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Fake Facebook 'Like' Networks Exploited Code Flaw To Create Millions of Bogus 'Likes' (usatoday.com)

A thriving ecosystem of websites that allow users to automatically generate millions of fake "likes" and comments on Facebook has been documented by researchers at the University of Iowa. From a report: Working with a computer scientist at Facebook and one in Lahore, Pakistan, the team found more than 50 sites offering free, fake "likes" for users' posts in exchange for access to their accounts, which were used to falsely "like" other sites in turn. The scientists found that these "collusion networks" run by spammers have managed to harness the power of one million Facebook accounts, producing as many as 100 million fake "likes" on the systems between 2015 and 2016. A large number of "likes" can push a posting up in Facebook's algorithm, making it more likely the post will be seen by more people and also making it seem more legitimate.

34 comments

  1. Makes sense... by thomn8r · · Score: 1

    Goes along with their millions of fake users

    1. Re:Makes sense... by hey! · · Score: 1

      To say nothing of hundreds of millions of real users with idiotic opinions.

      Any man more right than his neighbors is a majority of one.

      -- Henry David Throreau

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    2. Re:Makes sense... by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Then Thoreau is a moron. It's absolutely possible to be more right than the dumb fucks on either side of you.

    3. Re:Makes sense... by hey! · · Score: 1

      By a "majority of one" Thoreau didn't mean literally a majority. What he means is that a majority of people around you can't overrule your personal conscience.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  2. Personally... by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    I like it.

    1. Re:Personally... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I always 'like' every post that shows up. Some people get really offended if you don't 'like' their posts and I really don't want to piss people off - kind of goes against the whole point of having a FB account. Once a day, usually after work and before dinner, I just go through and hit like on everything. It would be awesome if there was a 'like all' button - I'd even pay a few bucks to have the option on my account.

    2. Re:Personally... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do not think that what you post is what you get, when the links you post are being FILTERED.
      Facexit

    3. Re:Personally... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your joke is good and you should feel good.

    4. Re:Personally... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My dog just got hit by a car and died. :(

      +1 like

      Awkward...

      If you're like most dog owners - your neighbors are celebrating that now they finally won't have to listen to loud barking late at night.

    5. Re:Personally... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I always 'like' every post that shows up. Some people get really offended if you don't 'like' their posts and I really don't want to piss people off - kind of goes against the whole point of having a FB account.

      So ... you're a people-pleaser and a pushover? Got it.

      You know, I find it really offensive that you haven't given me $5,000.

    6. Re:Personally... by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Found the cat owner.

  3. yep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Facebook is as fake as CNN and that's Fake

  4. This sounds like fake news by tomhath · · Score: 2

    I haven't seen it on Facebook, so it must have been filtered.

    1. Re:This sounds like fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I dunno, but Donald Trump just lost 90% of his likes, so clearly it's time to declare War on Hollywood again.

    2. Re:This sounds like fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I dunno, but Donald Trump just lost 90% of his likes, so clearly it's time to declare War on Hollywood again.

      That's easy. He just needs to discuss how one-sided and out-of-control copyright law has become. He should push to restore copyright duration to its original 12 years or so. If that was fine in the era of the Gutenberg press, it should be more than adequate in an information age.

      While they would be kicking and screaming about it, that would be the best thing to happen to Hollywood (and music labels) in a very long time.

  5. Alternate Headline by JohnFen · · Score: 1

    Fake Facebook 'Like' Networks Render Meaningless 'Likes' Even More Meaningless.

  6. Like, who cares? by Viol8 · · Score: 1

    Seriously, does anyone over the age of 20 actually take any public posts on facebook at face value regardless of the number of likes they have? The wisdom of crowds is BS anyway - look at the endless succession of end-of-the-pier no hopers who win TV "talent" contests.

    1. Re:Like, who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The wisdom of crowds is BS anyway

      My own empirical observations repeatedly show that people are at their most stupid when they are part of a crowd. There is a direct relationship between the size of the crowd and the loss of IQ points of its participants. Likely this is because of the "lowest common denominator" factor combined with the egotistic desire to feel (however falsely) like part of something greater than yourself.

    2. Re:Like, who cares? by tsa · · Score: 1

      I often 'like' things just to show that I've seen them.

      --

      -- Cheers!

  7. More like goes along with CYA... by denzacar · · Score: 2

    Like... just as "representatives of Facebook" had to come out to the congressional investigation that they've "discovered" that they've sold "roughly 3,000 ads", from June of 2015 to May of 2017, for "approximately $100,000" to "about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages" which were "affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia."...
     
    ...their "computer scientist at Facebook" found these ""collusion networks" run by spammers" (not Facebook mind you... not their fault) "producing as many as 100 million fake "likes" on the systems between 2015 and 2016"... in a scam "users are knowingly entering into... to falsely obtain "likes.""

    Like... see... Facebook is totally NOT responsible for what other people do with their accounts.
    And you can't even imply that Facebook was somehow... I don't know... being criminally negligent with its security.
    Just look at how they "purged millions of fake accounts" and that whole 'nother "extensive Facebook scam involving fraudulent "likes" that Facebook said it had disrupted in April".

    Surely it's just coincidence that there's a paper out on "collusion networks" of "spammers" and "users"...

    A paper outlining the research was first posted Wednesday and will be presented at the Association for Computing Machinery Internet Measurement Conference in London in November. One of the authors is Nektarios Leontiadis, a threat research scientist at Facebook.

    ...the very same day Facebook comes out about knowingly selling adds to Russian troll factories trying to influence US elections...

    Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that the social network has discovered that it sold ads during the U.S. presidential campaign to a shadowy Russian company seeking to target voters, according to several people familiar with the company's findings.

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    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  8. Bogus? by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    All Likes are bogus.

  9. Re:PEDOPHILE ALERT by sexconker · · Score: 1

    Tell me more about this rug smuggling.
    Have you priced out a decent sized area rug lately?

  10. Fake fakes on fakebook! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Say it isn't so!

  11. Fake Facebook... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The story behind Facebook can be found in "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal" by Ben Mezrich, which "The Social Network" movie was based on. "The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network" by Katherine Losse takes place after the movie and from a woman's perspective that I'm currently reading. The most recent Facebook-related book is "Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley" by Antonio Garcia Martinez, who sold his startup and engineers to Twitter while getting a job at Facebook in a three-way deal, and developed the ad system at Facebook that tracks both logged in and anonymous users with third-party demographic data.

    1. Re:Fake Facebook... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We noticed that Christopher Dale Reimer is still posting amazon affiliate link spam on Slashdot.

      I am Nancy Guerrero and I am Director of Special Education for the Santa Clara County Office of Education. We use Chris' (a.k.a. creimer,cdreimer) picture in our document because he is the hardest case we have ever had to handle:
      http://www.sccoe.org/depts/stu...

      Our artists were inspired by the low carb diet that Christopher follows scrupulously for the small lunch box and by the picture linked below for the rest. I am sure that you will notice the similarities such as the bump on the side of his chest and more:
      https://www.cdreimer.com/slash...

      Please be easy on Christopher although, I am aware that some of our staff handling Chris post joke comments here and obvoiusly, the Santa Clara County Office of Education disapprove that behavior vehemently:
      https://school.discoveryeducat...

      But it isn't Chris' fault if he is the way he is. We do the best we can do with him and he is partially integrated into society. We try to cure his abnormal need for attention but he is kind of stubborn and won't listen to anybody.

      Thank You dear users,
      -Nancy Guerrero

    2. Re:Fake Facebook... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      your sound bitter, sweet tits

    3. Re:Fake Facebook... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Check those links; they are from user "cockeggs". That's not Chris, it's one of his more ardent admirers. I wouldn't have bothered registering an Amazon user name myself.

    4. Re:Fake Facebook... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It isn't a username, it is a tag a creimer can make up as many as he wants...