CANADA: Facebook fakers prey on students

Prospective university students in Canada are falling prey to a growing Facebook fraud as marketers set up fake academic groups to vacuum up their personal information, reports Paola Loriggio for The Star. After a sweep that shut down a number of fraudulent groups last month, a new batch has sprung up, targeting the classes of 2014 and 2015 - and experts say more are on the way.

The stakes are high - potentially years' worth of data and thousands of contacts in a desirable demographic. So high, in fact, one company allegedly tried to bribe and blackmail a student to help a scam. Hundreds of students were told in June to abandon fake 'Class of 2013' Facebook groups, many sporting official school logos. A sweep shut down groups targeting classes at more than a dozen major Canadian universities, including the University of Toronto, York, Ryerson and McMaster.

A spokesperson for Facebook said the company doesn't have statistics on people creating false accounts, dubbed 'squatters'. But she said the company removes the accounts when notified through the 'report' link found on each page.
Full report on The Star site