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Facebook Is 'Teeming' With Fake Accounts Created By Undercover Cops (nbcnews.com) 126

Posted by EditorDavid from the fraudulent-friend-requests dept.
An anonymous reader quotes NBC News: Police officers around the country, in departments large and small, working for federal, state and local agencies, use undercover Facebook accounts to watch protesters, track gang members, lure child predators and snare thieves, according to court records, police trainers and officers themselves. Some maintain several of these accounts at a time. The tactic violates Facebook's terms of use, and the company says it disables fake accounts whenever it discovers them. But that is about all it can do: Fake accounts are not against the law, and the information gleaned by the police can be used as evidence in criminal and civil cases. Investigators know this, which is why the accounts continue to flourish.

"Every high-tech crime unit has one," said an officer who uses an undercover account to monitor gang members and drug dealers in New Jersey and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid having the account exposed or shut down. "It's not uncommon, but we don't like to talk about it too much." The proliferation of fake Facebook accounts and other means of social media monitoring -- including the use of software to crunch data about people's online activity -- illustrates a policing "revolution" that has allowed authorities to not only track people but also map out their networks, said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, senior counsel at New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice....

Judges in New Jersey and Delaware have upheld investigators' use of fake social media profiles. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Cincinnati Police Department and the Chicago Police Department have publicly boasted of using undercover Facebook accounts in cases against accused child predators, gangs and gun traffickers. Following an outcry after a Drug Enforcement Administration agent created a fake Facebook account in a suspect's name to catch members of a drug ring, the Department of Justice promised in 2014 to review the agency's policies -- but the department did not respond to multiple requests to say what has changed. Several law enforcement agencies, including the New York Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, have policies that explicitly allow the creation of fake profiles, with some conditions -- including obtaining prior approval from a superior and limiting interactions with targets.... [P]olice agencies have been able to keep undercover accounts for years without Facebook discovering them.
After one successful ACLU lawsuit this August, a Memphis activist discovered that his local police department had assembled 22,000 pages about him and his friends.
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Facebook Is 'Teeming' With Fake Accounts Created By Undercover Cops More

Facebook Is 'Teeming' With Fake Accounts Created By Undercover Cops

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  • There's a problem with the fact that the police are ignoring the terms of service of course; in theory we would like to believe that cops don't disobey the law. But otherwise? What you do PUBLICLY on line is clearly available for anyone to see, so it's not unreasonable for cops to use this for intelligence gathering.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dwywit ( 1109409 )

      Lots of facebook accounts and groups are private, i.e. set to "friends only" or "group members only" - so I, in my smug absence of a facebook account, can't see what those people have posted - it's not really "public" - more like a private room at a bar. To become a 'friend" or gain group membership, the police are clearly lying. It's up to a court to decide how bad that is, when balanced against capture and conviction of offenders.

      People too stupid to perceive this will be caught - the smarter ones will fi

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bws111 ( 1216812 )

      What law do you suppose they are disobeying? Since you mention TOS, I guess you mean the CFAA. But that law specifically exempts lawful investigative, protective, or intelligence activities by law enforcement agencies.

    • ToS != "the law". At least not right now.
  • If you post illegal stuff to Facebook...you might be a moron. Out of the gene pool, please.

    • Re:Good (Score:4, Funny)

      by gnasher719 ( 869701 ) on Sunday October 07, 2018 @04:10AM (#57440426)

      If you post illegal stuff to Facebook...you might be a moron. Out of the gene pool, please.

      Not quite out of the gene pool, but in the UK one guy just came out of court and posted on FaceBook: "I think I've got away with it." That was shown to the judge who took it as a confession.

    • âoe If you post illegal stuff to Facebook...you might be a moron. Out of the gene pool, please. âoe

      Think a little deeper.

      Assume you do something stupid and the police are looking for you. They watch your FaceBook account to see if youâ(TM)re dumb enough to post to it.

      You donâ(TM)t because you know theyâ(TM)re probably watching.

      So, the police use one of their many fake accounts to watch and / or get cozy with your FB friends and contacts.

      One of your friends canâ(TM)t resist the

  • and other ne'er-do-wells, but the worry is that this is also happing to catch those who are not liked because they organise political protests that are entirely legitimate but just get up the noses of those in power or that individual cops just disagree with.

    We do have double standards about police behaviour: we expect them to catch crooks while behaving in a 100% morally correct way. I wish that this were true, I just don't know how realistic/practical it is, crooks don't behave in a morally correct way so

  • Aren't the Russian GRU and our Republican traitors being in positions of power the problem; the GOP "Deep State"?

    • Aren't the Russian GRU and our Republican traitors being in positions of power the problem; the GOP "Deep State"?

      There were two States (Delaware and New Jersey) mentioned by name in TFS. Neither is a bastion of the GOP. Four Dem Senators, 8 Dem Representatives, 5 GOP Representatives, between the two of them.

      So the problem doesn't seem to be a GOP "Deep State" thing, unless the Democratic Party is part of the GOP these days....

  • Good (Score:2)

    by DrXym ( 126579 )
    I hope they catch lots of creeps.

  • I'm trying to see what the issue. Part of the police's job is to investigate. They can't always do it by shouting, "I'm a cop!" from the rooftops. Sometimes they have to be more subtle.

    It's like people whining there are police who go undercover to arrest drug dealers. Um, yeah?

    • So you're at slashdot too now?

      You should read up on what police originally was. Sir Robert Peel and all that. It's quite quixotic, but we've got that optimism to thank for so much today.

      Then you might read up on the history of secret police, and decide if that's really something you want.

  • Welcome to Facebook! (Score:4, Funny)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 ) on Sunday October 07, 2018 @05:44AM (#57440566)

    Where men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents.

  • ... we always knew that most "teenage girls" on the internet were really middle aged dudes ...

  • The "lure" pages set by police won't be reported because:

    1 If they recognize it as fake, they won't want to raise their hand as someone who surfs that type of site

    2 If they don't recognize it as fake, their in jail with no Facebook access

  • On the legality of fake accounts (Score:3)

    by Mozai ( 3547 ) on Sunday October 07, 2018 @08:46AM (#57440914) Homepage

    "Fake accounts are not against the law..."

    Pretty sure they are in the USA Criminal Code: 18 U.S. Code 1030 - "Fraud and related activity in connection with computers" (a)(2)(C) "Whoever intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains information from any protected computer..." and the term "protected computer" is defined in 1030 (e)(2)(B) as "a computer which is used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication, including a computer located outside the United States that is used in a manner that affects interstate or foreign commerce or communication of the United States."

    If you are using a fictional identity to register with a members-only website, then you are certainly using "a protected computer without authorization," since nearly every internet route (not LAN) is an interstate communication, making almost every webserver a "protected computer," and the fictional identity is authorized for access but you are not that fictional person therefore you are not authorized when you claim to be someone you aren't.

    • Wait so now TOS having the force of law is a good thing? I don't care for police using fake accounts, or police in general as they exist now, but that's a terrible idea for which the problems should be manifest.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Uberbah ( 647458 )

        Wait so now TOS having the force of law is a good thing? I don't care for police using fake accounts, or police in general as they exist now, but that's a terrible idea for which the problems should be manifest.

        It's holding officials to the same standards they use for us plebs. Just ask Aaron Swartz.

    • You need to read the rest of the law [cornell.edu] because it explicitly contradicts your point:

      "This section does not prohibit any lawfully authorized investigative, protective, or intelligence activity of a law enforcement agency of the United States, a State, or a political subdivision of a State, or of an intelligence agency of the United States." (emphasis added)

      Hint: if a non-lawyer has a theory about how a common police tactic is actually illegal and you can't find any lawyers arguing it, you're probably wrong.

  • FB is private property. FB has said you are not permitted to use our service for this purpose. If the police tried to move into your upstairs bedroom to try and get evidence on a neighbor they would have to get your permission. How is this different?

    I could also see FB TOS saying that any law enforcement entity using our service without permission agrees to pay us $10000 day for as long as the account was active. Then send them a bill.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      It's like offering an apartment unit for rent. Someone signs the lease and they move in. Only later do you find out that they are using it for surveillance on the neighbors.

  • If you ever watch this show (which is often quite interesting BTW), you will note that homicide investigators often use Facebook as an investigative tool to find info on suspects and their acquaintances.

    The lesson, of course, is that if you are a criminal you should not be using Facebook, period.

  • Why is this word in quotes in the headline?

  • I'm okay (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I'm not a cop or in law enforcement but I've got 17 facebook accounts. I've been shepherding them along for a while and none of them have been shutdown. I don't have a use for them right now but in the future...

  • Would this not be entrapment? Consporatory? Since it is in a public forum, would it not be defamatory? Besides, police are here to enforce and uphold the law. This does NOT give them power to break laws that are on the books! If a judge were to give a warrant to break ANY law what so ever, should be thrown out of their position and every case should be re-reviewed. Police do NOT have the right to break the law. Impersonatiom of another is a crime. We call it identity theft. There are also commercial codes t
  • I have five moderator points for sale. I ask 15,000 quatloos each

  • Just because you don't have an FB account, don't feel safe. Someone may be impersonating you.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne... [dailymail.co.uk]

    https://www.timesunion.com/new... [timesunion.com]

    Go to Google search and enter the search string

    "Your Name" site:facebook.com

    Replace "Your Name" with your actual name. If your name is common, you'll obviously get some false positives. A similar search can be done for LinkedIn, MySpace, whatever by inserting the appropriate domain in the "site:" reference..

  • Well spies don't say that they are spies when they're doing some sort of investigation. Facebook really is full of people who are really unsuspected about how internet works, so you can't really subject to oppose in that matter.
  • Maybe 10 years ago it wasn't strange to get and accept friend requests from stangers. But nobody does that anymore nowadays.

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