A Shocking Look at Where Social Media Accounts Come From (and How They are Made)

Influencer Marketing is a $1 billion market, poised to double by 2019. There is a lot at stake.

Where do fake social media accounts come from and why should we care? We all know someone who has social media restrictions placed on them by work and they might make a fake account so they can feel free to interact online without fear of retribution from their job. There are also people who make social media accounts for their pets. Those are some of the more benign reasons that people create fake social media accounts. But there are probably more nefarious reasons to create a fake social media account, and that is evident when you look at what many of them are doing online.

Fake social media accounts are often created in order to gain access to personal information. Hackers know that if they can find out a few key pieces of information from you, like your date of birth and your mother’s maiden name, they can hack into things like your bank account or they can steal your identity.

But there are also social media accounts that are being made for the sole purpose of spreading misinformation. We’ve been hearing a lot in the news lately about the prevalence of such fake accounts spreading fake news that may have influenced the 2016 Presidential election.

Learn more about where fake social media accounts come from and why it matters from this infographic.