. Make sure you stop sharing sensitive information with strangers. Use 2-factor authentication and a password manager (with computer-generated, complex and unique passwords for each of your accounts).
Further security tips can be found in our privacy manual, which you can download here:
https://www.friedrich-partner.de/privacy-handbuch