Over 16,541,092 people are on fubar.
What are you waiting for?
I've been asked several times how i spot a fake and how I find out who they really are. So I figured I would make a list to maybe help prevent some good people for falling the bullshit fakes dish out.
There are two types of fakes (where user profiles and photos are concerned). There are the fakes that steal someones identity. They take their photos, name, and info and claim to be them. There are also the fakes that steal someones photos, give them a different name, and make up info.
I ALWAYS look to see if someone has a salute. If there's no salute I'll then look at their rank and joined date. Why? Some people level faster then others. If your a higher level with no salute then you've most likely been around quite a while. Plenty of time to make a salute. Lower level people without a salute that are OVER level 10, sometimes I drop them a message asking them why they don't have a salute. It could be any range of reasons why. I generally always suggest buying a disposable camera and getting the pictures put on a cd when getting them developed. Its fairly cheap to do. Don't you want people to know your the real deal if your going to spend a good deal of time on here making friends?
Next thing I look at is their photo albums. How many folders are private? Fakes tend to have most if not all of their personal photos in private folders. They do this to reduce the risk of getting busted. If you think about it, whats the point of uploading tons of photos of yourself and making them all private?
Next I look at the quality of the photos. I look to see if the photo is blurry, pixelated, cropped (you can tell by the size of the photo if it has been cropped or not), small in size (possibly saved from a thumbnail photo), and/or altered in any way. This generally means that someone has something to hide (like a copyright/watermark or profile user number that they got the photo from).
The second biggest clue (the first would be no salute) is if the photos are high quality. Photographs tell a lot. From looking at a photo I can generally tell if it was a webcam, old point and shoot digital camera, newer point and shoot digital camera, professional camera, cellphone, etc. If a user has modeling photos up but no salute then it is a bit obvious they are fake.
If you question someone about not having a salute, about being fake, acuse someone for being fake, or you've busted a fake and someone without a salute shows up and blocks you, its because they have something to hide.
Some fakes get their fake salutes verified, like bre. This can happen because a bouncer is new and isn't yet skilled enough to detect a fake salute. Sometimes the faker is good with photoshop enough to get it by the bouncers.
Be advised that not everyone without a salute is fake. Please do not run around acusing everyone that doesn't have a salute that they are fake.
I don't publicly bust anyone if they are under a certain level. If I do then it is because I've either gotten a lot of requests to bust that person OR I have a good reason which will be indicated in my blog busting them. I also do not EVER bust anyone that I'm not 100% sure is fake.
