How to deal with a barrage of fake 'likes.'
December 3, 2012 1:27 PM Subscribe
My friend's son has a band. They've received a few thousand fake FB likes in the past couple of days. Any advice on how to respond, disavow or prevent?
All the band members say they've not instigated this (but I learned from watching "House" that everyone lies!). These fraudulent likes are potentially damaging. I've tried to research the problem, but most of my research has found people seeking lots of likes, not people wanting to disavow them.
All the band members say they've not instigated this (but I learned from watching "House" that everyone lies!). These fraudulent likes are potentially damaging. I've tried to research the problem, but most of my research has found people seeking lots of likes, not people wanting to disavow them.
My instinct would also be to just ignore them. Why do you want to proactively get rid of these likes? What damage are they doing?
posted by ocherdraco at 1:30 PM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by ocherdraco at 1:30 PM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
"These fraudulent likes are potentially damaging."
I think you need to clarify how so. I've never heard of anyone casting judgement on a band or other public entity based on the spammers that like the page.
Is the issue that they are posting spam on the page? If that's the case, they can adjust the posting settings so only "trusted" people can post, I think. I tend to just do a manual clean-up every once in a while to remove the junk posts.
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:31 PM on December 3, 2012
I think you need to clarify how so. I've never heard of anyone casting judgement on a band or other public entity based on the spammers that like the page.
Is the issue that they are posting spam on the page? If that's the case, they can adjust the posting settings so only "trusted" people can post, I think. I tend to just do a manual clean-up every once in a while to remove the junk posts.
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:31 PM on December 3, 2012
These fraudulent likes are potentially damaging.
Why? How? To whom? I don't understand the problem.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:31 PM on December 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
Why? How? To whom? I don't understand the problem.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:31 PM on December 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
Just ignore. FB will sweep them away eventually. This happens to me on Twitter, too. Spammers gotta spam.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:43 PM on December 3, 2012
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:43 PM on December 3, 2012
Hey! I manage a few artist pages and the # of likes, on its own, isn't a bad thing.
The issue comes when you start having to flag, filter and mark comments as spam. If that's happening (and the comments are marked accordingly), Facebook will take notice and the problem will go away faster.
posted by raihan_ at 1:47 PM on December 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
The issue comes when you start having to flag, filter and mark comments as spam. If that's happening (and the comments are marked accordingly), Facebook will take notice and the problem will go away faster.
posted by raihan_ at 1:47 PM on December 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
My dog's page gets fake likes. He also claims he did not instigate this.
I turned off the ability for anyone else to post to his wall and police any other weird activity.
posted by roger ackroyd at 1:55 PM on December 3, 2012 [11 favorites]
I turned off the ability for anyone else to post to his wall and police any other weird activity.
posted by roger ackroyd at 1:55 PM on December 3, 2012 [11 favorites]
I'm not clear what the problem is. A bunch of people over whom your son has no control claim to like his band's FB page...and what? Why is this a problem in search of a solution?
posted by dfriedman at 2:37 PM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by dfriedman at 2:37 PM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I have read anecdotes from people whose pages have been disabled or have had real fans removed. This kid was solicited by someone offering to remove his fake likes for only $140. If only he'd provide credit card information.
Also, we believe they're fake because they are from overseas and this is a (high school) band with a limited online presence. Plus they showed up in bulk and in a very short time window. I have some experience building a Facebook following and this looks/feels suspicious.
posted by bleeb at 3:41 PM on December 3, 2012
Also, we believe they're fake because they are from overseas and this is a (high school) band with a limited online presence. Plus they showed up in bulk and in a very short time window. I have some experience building a Facebook following and this looks/feels suspicious.
posted by bleeb at 3:41 PM on December 3, 2012
Anecdotes are pretty unreliable. Cross that bridge when and if you come to it. In the meantime, follow the suggestions of others here for managing the band page and making sure it doesn't become a spam bastion.
posted by kavasa at 3:49 PM on December 3, 2012
posted by kavasa at 3:49 PM on December 3, 2012
I'm sure I'm not the only one to wonder if that "someone" offering to remove the fake "likes" was the same one that put them there???
posted by metahawk at 3:58 PM on December 3, 2012 [6 favorites]
posted by metahawk at 3:58 PM on December 3, 2012 [6 favorites]
That's the scam yes. Just report the solicitor to Facebook and flag as many of the fake accounts as are feasible. Meanwhile dont worry about it!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:29 PM on December 3, 2012
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:29 PM on December 3, 2012
I run my library's Facebook page and I am sure that a number of likes are fake. Two prominent ones are Goal Less and Birth Mirth. They don't interact with the page or send spammy messages so I just ignore them.
posted by amapolaroja at 11:39 PM on December 4, 2012
posted by amapolaroja at 11:39 PM on December 4, 2012
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