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Cybersquatting's Latest Incarnation: the Fake Facebook Profile

by Dan Reilly on April 24, 2009 at 01:52 PM



Remember the days when people would buy up a domain name like "pizza.com," hoping that a company would come along and pay a hefty sum for it? Well, the same tactic is being used on Facebook -- only with the site's public profiles being claimed and then sold to companies.

According to Nick O'Neill at AllFacebook, Facebook users are following in the footsteps of cyber squatters, finding ways to rake in the dough with public profiles. While you can't exactly create a page for a product like Doritos, for example (You must be an "official representative" of the company, according to Facebook's rules), you can get around many of the site's limitations with a bit of creativity. Specifically, you can create a generic fan page that resembles the official page of the product or company in question. If you create the right profile, you can get millions of fans and have your updates appear in their newsfeeds -- a goldmine for any corporation.

So, what's the payoff? O'Neill claims that companies might shell out tens of thousands of dollars for public profiles, or $.05 for each Facebook user that has befriended the page in question since Facebook's redesign. If you have any ideas for a good public profile, we'd say now is the time to post it, since we'd assume that Facebook will eventually put more restrictions on this practice -- most likely in a way that makes them more money. Whether or not you think this Web-speculation is dishonest, it's at least a way to make money on a social network without resorting to blackmail. [From: AllFacebook]

Tags: business, cybersquatting, facebook, money, top

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