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Case Studies | Information Technology | India | Volume 3 Issue 6, June 2014

Profile Impostoring: A Use Case on the Rising Social Engineering Attack on Facebook Users

Cephas Mawere ^[3] | Thabiso Peter Mpofu ^[6]

Abstract: Social engineering attacks have taken a new twist as a growing number of people use online social networking sites to foster social relationships among each other and market products. Of interest is Facebook whose users have exponentially increased; some of these users are prominent individuals with high influence in various communities like celebrities; philanthropists; religious ministers and non- profit organizations. Data retrieval from Facebook profiles is thus becoming a major tool for business which has led to most unsuspecting users being victims of deception. Profile impostoring; also known as identity theft; is increasingly on the rise and becoming an underlying threat to information security. The cyber perpetrators are creating fake Facebook profiles of prominent individuals who have a large following. Ordinary individuals are also not at their mercy. With such high pending risk of identity theft there is need to develop methods that help Facebook fans to automatically detect deception; identify imposters and get them arrested.

Keywords: Social engineering, social networking, profile impostoring, identity theft, information security, cyber perpetrators

Edition: Volume 3 Issue 6, June 2014,

Pages: 69 - 74

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