45 fake social networking account cases have been reported from the beginning of this year until October 2014, as has been revealed by India’s Minister for Communications and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad. This number has seen a big spike as compared to cases from previous years, barring 2011, which is something to be concerned about as a steady rise has been observed.
In the year 2010, only 2 such cases of people creating fake social networking accounts were reported, while the following year saw 45 entries. In the year 2012 and 2013, the number ran up to 37 and 41, respectively. These cases include those related to fake/duplicate accounts/profiles on various social networking websites.
Reports of such cases were made to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) by several law enforcement agencies active in the country. All this data has just been submitted in the form of a written reply to the Lok Sabha by the Minister for Communications and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad.
According to NDTV Gadgets who picked up this news from PTI, it has also been revealed by Prasad that most of these fake/duplicate accounts were successfully disabled with the help of those social networking sites which have their offices in India. Emphasizing on the borderless nature of the cyberspace, the minister said that this factor allows anyone open and post information from anywhere on the planet, without disclosing their true identity.
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In keeping with their own privacy policies, the social networking sites do not provide governments with authentic data regarding the number of such fake/duplicate accounts. No suggestions or counter measures have been mentioned in the report for the problem of fake social networking accounts.