Fake accounts, also known as akun bodong in Indonesia, are social media accounts using fake identities for certain intentions. Such accounts are also often used to do crime acts, such as frauds and scams.
How to recognize a fake account
It is not hard to identify the authenticity of social media accounts. Below are several ways you can do to recognize a fake account;
1. Compare the followers and the following numbers
Fake accounts usually have a wide discrepancy of followers and followings. The number of accounts followed (following) is usually far higher than the followers.
But, this might also be found on real accounts. That is why you must also check the accounts following the potentially fake account.
Fake accounts usually buy their followers. Their followers are usually spam accounts.
2. Compare likes and comments with the number of followers
The next step to do is to compare the total likes and comments. Despite having many followers, fake accounts usually only receive few likes and comments. When you found several characteristics of BCA fake accounts here, do not follow them or believe any information that the accounts posted.
3. See account verification badge
When a fake account impersonates a celebrity or a known brand, you can easily check its authenticity by seeing if there is a verification badge beside the account’s name.
For example, Instagram. Famous figures usually have a blue badge as a sign of verification. Dispute that, do not get tricked. Fraudsters would deceive you by putting up a blue badge on their profile image.
4. Check captions and tagged accounts
Another characteristic of fake accounts is reusing captions for each photo or video. Similar things happen for hashtags used in captions. Moreover, strange sentence structure will also be typically observed on fake accounts.
You can also see the accounts tagged by the fake account. Fake accounts usually tag other accounts haphazardly. You might even be tagged by these unknown accounts.
You can also see the tagged photos for that account. If the tagged photos are suspicious, that account may be a fake account. For official information regarding BCA, learn about the characteristics here.
5. Pay attention to the photo or video quality
Fake accounts also often steal or use content from other accounts. That is why the quality of images and videos they post are of poor quality.
Moreover, the photos and videos that they post usually do not follow any specific concept. This may make the account’s feed look messy.
6. Find out more information about the account
Several social media platforms have specific features to provide you with additional information of an account. For example, Instagram has the About This Account feature.
By using this feature, you can find out when the account was made and any change in username. If the account is newly created or often changed its username, you should be suspicious. For more information about BCA official accounts, check here.
7. Sending direct message to request for personal data
Direct message or DM is often used as a channel for scammers to contact their victims. These accounts usually request personal data by offering to help customers in trouble or even to send certain prizes. BCA never ask for customers’ personal data, such as BCA debit/credit card number, card expiration date, CVC/CVV (3 digits number on the back of a credit card), OTP code, PIN, password, etc.
How to deal with fake accounts
A prevention method after knowing you are dealing with a fake account is to block that account. By doing so, the fake account would no longer be able to see or find your social media account.
If you find these accounts to be disturbing, you can report the accounts. To report to get a fake account closed, find out here.
If the fake account is impersonating BCA and request your personal data, immediately report the case to Halo BCA at 1500888 or through the haloBCA app available at Appstore and Playstore.
Remember, do not share your personal data to anyone and through any media. Be careful! #CariTahuBiarAman #AwasModus #DatamuRahasiamu