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Facebook Is 'Teeming' With Fake Accounts Created By Undercover Cops (nbcnews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes NBC News:
Police officers around the country, in departments large and small, working for federal, state and local agencies, use undercover Facebook accounts to watch protesters, track gang members, lure child predators and snare thieves, according to court records, police trainers and officers themselves. Some maintain several of these accounts at a time. The tactic violates Facebook's terms of use, and the company says it disables fake accounts whenever it discovers them. But that is about all it can do: Fake accounts are not against the law, and the information gleaned by the police can be used as evidence in criminal and civil cases. Investigators know this, which is why the accounts continue to flourish.
"Every high-tech crime unit has one," said an officer who uses an undercover account to monitor gang members and drug dealers in New Jersey and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid having the account exposed or shut down. "It's not uncommon, but we don't like to talk about it too much." The proliferation of fake Facebook accounts and other means of social media monitoring -- including the use of software to crunch data about people's online activity -- illustrates a policing "revolution" that has allowed authorities to not only track people but also map out their networks, said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, senior counsel at New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice....
Judges in New Jersey and Delaware have upheld investigators' use of fake social media profiles. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Cincinnati Police Department and the Chicago Police Department have publicly boasted of using undercover Facebook accounts in cases against accused child predators, gangs and gun traffickers. Following an outcry after a Drug Enforcement Administration agent created a fake Facebook account in a suspect's name to catch members of a drug ring, the Department of Justice promised in 2014 to review the agency's policies -- but the department did not respond to multiple requests to say what has changed. Several law enforcement agencies, including the New York Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, have policies that explicitly allow the creation of fake profiles, with some conditions -- including obtaining prior approval from a superior and limiting interactions with targets.... [P]olice agencies have been able to keep undercover accounts for years without Facebook discovering them.
After one successful ACLU lawsuit this August, a Memphis activist discovered that his local police department had assembled 22,000 pages about him and his friends.
"Every high-tech crime unit has one," said an officer who uses an undercover account to monitor gang members and drug dealers in New Jersey and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid having the account exposed or shut down. "It's not uncommon, but we don't like to talk about it too much." The proliferation of fake Facebook accounts and other means of social media monitoring -- including the use of software to crunch data about people's online activity -- illustrates a policing "revolution" that has allowed authorities to not only track people but also map out their networks, said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, senior counsel at New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice....
Judges in New Jersey and Delaware have upheld investigators' use of fake social media profiles. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Cincinnati Police Department and the Chicago Police Department have publicly boasted of using undercover Facebook accounts in cases against accused child predators, gangs and gun traffickers. Following an outcry after a Drug Enforcement Administration agent created a fake Facebook account in a suspect's name to catch members of a drug ring, the Department of Justice promised in 2014 to review the agency's policies -- but the department did not respond to multiple requests to say what has changed. Several law enforcement agencies, including the New York Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, have policies that explicitly allow the creation of fake profiles, with some conditions -- including obtaining prior approval from a superior and limiting interactions with targets.... [P]olice agencies have been able to keep undercover accounts for years without Facebook discovering them.
After one successful ACLU lawsuit this August, a Memphis activist discovered that his local police department had assembled 22,000 pages about him and his friends.
"Criminal impersonation is a crime that is governed by states laws, which vary by state. It may involve, among other acts:
"(1) assuming a false identity with the intent to defraud another; (2) pretending to be a representative of another person or organization; or (3) opening a bank account or securing credit in the name of another person without the other person's consent.
"The following is an example of a state statute dealing with criminal impersonation:
"(1) A person commits criminal impersonation if he knowingly assumes a false or fictitious identity or capacity, and in such identity or capacity he: (d) Does an act which if done by the person falsely impersonated, might subject such person to an action or special proceeding, civil or criminal, or to liability, charge, forfeiture, or penalty; or (e) Does any other act with intent to unlawfully gain a benefit for himself or another or to injure or defraud another".
https://definitions.uslegal.co...
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
There's a problem with the fact that the police are ignoring the terms of service of course; in theory we would like to believe that cops don't disobey the law. But otherwise? What you do PUBLICLY on line is clearly available for anyone to see, so it's not unreasonable for cops to use this for intelligence gathering.
If you post illegal stuff to Facebook...you might be a moron. Out of the gene pool, please.
...or with perception of police, or with the article's poster?
Look at this series:
"[...] protesters [...] gang members [...] child predators [...] thieves [...]"
I'll like to add one, directed at OP and at Editor: "Assholes".
Where the men are men, the women are men, and the 14 year old girls are undercover officers.
But what about the Chinese spying with this made up computer chip in severs of all major US companies? A little bit of domestic spying has got to be okay. /s
and other ne'er-do-wells, but the worry is that this is also happing to catch those who are not liked because they organise political protests that are entirely legitimate but just get up the noses of those in power or that individual cops just disagree with.
We do have double standards about police behaviour: we expect them to catch crooks while behaving in a 100% morally correct way. I wish that this were true, I just don't know how realistic/practical it is, crooks don't behave in a morally correct way so is it OK to allow cops to temporarily lower moral standards to catch them; fight fire with fire ? I say ''moral'' because moral behaviour is generally better/more-desirable than behaviour this does not break the law.
I don't know the answer to this.
Oldie but goldie..."Welcome to the Internet, where men are men, women are men and little girls FBI agents"
now any anonymity you had is gona go bye bye
and face plant has been doing this since it started
you'd be surprised how many of your FRIENDS are feds and cops lol
want to spread fud this is perfect......
Aren't the Russian GRU and our Republican traitors being in positions of power the problem; the GOP "Deep State"?
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
I hope they catch lots of creeps.
I'm trying to see what the issue. Part of the police's job is to investigate. They can't always do it by shouting, "I'm a cop!" from the rooftops. Sometimes they have to be more subtle.
It's like people whining there are police who go undercover to arrest drug dealers. Um, yeah?
as if we needed one in the first place.
Doh!
Not on any (anti-)social media platform and never have been and never will be.
Where men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents.
Crazily enough, that doesn't explain the many accounts of big boobied babes from bangledesh trying to friend me
I am surprised that anybody thinks this is new. And I am going to take a wild guess and say the law enforcement powers that be got their legalities honed long ago with AOL and MySpace for this sort of thing.
Your a pretty dumb criminal to post public stuff about your criminal behavior on a social site like Facebook. Or befriend a unknown or fake user so they could read your private posts. Unless Facebook is willing to shut down all fake users, I think the Police can do something similar to find criminals. Police have run all sorts of stings to catch criminals.
... we always knew that most "teenage girls" on the internet were really middle aged dudes ...
The "lure" pages set by police won't be reported because:
1 If they recognize it as fake, they won't want to raise their hand as someone who surfs that type of site
2 If they don't recognize it as fake, their in jail with no Facebook access
Most photos contain camera information unless removed that can be cross-matched.
A quick seach of potential 'f'riends' then google for other images using the same camera strings and serial - just IP addresses are not reliable...
You should get a snap of the undercover dude or his family. If not,smell a big rat. We have been doing this for years to waste and decoy police resources. With Google face recognition, snap the faces as they come out of the police carpark.
Icing on the cake is to re-edit nasty disturbing photos, and make it match the informants camera. Cops investigating cops - who woulda thunk
Sue police agencies under the "takings" clause as all of these fake accounts are necessitating action by Facebook to deal with their mess, which means this is a financial liability.
After a few billion dollar judgments, the cops will find the taxpayers demand they behave themselves.
Facebook accounts have no legitimacy.
"FB account" != "real person"
"Fake accounts are not against the law..."
Pretty sure they are in the USA Criminal Code: 18 U.S. Code 1030 - "Fraud and related activity in connection with computers" (a)(2)(C) "Whoever intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains information from any protected computer..." and the term "protected computer" is defined in 1030 (e)(2)(B) as "a computer which is used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication, including a computer located outside the United States that is used in a manner that affects interstate or foreign commerce or communication of the United States."
If you are using a fictional identity to register with a members-only website, then you are certainly using "a protected computer without authorization," since nearly every internet route (not LAN) is an interstate communication, making almost every webserver a "protected computer," and the fictional identity is authorized for access but you are not that fictional person therefore you are not authorized when you claim to be someone you aren't.
FB is private property. FB has said you are not permitted to use our service for this purpose. If the police tried to move into your upstairs bedroom to try and get evidence on a neighbor they would have to get your permission. How is this different?
I could also see FB TOS saying that any law enforcement entity using our service without permission agrees to pay us $10000 day for as long as the account was active. Then send them a bill.
people in the witness protection program do not have to give up there real name or even under cover cops.
I knew Facebook was full of Russian bots, Trumptards, and porn spammers. But it's also full of cops?
I swear the more cops that are around, the less safe I feel.
If you ever watch this show (which is often quite interesting BTW), you will note that homicide investigators often use Facebook as an investigative tool to find info on suspects and their acquaintances.
The lesson, of course, is that if you are a criminal you should not be using Facebook, period.
I assume Slashdot does not require "real names" for users, while Facebook does. So the police could set up fake accounts here on Slashdot with impunity and not get into CFAA trouble.
FIFY. Their userbase stats are a joke, I'd be willing to wager nearly half of all accounts are either fake or abandoned. Nice try, singling out police officers, though. Pathetic and naive, but nice try.
Why is this word in quotes in the headline?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I'm not a cop or in law enforcement but I've got 17 facebook accounts. I've been shepherding them along for a while and none of them have been shutdown. I don't have a use for them right now but in the future...
I miss the good old days of the Internet when men were men, women were men, and children were FBI agents. Those were simpler times.
Would this not be entrapment? Consporatory? Since it is in a public forum, would it not be defamatory? Besides, police are here to enforce and uphold the law. This does NOT give them power to break laws that are on the books! If a judge were to give a warrant to break ANY law what so ever, should be thrown out of their position and every case should be re-reviewed. Police do NOT have the right to break the law. Impersonatiom of another is a crime. We call it identity theft. There are also commercial codes that prevent this as well as breaking the terms and service agreement with Facebook. Which in itself is a federal crime. Many laws are broken with what the police are doing here. Police do NOT deserve a free pass! This is while they will attack the homeless, sick and poor. Steal from the homeless. Destroy the items a homeless person owned. Steal.from the homeless. Force the homeless to keep moving. No sitting or laying down. Preventing people from helping the homeless. Allowing serial killers to kill the homeless. Welcome back to 1936 Germany. Just before democracy fell and hittler took over. Right after the stock market crashed! Or as we call it, a recession! Welcome to 1984. Welcome to the hunger games! A war is coming! The homeless outnumber the military 2.3:1. We are the people and they are the machines. Machines break down and fall apart. Then you need to repair them. We are now at that stage of breaking and needing repair. Because, if you continue to use a broken machine, you eventually need to throw it away. How far must we let it break until we try to fix it? The police are the first line of the machines. They took the oath! They have sworn to be a cog. Our society has fallen, and all we do is point fingers. We have become lazy and complacent. We have Stockholm syndrome for our government. They do not help us. They cause fear in the people. This is how they rule. They will make up laws to protect themselves. Our freedom of speech and right to protest is under attack. The second amendment is under attack. Our religions are under attack. The foundations of the Constitution Our children are under attack. Our neighbors are under attack. Our allies are under attack. We are no longer allowed to pursue happiness. We are only allowed to propagate the fear unto our children and grandchildren children. We are at a impasse. We have technology that could fix a lot. Instead we use fear to keep them hidden. Red tape to keep them out of commercial use. Here's a kicker you. My wife and I are homeless and as you can probably see. We do not fall under the stigma. We aren't crazy, lazy, drug addicts or anything you would think about the homeless. Well except for dirty. As showers are hard to come by. My wife has depression and anxiety. I personally have MS, Crohn's, arthritis and a lot of other ailments. We sadly panhandle to get by every day. It sucks. We get change and rock thrown at us from cars. Harassed online. Physically stalked. Photos taken of us and posted online. Many false statements made about us. A whole Facebook group that conspires on how to attack us next. Around 6,500 people in the town are on the group. So we understand a lot about the police and how they work. We have learned a lot about law and civics. We get pulled over all the time, just to harass and embarrass us in public. All because we should be ashamed of our situation! Ohh please, before you think we are being lazy by panhandling. Take a step back for a moment. Because of my ailments, I cannot find a "normal" job. My wife gets triggered by the fact that, even if she had a job, we would still be homeless as it does not pay enough to rent with. I personally am working on a few sites and trying to get us out of the hole with it. Sadly it takes time and money. Only one of those we have. Can you guess which one? Right, time. So I am working the slow route. We live in New England and are soon to deal with winter again. This is not ok for anyone to have to go through, just to survive! We had our daughter taken away from us before we became homeless. All bec
You need to read the rest of the law because it explicitly contradicts your point:
"This section does not prohibit any lawfully authorized investigative, protective, or intelligence activity of a law enforcement agency of the United States, a State, or a political subdivision of a State, or of an intelligence agency of the United States." (emphasis added)
Hint: if a non-lawyer has a theory about how a common police tactic is actually illegal and you can't find any lawyers arguing it, you're probably wrong. I'll just leave this guide about entrapment here, because it's the next bit of law people are likely to get laughably wrong.
> Entrapment is still entrapment, legal or not.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
It's a legal term for a crime. It has a legal definition. Some people think it means something else.
Then they arrive in court and they find out that the courts only recognize the legal definition. It's always interesting to me watch people who can't keep track of the difference between how the world is and how they wish it to be grappling with reality.
Never forget that!
Yes, you too can get off FB and laugh at this crap.
I have five moderator points for sale. I ask 15,000 quatloos each
Just because you don't have an FB account, don't feel safe. Someone may be impersonating you.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...
https://www.timesunion.com/new...
Go to Google search and enter the search string
"Your Name" site:facebook.com
Replace "Your Name" with your actual name. If your name is common, you'll obviously get some false positives. A similar search can be done for LinkedIn, MySpace, whatever by inserting the appropriate domain in the "site:" reference..
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
Well spies don't say that they are spies when they're doing some sort of investigation. Facebook really is full of people who are really unsuspected about how internet works, so you can't really subject to oppose in that matter.
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Maybe 10 years ago it wasn't strange to get and accept friend requests from stangers. But nobody does that anymore nowadays.
I hope they entrap each other in a giant law enforcement circle jerk.