Facebook Disrupts Suspected Spam Operation

Facebook on Friday said it disrupted an
international fake account operation that was firing
off inauthentic “likes” and bogus comments to win
friends it would then pound with spam. Facebook’s security team spent six months fighting
to neutralize what they saw as a coordinated
campaign, according to Shabnam Shaik, a
company security manager. “Our systems were able to identify a large portion
of this illegitimate activity — and to remove a
substantial number of inauthentic likes,” Shaik said
in a blog post. “By disrupting the campaign now, we expect that
we will prevent this network of spammers from
reaching its end goal of sending inauthentic
material to large numbers of people.” The ring used accounts in a number of countries
including Bangladesh, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. The group tried to mask its activities with tactics
like connecting with the social network through
“proxy” servers to disguise where “likes,” posts or
other communications were originating, according
to Shaik. Facebook said the campaign aimed to trick people
into connecting as friends they would later target
with spam. The company said it had derailed the
operation early enough to spare users that fate. The leading social network this week said it has
started weeding out bogus accounts by watching
for suspicious behavior such as repetitive posts or
torrents of messages. The security improvement was described as being
part of a broader effort to rid the leading social
network of hoaxes, misinformation and fake news
by verifying people’s identities. “We’ve found that when people represent
themselves on Facebook the same way they do in
real life, they act responsibly,” Shaik said.