How To Spot Imposter Pages!
You found an awesome product on your feed and you want to buy it but you’re not sure if the page that’s selling the product is legitimate. Here are a few things to look for when you find yourself in this situation.
CHECK THE COMMENTS
Before you even journey to the page itself, scroll through the comments of the post. If a post has a few hundred or even a thousand reactions but only a dozen or so comments, it raises an immediate red flag. Another indicator is when you see a certain number of comments displayed beneath the post but the actual number is significantly lower. This could mean that the page has deleted any negative comments and left only comments from fake pages that make them seem authentic. There are times you’ll find one of those comments exposing a page’s inauthentic nature before the page gets a chance the remove it. They don’t stay up for long so the earlier you check, the more chance you have of finding one.
CHECK THE PAGE
So, the comments passed the vibe check but you still have a weird feeling something doesn’t seem quite right. Time to head over to the page itself. Look for a low number of followers from pages who claim to have higher end products that seem too good to be true. Quite often pages get “cloned” which is a process of taking the information, photos, and other reputable information from actual businesses in order to trick people into thinking they’re legitimate. Still not sure? Head over to the About Me or Page section to see their history. From here you’ll be able to see if they’ve ever changed their name, how many admins it has, and the country they’re located in. If they’re claiming to a beading business but they have six admins and five of them are located in several different countries from across the seas, there’s a good chance they’re not who they say they are.
CHECK THE IMAGES
If you’ve made it this far down then there’s a good chance that the page you have in question is locked down pretty tight or they’re posing as a personal page which can be harder to check-up on. Don’t fret. Take the photos from the post and drop them into Google. You can now reverse image search using Google Lens and it will find any duplicates of the image that exists publicly online. It only takes a few seconds and can even be done from your phone.
Identifying fake pages can be tedious, especially with how far some will go in order to seem real, but there are actual legitimate businesses out there who deserve the recognition. So, the next time you see a page in question, use these simple tips to put it to the test. Actually, check a few pages you already follow; they may not be what you think they are.