This article is written by Aniket Tiwari, a first-year student at Law School, BHU. This article answers the question of how to deal with the offences committed through fake accounts & profiles on various social sites and also provides various solutions to protect a person from the fake profile.    

Introduction

For the convenience of the people, the technologies have been developed in such a way that the people can do most of the things by just a single tap on their phones. Once upon a time, people used to stand in a queue for hours just to pay the electricity bill. Now they can do all this stuff from their home through the mode of online payment. However, with the advancement in technology, there are several people who have started to misuse them. 

One of the problems that have arisen in recent times, is related to fake accounts on various social sites. The people, nowadays, make fake accounts in order to use it for various wrong purposes. Most of them are not aware of the fact that they are committing a crime by performing such activities. In this article, we will discuss how to deal with the problems related to these fake accounts and what can be done with respect to the field of law.   

Offences occurring due to fake profiles in various Social Sites

The whole world is suffering from the arduous problem of the use of fake accounts on various social sites. You all must have heard of the incidents where these fake accounts were used by various social groups in order to affect the election procedures of various countries. We all know about the incident which took place in the year 2016 where the elections in the USA were being affected by the use of fake accounts that were alleged to be made by a Russia based company. Here, it was alleged that the Russian Company tried to manipulate the people of the USA by posting messages against one of the candidates named Hilary Clinton. 

Russia was alleged to be affecting the result of the Presidential election of the USA. This matter soon became the headlines of all the newspapers around the world because these two superpowers are arch-rival of each other and if either of these countries affects the election process of another then it would be seen as an act of dominance. Also by doing such acts the country/group is also affecting the sovereignty of other nations and ultimately affecting the democratic structure of another country.

This is one of the major side effects of fake profiles. As it is the case related to the two most powerful countries in the world so it became a hot topic to discuss worldwide. However, it should be kept in mind that there are several other misuses related to a fake profile. In recent years, we have heard many incidents related to the inappropriate usage of a profile that is not real.

So often we hear about the fraud taking place by use of fake profiles in social sites or someone using a fake profile for the purpose of harassing a girl. These days cases of misrepresentation through a fake profile on social sites have become very common. The cases related to cheating through the fake profile have also increased. The cases of forgery and impersonation through a fake account have also been raised. Through this article, we will try to understand what are the offences one commits through some of the popular social networking sites.             

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Facebook

The social networking site which was used by us since our childhood is no safer nowadays. It is one of the largest social networking sites and in recent times its users have also increased drastically. It has a great population attached/ addicted to it, which can be seen from the fact that it has 2.45 billion monthly active users. But wait a minute are all these users real. In the past years, it was found that this social networking site has the largest number of fake accounts.

And the disturbance (incident about the election in the USA) about which I was talking at the beginning of this article was also because of this social networking site. Firstly, we need to understand that as it is a big platform, its impact on the people around the world is at a higher level. And secondly, it also has some major drawbacks or loopholes which are used by various anti-social groups to disturb society.

In recent times in our country too, the ambit of Facebook has increased in a very peculiar way. However, Facebook is being used for wrong purposes like making fake accounts and using those accounts for bullying someone, misrepresenting someone and for the purpose of defaming someone. There are various incidents to support these allegations on Facebook.

The incident which took place recently in the district of Sundargarh where the incident of cyber fraud took place is no different from one of misuse of a fake profile. Here the fake account of the Collector of Sundargarh was created by someone to dupe the gullible users. The miscreant used to send the friend request through his fake profile in order to trap the people, who would easily accept the request, believing that it was from the Collector. 

Once the request gets accepted the miscreant would then ask for costly gifts and financial favours by representing himself/ herself as the Collector. Here, we can see that there are many offences for which the wrongdoer can be held liable. He/She not only misrepresented himself/herself but also would be held liable for the offence of cheating (all the elements of cheating would be fulfilled once the property is delivered). Here the miscreant would be liable for cheating by impersonation given under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code.

The creation of a fake profile on Facebook and then using it for harassing women has become very common these days. These fake accounts are mainly created by males. I remember an incident that took place two to three years back where a woman was being harassed by the fake Facebook profile. This incident took place in Gurugram where someone created the fake profile of the woman on Facebook and started harassing her.

The wrongdoer uploaded her mobile number and posted vulgar and intimate photos of her. Soon the woman started getting calls on her mobile from unknown men. Here we can understand how the fake profile created on Facebook can be used for creating mischief. It makes one’s life miserable and it affects the peace of one’s life. This small act of wrongdoer can be at a time so heinous that due to frustration one can even commit suicide.  We can not neglect these types of cases because the result of them can be grave.

You must be knowing of fake accounts with the username ‘Angel Priya’ on Facebook. There are many fake accounts of this name on Facebook. I am not saying that all these accounts of this name are fake but most of them are fake which are made by the boys in order to create a nuisance. These types of fake profiles are created and then friend requests are being sent to a no. of boys and who accept the request, believing that the profile is of a girl. Many boys get deceived by these fake profiles and some of them even end up with a monetary loss.       

WhatsApp

WhatsApp, which was created five years after the formation of Facebook and whose parent company is also Facebook, is not lacking behind in any respect. This messaging app has more than a billion users. An interesting fact related to it which should be kept in mind is that every sixth person in this world is using this messaging service.

Due to this, it becomes vulnerable to scammers. One just needs to con a tiny fraction of these users to make a serious profit. The cases of making fake profiles in WhatsApp and then using it for illegal purposes has increased in recent times. The people even use these fake profiles to spread fake news and this often leads to waging war against the nation.

The incidents of fraud through the fake profiles in WhatsApp are also increasing in our country. There are scammers who also use fake accounts in order to spread malicious software. This software could be further used for spying on someone and collecting the information which could be used for sinister purposes.

There are many incidents which took place in recent years through the fake accounts and where fake profiles in WhatsApp have been used for fallacious purposes. The ‘Asda Whatsapp Scam’ which took place in the year 2017 is the very famous incident of misusing a fake profile in WhatsApp. Asda is a very famous British supermarket retailer.

Here, in this case, the scammers used to create a fake profile in WhatsApp and then send a message that conveys the fake news related to the voucher of the Asda. The scammers then used this message to collect the personal details of the receiver of the message. The retail market of Asda refused about such voucher.

India has the largest number of social media users across social sites like Facebook, Whatsapp, Youtube, etc. The year 2019 can be regarded as the year of fake news. The spread of fake news through various social sites has increased in the year 2019.

There are many major incidents which took place in India in that year, from the general election and Pulwama attacks to the scrapping of Article 370 there is the extensive distribution of fake news in the social messaging site like WhatsApp. The anti-social elements in the society make a fake profile in WhatsApp and generate a false message in such a way that it manipulates the person reading such a message.

The main motive of the culprit is to create a disbalance in society as these kinds of messages disturb the inner peace of the nation. Fake stories, hate speeches, and rumours spread through the WhatsApp have been directly connected with the various incidents of mob attacks and lynching in the country. There are many incidents where fake news about the ongoing government was being spread through fake profiles in WhatsApp.

These are the direct examples of waging war against the nation. There are many incidents where these fake news resulted in the agitation against the government. Thus, the one who is creating such a fake profile and then using it for spreading fake news against the government can be held liable for committing the offence of sedition or waging war against the nation.       

Instagram

Instagram is among the most famous social media sites and nowadays it is widely used by the youth of every country. The trend of online shopping is increasing among youth. Also, the cases related to fraud during online shopping increased. There are various pages/fake accounts on Instagram which are used for the purpose of selling certain products like watches, mobiles, footwear, clothes, etc. These fake accounts on Instagram give lucrative offers to the customer. Here most people get trapped by seeing the massive discounts on the products which seem to be genuine. 

For example, a person can not stop himself/herself from buying the product whose selling price in other sites seems to be 3x more than the price which is shown on the fake Instagram profiles. However, it ultimately leads to monetary loss. One of my friends was also trapped by one of the fake profiles on Instagram. He ordered a headphone that cost much higher in other genuine shopping sites. But at last, he was not at all satisfied with the quality of the product that he received.

There are incidents where the fake accounts on Instagram have been used for cheating by personation. Recently the Delhi Police arrested a man for creating the fake profile of a woman.  This man created fake Instagram accounts pretending to be a woman and using those accounts for the purpose of brand promotions. The man used these accounts for luring men and extorting money from those men. The accused was found to contact genuine companies in order to do brand promotion.

The matter came to light when the woman complained to the police that someone had created a fake account in her name and using the photos of her downloaded from the original account. The woman alleged that her photographs were also used promoting escort and also in prostitution sites in order to defame her. The accused was arrested under the charges of cheating and personation which are given in Sections 420 and 419 respectively of the Indian Penal Code.

Also, most of the people using Instagram are concerned about the number of followers. There are many fake profiles made on Instagram for the purpose of increasing the number of followers of Instagram users. The celebrity in India has huge dummy profiles following them. As the normal users of Instagram do not know about this concept of the fake profile so often they become disheartened by seeing the less number of followers on their profile. It is also one of the major concerns regarding the fake profiles in India.           

Matrimonial sites

Marriage is the process by which two people make their relationship public, official and permanent. With the advancement in technology, there are several ways that are available in front of people to select their marriage partner. The concept of dating or searching for the right life partner has also developed in a significant way by the involvement of matrimonial sites in this process. 

However, nowadays due to the greed of some people these matrimonial sites are also not safe. Often we hear about the incidents of fraud through the matrimonial sites. The matrimonial sites like Shaadi.Com, Jeevansathi are among the two most famous matrimonial sites in our country. Although these sites claim the use of extensive screening processes during registration. They verify the account both via email and phone number, then also it has tonnes of fake profiles. According to some reports, these matrimonial sites have more than 50% of the fake accounts.

There are many cases where one has posted incorrect information on age, marital status or religion in his account on the matrimonial site. These are the most common problems which arise in matrimonial sites. There are some people who also lie about their salary on these matrimonial sites. That’s why even if the couple got married (where one of the partners was lying through his/her fake profile), then also the marriage will not work out when the other gets to know about the lie.

In 2015, a man was found to have nine fake profiles in the matrimonial site and through those fake profiles he used to deceive the girls. There were allegations that this person manipulated more than a hundred girls. He used to make a very impressive fake profile and after establishing contact as a bridegroom, he used to befriend the girls through chats and calls.

After gaining the confidence of these girls, he used to demand money from the girls and tell them to deposit the money in the form of cash in a bank account. After collecting the money from these girls he used to disconnect all communication from them and further create a new profile to attract new victims. He also used to blackmail the victims through semi- nudes photographs which he used to take during the video calls.

There are cases where people realize that they are victims of cybercrime once they get married to fraudsters ( when they find that the online matrimonial profile of spouse had fake details). However, these fraudsters can be held liable under Section 66-D of Information Technology Act,2000 which provides punishment for cheating by personation by using a computer resource. Here the victim can be awarded the fine of up to 1 lakh rupees.  

The online matrimonial sites can also be held liable as they are working as ‘intermediaries’ and there are certain liabilities which are associated with the ‘ Intermediaries’ under the Information Technology Act,2000. These matrimonial sites can be held under Section 79 (3)(a) of the Information Technology Act,2000. 

Along with this, if the person feels cheated he/she can file under an FIR under Sections 415,416,417,418,419, 420 of the Indian Penal Code. These sections deal with cheating and cheating with personation.                

Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

The social networking sites where all the famous personalities are active is Twitter. Here all people come to share their opinions regarding a certain issue. There are many incidents that show how effectively this social networking site can be used for the betterment of society. But in recent times Twitter was flooded with fake accounts. Most of these fake accounts were created to increase the number of followers. 

There are other purposes for which these fake accounts are used by the miscreants. One can misuse it for defaming any famous personality. This usually happens when the opinions of two people do not match with each other. The problem of spreading fake news is also very common these days. These fake news are generally generated from fake accounts and then this news is forwarded through retweets.

There is also news related to the defamation of the President of the USA through fake accounts on Twitter. The cases of fake accounts on Twitter have increased in a very drastic way. In India also, some social media users created fake Twitter accounts in the name of ISRO and its chief Dr. K Sivan. It was done when ISRO lost its touch with Chandrayaan 2 lunar lander Vikram.

After using LinkedIn for the first time I found the site very authentic. But after going through an article, recently I found out that there are many fake accounts on LinkedIn also. It should be noted that it is very easy to make a fake profile on LinkedIn. It does not ask for any proof or confirmation of anything.

The verification process of LinkedIn is also not up to the mark. One can easily say that he/she works for a large company and gives oneself an impressive job title. LinkedIn does not notify companies about the new employee profile. Most of the miscreants use these loopholes on LinkedIn to create fake accounts. Some are using the fake photo of the person who does not even exist. 

They do it through sites like thispersondoesnotexist.com. Then they randomly start to connect to the company employee and they connect to as many employees as they can. They find it difficult to connect to the first employee of the company which they mentioned. Once they are connected with the first person then the process becomes easier.

After seeing such profiles of these fake users many companies get trapped in the illusion created by the miscreant. The users can get employment using this fake resume on LinkedIn. Further, it is easy to get paid connections in LinkedIn and it is obvious that after seeing the large strength of connection many companies also approach these fake profiles to endorse their brands.

From all of this, we can easily conclude that LinkedIn provides an illusion of trustworthiness. There are many problems with LinkedIn. Anyone can list themselves as an employee of any particular company. But LinkedIn does not provide the companies, an easy way to look after its employee roster. A person buys connections and due to these connections, many people/companies start to believe that the profile is real. Thus, LinkedIn helps to make the resume padding and makes scamming easier.          

                 

How to identify that it is a fake profile?

We have discussed almost all the offences which one could do through various social sites. For every problem, there is a solution and we will now discuss the solution related to fake accounts. So, one of the instruments of getting rid of the problem created by various fake accounts is by identifying these fake profiles. It is a precautionary step that will prevent you from being misled through fake profiles.

Every social media site has a different structure but there are some similarities due to which one can follow the same method to identify the fake profiles. Some of the common characteristics which a fake profile has and which needed to be checked are given below:

Name: Name is the identity of the person. People generally ask the name of another person when both of them meet for the first time. In any social media account, we must look after the name of the person and very often we will get some hint that whether an account is fake or not. Names that are characteristics of a real profile. These names are generally less popular. The real profile names are pseudonyms, shortened forms of names and nicknames. Some of the characteristics of fake account names are as follow:

• Names may be the combination of the most popular names and surnames. For example – Ram, Shyam, Priya(names) + Tiwari, Dwivedi (surnames) { this is also applicable for the names in other languages}.
• Names of famous persons or politicians. For example – Narendra Modi, Virat Kohli, Rahul Gandhi (the same concept can be applied for other countries also).
• Names using the term related to the social site itself. For example – Khiladi of Facebook, Facebook Tom.
• Name that are gaudy in nature.

Profile Picture and Cover Photo: After checking the name of any person in any account we must then check the Profile Photo and Cover Photo. These photos in any profile help to identify whether the account is real or fake. Following are the characteristics of profile photo in any fake account:

• Photos of models, pictures of a healthy individual, pictures of dynamic personalities. It is done for the obvious reason of attracting others.
• Photos of a single person in the whole account. It is one of the characteristics of the fake account.
• Photos that are very well taken from a technical standpoint. (Most real people will have a bad photo which must be taken by a generic camera. These photos are supposed to be taken at some family party and it must of the time not be a professional photo shoot).
• Pictures in which people are wearing extremely luxurious tuxedos/suits etc. It is usually done to pretend to be a businessman and deceive other people in order to steal money from them.
• The photos do not give the impression that they are taken casually during the course of life or holiday trip.

Through the content shared: The next step to identify whether the account is real or fake is by checking the content shared. Typical characteristics of the fake accounts when it comes to content which the users shared through these accounts are as follows:

• Date of creation of the account. Most of the fake accounts would not show the date of the creation of the account. These accounts normally hide the creation date of the account.
• They almost share no content.
• The shared content in the account seems to be fake. They are supposed to make it look more believable.
• The profile that shows the owner to be a businessman will have a post related to their scams. The typical example of this is the post related to loan offers, sometimes fake stories of losing both legs and needing money for treatment.

Mutual contacts/ friends/ followers: The step which would help to distinguish between a fake account and real account would include the checking of mutual connections which one has with the guy who sends him/ her request. So it’s important to check the number of mutual connections/ friends/ followers. Fake accounts will usually have less number of mutuals. However, it may not be 100 per cent accurate.

However, it is important to note that these above-mentioned features may be present or absent on both the fake and real accounts. You can never neglect the possibility that there is a real user behind the names of ‘Angel Priya’ or ‘ Rajeev Gandhi’. Also, it is up to one’s own choice which profile photo he/ she will have in his/ her account. We can not say that every account with a profile photo of ‘Virat Kohli’ is fake. Maybe this is the account of one of the fans of Virat.

The same possibility arises in the case of content shared. There are also high chances where one makes the new profile so this profile will obviously have less number of mutual connections/ friends/ followers. Also, it is important to keep in mind that the presence of one or more of these characteristics which are mentioned above does not mean that someone’s account is fake.    

Section 66D of the IT Act, 2000 

It is very evident from the prima facie appearance of these types of cases are related to cybercrime. It is important to note that there is no specific definition of cybercrime in any legislature. The concept of cybercrime can be understood as a combination of crime and computer.

The cases related to offences committed through the fake profile in various social sites come under Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000 deals with the cases related to cheating by personation by using computer resources. Section 66 D of the IT Act, 2000 can be read under:

“Whoever, by means of any communication device or computer resource cheats by personating, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to one lakh rupees.” 

This section provides that if a person represents himself/herself which is not real or represents himself/ herself as another person with fraudulent intent, then the victim can file a report before the Adjudicating Officer (appointed under this section). This section also says that the victim can be awarded a fine up to 1 lakh Rupees. There are rules under the Information Technology Act, 2000 which makes it compulsory for the Adjudicating Officer to hear and to decide an application in four months, and the matter needs to be decided within six months.    

If one is a victim of cybercrime then there is a legal remedy under the Information Technology Act, 2000 against the wrongdoer/ miscreant and intermediary. The victim can directly file a complaint before the Adjudicating Officer, Ministry of Information Technology. The victim can file a complaint on its own without involving a lawyer but it is advisable to take the help of a lawyer in the later stage (at the trial stage).

The format of such complaint is given below and this complaint needs to be registered in plain paper and certain fees are also required to be given (the number of payable fees is calculated on the basis of damages claimed by way of compensation).

Complaint Format

THE GAZETTE OF INDIA

EXTRAORDINARY

Part II

Section 3, Sub-Section (i)

MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY

(Department of Information Technology)

NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, 17th March 2003

APPENDIX

PROFORMA FOR COMPLAINT TO ADJUDICATING OFFICER

UNDER INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT 2000

I Complainant Particulars

1. Name of the Complainant 
2. E-mail address
3. Telephone No.
4. Address for correspondence
5. Digital Signature Certificate, if any

II Respondent Particulars

1. Name of the Respondent
2. E-mail address
3. Telephone No.
4. Address for correspondence
5. Digital Signature Certificate, if any

III  Damages claimed

Fee deposited

Demand Draft No.____________dated __________Branch_______

IV  Complaint under Section/Rule/Direction/Order etc.

V  Time of Contravention

VI Place of Contravention

VII Cause of action

VIII Brief facts of the case

 (Signature of the Complainant)

Solutions to offences committed by fake profiles

As mentioned in this article the offences through the fake accounts which are made in various social networking sites have increased in our country in quite an extraordinary way. The government of our country along with these social sites is taking various steps to cope up with these fake profiles. The government is in direct touch with these social networking sites to reduce cybercrime. 

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is running a program known as “Information Security Education & Awareness” (ISEA) for the same purpose. The main motive of this five-year plan launched in 2015 is to highlight the importance of ethics while using the internet and advice related to sharing fake news. “Cyber Shikshaa” is also launched by the Govt. to reduce Cyber Crime.

However, it should be kept in mind that the Government does not regulate the content which appears on various social networking sites. After the multiple incidents of mob lynching in the year 2018, the government had given two notices to WhatsApp, with second one warning that if this incident happens due to spread of fake news continues, then the government will treat WhatsApp as “abettor” of rumour propagation and it will be followed up with legal consequences.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has drafted the Information Technology [ Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018 to prevent the spreading of fake news, to curb obscene information on the internet, prevent misuse of social networking sites and to provide security to the users of these platforms. The new Intermediaries Guidelines will bind social media platforms like Twitter, WhatsApp, Youtube, and Facebook to respond to complaints regarding the content in a few hours against the old norms of 36 hours. 

The new guidelines under Section 79 of the IT Act will also require social networking sites to respond to reports from not only courts and government entities, but they have to respond to the reports of the general public. There is a rule which says that it requires ”disable access” within 24 hours to the content that is found to be defamatory or against the national security and other matters under Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India.

Facebook/ Whatsapp

These are the two most widely used social networking sites in the world. So if we really want to deal with the problem created by the fake accounts then we must put such restrictions on these social networking sites. Both of them have different problems and have different laws related to fake accounts. But we all know that the root cause of these problems is the same i.e. fake accounts. So, we will look at the steps taken by these social networking sites to deal with this problem of fake accounts.

The first step which one should take is to report the fake account to the service provider. Here service providers are Facebook and WhatsApp so we should report them. The steps to report a fake account on Facebook are as follows:

• Go to the fake account profile.
• Click on the cover photo and then select Report Profile.
• Then follow instructions regarding reporting a fake profile.

We can also report someone as spam in WhatsApp if we recognize the account as a fake account. Here are the steps regarding the same:

• Go to the conversation with a fake account.
• Then tap on “:” symbol that is located in the top right of the conversation.
• Now tap the “more options”.
• At last click the “click on the report”.

Last year when fake news was spreading through WhatsApp, then WhatsApp came up with certain restrictions on users to stop this spreading of fake news. One such restriction was put by limiting the number of times a WhatsApp message that can be forwarded to other people. There was a restriction that limits the number of forward to five only. This method reduces the spread of fake news in India. 

There is data which shows that Facebook has removed 2.2 billion fake accounts in the first quarter of 2019. In this report, Facebook revealed that it has removed as many fake accounts as there are real ones in the first three months of 2019.           

Matrimonial sites

The consequence and misuse of fake profiles on matrimonial sites have been discussed in this article. It becomes very important to remove these fake profiles from the matrimonial sites. These sites also follow a certain procedure to report these profiles and ultimately the matrimonial site will remove these profiles if they found the allegations correct. Here are the steps one should take to report such accounts:

• Open the profile.
• Select “Report Profile” and proceed. 
• Reporting a profile will ultimately block the fake member in the site.  

Instagram

The two major problems which are created by fake Instagram accounts are related to cheating by personation and related to defamation. Both of them are covered under Section 499 (which covers the crime of defamation and under Section 420 (which covers the crime of Cheating) of the Indian Penal Code. There are several steps which are taken by Instagram to curb these fake accounts.

If one finds a fake account where he/ she is pretending to be someone else. Then one can make a report to Instagram about the fake profile. One requires you to verify oneself while reporting any fake profile. He/she would require government id for this purpose. It can be done by the user of Instagram as well as by the non-user of Instagram.

Also, there is a rule of Instagram which prohibits exposing the private information of someone. One can report to Instagram if he/ she finds that his/her private information is being exposed. Here private information also includes posts that include your photos and videos. In these cases, Instagram will remove such posts that include your photos and videos. 

Also in November 2019, there was an announcement made by Instagram. In order to make the social networking site authentic Instagram has started deleting fake accounts. For this purpose, Instagram has unleashed machine learning tools to identify fake accounts.        

Twitter/LinkedIn

To address the problem of increasing fake accounts/ spam accounts, Twitter has come up with much tougher policies that will lead to removing these fake accounts. In May 2017, Twitter has identified and challenged more than 9.9 million fake/ spam accounts.

One can also report a fake/ impersonated profile on Twitter by following the steps given below:

• First, click on the help centre.
• Then go to Twitter rules and policy.
• Then go to Report Violations.
• At last, go to the impersonation of an individual or brand and file the report there.

Although there are many loopholes in LinkedIn and a fake profile can be easily made on this site, there are also certain rules and regulations in LinkedIn which prohibits the creation of fake accounts. One can report a fake profile on LinkedIn by following the given steps:

• First, click on the fake profile and then tap on the More option given in it.
• Then click Report/Block.
• Select Report This Profile in the “What do you want to do?”
• Give the appropriate reason for blocking the account in the “Tell us a little more” option.
• Click submit to proceed at last.  

Suggestions to the Companies to further tackle this situation

• They must follow a more rigorous step to verify any account.
• They must regularly see the working/ content in the profile that seems to be suspicious.
• They can verify the owner of the profile at the formation of the account. They can use the Government ID as proof.
• The government should be given the power to look after the content related to these social sites.
• Whenever an order is issued by the government agencies seeking information or assistance concerning cybersecurity, then the intermediaries must provide them with the same as soon as possible. 

There must be a separate department of these sites to stop fake news.

Conclusion

At last, I would like to conclude this article by putting my opinions regarding the issue of fake profiles. It’s not a crime to make a fake profile but it becomes a crime if we misuse these fake profiles. Although the government and these social sites are putting their best to cope up with these fake profiles. But ultimately we should understand the fact that these fake profiles are created by the people to satisfy their greed so it puts a moral obligation on the citizens of our country to stop making such kinds of profiles and misusing it.

References

1. https://blog.ipleaders.in/cyber-law-fake-profiles-social-media/
2. https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/news/5-dangerous-whatsapp-scams-you-need-to-know-about/ar-AAzsxDP
3. https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/gurgaon-man-who-created-fake-insta-profile-of-woman-arrested-1221971-2018-04-27
4. https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/twitter-addressing-fake-accounts-taking-tougher-action-on-abuse-4612161.html
5. https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2019/oct/13/fraudster-creates-facebook-profile-of-sundargh-collector-seeks-mobile-phone–2046782.html

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