GOVERNMENT POLYTECHNIC THANE

Institute Vision:
To create competent technical manpower to cater Industrial and Societal needs.

Institute Mission:
We are committed to-

● Provide an environment that values and encourages knowledge acquisitions with

effective curriculum implementation.
● Maintain well equipped laboratories to develop industrial competencies
among the students.
● Empower and motivate faculties towards building their domain
expertise in technology and management.
● Groom all round personality of students towards leadership, self-
employment and lifelong learning.
● Promote Industry Institute Interaction through training and
placement services, continuing education programs, consultancy &
Technical services etc. for socio-economic development.

Our Core Values are,

Ethics, Equity, Women Empowerment, Safety & Eco-friendly Practices.

Page | 1
 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT

Departmental Vision:
To develop technical manpower in Information Technology by
adapting rapid technological advancement.

Departmental Mission:
We are committed to-

M1: Provide hands on skills with well-equipped laboratories.

M2: Train faculty & staff to adapt changing technology.

M3: Develop IT professionals with entrepreneurial skills.

M4: Inculcate ethical values, honesty, equity, women

empowerment and safety

Program Educational Objectives (PEOs):

PEO 1: Provide socially responsible, environment solutions to

information technology related broad based problems adapting
professional ethics.

PEO 2: Adapt state-of-the-art of Information Technology techniques to

work in multi-disciplinary work environment.

PEO 3: Solve broad-based problems individually and as a team member

communicating effectively in the world of works.

Page | 2
 Teacher Evaluation Sheet
Name of student : Tanisha, Mrunali, Kunali Roll No.:16, 20,27
Name of programme: Information Technology Semester: Sixth
Course title :Emerging Trend in Information Technology
Course code: 22618

Title of the micro project :− Study any Case of fake profiling. Identify.

Course Outcomes achieved:

➢ Describe Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & deep learning.
➢ Interpret IOT concepts.
➢ Compare Models of Digital Forensic Investigation.
➢ Describe Evidence Handling procedures.
➢ Describe Ethical Hacking process.
➢ Detect Network, Operating System and application vulnerabilities.

Evaluation as per Suggested Rubric for Assessment of Micro Project

Sr. Characteristic to be assessed Poor Average Good Excellent

No. (Marks 1 - (Marks 4 -5) (Marks 6- 8) (Marks 9-
3) 10 )
1 Relevance to the course

2 Literature Survey / Information

Collection

3 Project Proposal

4 Completion of the Target as per

project proposal

5 Analysis of Data and

representation

6 Quality of Prototype/Model

7 Report Preparation

8 Presentation

9 Defense

Page | 3
 Micro-Project Evaluation Sheet

Process Assessment Product Assessment Total

Enrolment Name of Part A - Project Part B - individual Mark
No. Student Project Methodology Project Presentation/ s
Proposal (2 marks) Report/Worki Viva
(2 marks) ng Model (4 marks) 10
(2 marks)

Note:
Every course teacher is expected to assign marks for group evolution in first 3 columns &
individual evaluation in 4TH columns for each group of students as per rubrics.

Comments/Suggestions about team work/leadership/inter-personal communication (if

any)
……………………………………………………………………………………………
…
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………..

Any Other Comment:

……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………
…

Name and designation of the Faculty Member: Prof. J.P.Sarode (Lecturer)

Signature……………………………………………………………………………

Page | 4
 A Micro-Project Report
On
( Study any Case of fake profiling. Identify.)

Submitted by
In partial fulfilment if the requirement for
the diploma in
Information Technology Department

UNDER GUIDENCE OF
PROF. J.P. Sarode.

GOVERNMENT POLYTECHNIC
THANE
MAHARASHTRA STATE BOARD OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION

(2021-22)

Page | 5
GOVERNMENT POLYTECHNIC , THANE
CERTIFICATE
This is to certified that following Third Year Information Technology
students have successfully and satisfactory completed their micro
project work, entitled “Study any Case of fake profiling. Identify” in partial
fulfilment of the requirement for diploma in information technology
academic year 2021-22.

Ms. Tanisha Bandhu Gaikwad. − 1901160118 − 16

Ms. Mrunali Hemant Jadhav. − 1901160122 − 20
Ms. Kunali Manoj Bhavarthe. − 1901160130 − 27

Prof. J.P.Sarode. Prof. D.P.Sapkal . Dr. N.N. Mhala

Subject Teacher Incharge H.O.D. PRINCIPAL

Page | 6
 Table of Contents

Sr. Topics Page

No. No.
1 Rationale 08
2 Aim/Benefits of Micro Project 08
3 Course Outcome Achieved 09
4 Literature Review 09
5 Actual Methodology Followed 10−16
6 Actual Resources Used 17
7 Outputs of Micro-Projects 18−19

8 Skill Developed/Learning outcome of this 20

Micro-Project
9 Application of this Micro-Project 21

Page | 7
1. Rationale
Detection of fake accounts on OSNs has attracted many
researchers and thusseveral techniques have been developed
using Machine Learning algorithms and byusing different
features related to an account. However, spammers are also
findingways to withstand such techniques. These defending
techniques have complicateddetection mechanisms, making it
necessary for the continuous development of newspam-detection
approaches. The main concern for detection is the accuracy
andresponse time for analyzing features.

2. Aim/benefits of the micro-project

The main goal of this research is to evaluate the implications of
fake user profiles. For the purpose to detect fake accounts on the
social media platforms the dataset generated was pre-processed
and fake accounts. Verified accounts allow (prominent) users
to verify their identity and to continue using pseudonyms, e.g.,
stage names such as ‘Gaga’. This is considered to be a security
mechanism against fake accounts .Moreover, users are asked to
identify friends who do not use their real names. We analyzed
human factors to get a deeper understanding of the procedure of
successfully integrating a fake profile into an existing friendship
network.

Page | 8
3. Course outcomes Addressed.
a) Describe Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & deep
learning.
b) Interpret IOT concepts.
c) Compare Models of Digital Forensic Investigation.
d) Describe Evidence Handling procedures.
e) Describe Ethical Hacking process.
f) Detect Network, Operating System and application
vulnerabilities.

4. Literature Review
SR Author Abstract Conclusion
No (Publication)

1 Ifath Shaheen This paper is We used this

(International the paper to
journal of contribution of understand the
innovative accounting, accounting,
Research And auditing and auditing and
Development) investigative investigative
skills skills.

2 Natasa This paper We used this

Simeunovic presents a real paper to study
(The European caseof digital the
Journal of forensic real cases of
Applied analysis and its digital
Economics) investigation. forensic.

Ozili K Peterson This research We used this

(International paper consisted paper to study
Journal of the procedure the
Accounting and of forensic forensic
Economic accounting. auditing
studies procedures.

Page | 9
5. Actual Methodology Followed
1. Firstly, the topic of micro-project was decided by us i.e., “Study
any Case of fake profiling. Identify.”
2. Then, we planned the whole process for completing the micro-
project and distributed different tasks with all the team members
accordingly.
3. Then, we started researching and studying all the Environmental
Issues and Measures to Control them various platforms like
Google, and have seen various videos on YouTube etc.
4. Then, we started assembling all the information in a series and
arranged it in a proper format for documentation.
5. After completing the writing part, we finalized the project and
sent it to the teacher for final confirmation and also to correct
flaws.
6. After the final approval from the teacher we created the final
copy of Report and submitted the micro- project to the Teachers.

Page | 10
• Introduction
Online social media is the place each person has a outlook then
be able to keep connecting their relations, transfer their updates,
join with the people having same likes. Online Social Networks
makes use of front end technologies, which permits permanency
accounts in accordance with to know each other. Facebook,
Twitter are developing along with humans to maintain
consultation together with all others. The online accounts
welcome people including identical hobbies collectively who
makes users easier after perform current friends. Gaming and
entertaining web sites which have extra followers
unintentionally that means more fan base and supreme ratings.
Ratings drives online account holders to understand newer
approaches not naturally or manually to compete more with
their neighbours. By these analogies , the maximum famous
candidate in an election commonly get more number of votes.
Happening of fake social media accounts and interests may be
known. Instance is fake online account being sold on-line at a
online market places for minimum price , brought from
collaborative working offerings. Twitter and Facebook are the
most prominent OSNs and are continuously being attacked by
spammers to steal personal data, spread rumors, and share false
news. These spammers sometimes also use automated pro-
grams called social bots that can act like humans and contribute
to spread nuisance on the internet. Another major problem while
using social networking sites is the fake accounts created with
different intentions such as to entrap or mislead people or to
spread malicious activities and because of these reasons it has
become very important to develop a mechanism to detect
spammers.

Page | 11
• Challenges
Challenges The previous studies infer that machine learning
algorithms are somewhat challenging for the reason that
attackers can create some patterns that cannot be trained by
machines. Many such challenges can become obstruent in the
detection of fake accounts.
The below section specified some global and local
challenges:
• Single user multiple accounts: Multiple accounts are
created and operated by single user for malicious
activities or any other illegal activities.
• Making system robust: To build a system which does
not get effected by adversarial attacks, or an attacker
that learns from failures.
• Difficulties in selection of features: Selecting and
finding features which are publicly available and are
effective in classifying accounts is another challenge.
• Heterogeneity: Features of different OSNs are unlike in
nature so collecting and extracting them is one of the
challenges we have seen so far.
• There can be some preventing approach regarding the
creation of fake accounts than only just detecting them.
• Integration of feature and graph based techniques are
done in only a fewer amount of studies.
• Real time determination of friend request sent by a fake
account.

Page | 12
 • Why Fake Profiles Are Created?
Fake identities in social media are often used in Advanced Persistent
Threat cases, to spread malware or a link to it. They are also used in
other malicious activities like junk emails/ spams or used to
artificially increase the number of users in some applications to
promote it.
•According to an article a gaming application supported by Facebook
provides incentives to the user/player of the application who brings
more and more peers to play the game. So, in the greed of incentives,
people make fake accounts
.•Huge amount of fake accounts may be created by celebrities or
politicians, aiming to show off their large fan base or may be created
by the cybercriminals so that their account look more real.
•Applications like in an online survey to get better feedback fake
accounts are used e.g. for the increment in the rating of a
product/application, fake identities are used by the company or the
owner.

Page | 13
 • How do you know if an account is real or fake?
It's trivial to create an account on most websites, forums, and social
networking sites. As a result, anyone can create a fake account that
appears to be that of another person, company, or product. Below are
the steps and helpful tips you can follow to help determine if an
account is real or fake.
➢ How to Verified account ?
Social networking companies are aware of the problems that can be
caused by fake accounts on their networks. That's why big social
network sites like Instagram , Facebook, and Twitter offer official
verification of accounts. A verified account has a badge check mark
next to the account name, indicating it's verified by a real person as a
real account. Below is a picture of four Donald Trump accounts on
Twitter that all appear very similar.

Real and fake Donald Trump accounts on Twitter

Page | 14
 ➢ The account on the far left with the blue circle with a white
check mark next to the name is the real Donald J Trump
account. Facebook and Instagram also has a similar check mark
for brands, celebrity, companies, and public figure pages.

➢ Additional tips in verifying an account

1. Using default profile picture or fake picture
If the account has the default profile picture (not a person) or is the
same as other accounts, it's likely a fake account. If you're trying to
verify if a Facebook account is a legitimate, you can also look through
their photos to see if more than one photo is posted. Often a fake
account has no photo or one photo they've randomly found on the
Internet.
2. Misspelling
An incorrectly spelled name is another common mistake and tactic
used to create a fake account. For example, in our above Donald
Trump Twitter example, you can see one of the fake twitter accounts
is "@donaldtrumpp" with an extra "p" in the name.
3. Is following more people than they have followers
On services like Instagram and Twitter, if a person follows more
people than people following them by a large percentage, it's often a
clear sign of a fake account. Often a person who creates fake accounts
create a script (bot) that automatically follows other people in the
hopes that they follow them back and increase their follower count.

4. Substitution of characters
Another common tactic used by fake accounts on Twitter uses
characters that resemble another character. For example, you could

Page | 15
substitute the "m" in "trump" with an "n" which is not going to be
noticed by most people looking at the name "Donald Trunp."

5. Addition of extra space characters

On many services, all that's required for a unique account is to not
have the same characters as another account. So, some users create
unique accounts by adding spacing characters like the underscore,
hyphen, and period between names. For example, "DonaldTrump,"
"Donald_Trump," "Donald-Trump," and "Donald.Trump." are all
valid and unique account names.

• Advantage
We can detect a fake profile so that the social life of people
became secured.

• Disadvantage
The fraudsters create fake profile with an intention of causing
harm to victim.

Page | 16
 6. Resources Required
S. Name of Specifications Qty Remarks
No. Resource/material
1 Personal Computer Windows 10 with 1
Desktop 4GB RAM
2 Software Any Online - -
Tools
3 Any Other Google Chrome -
Resources

Page | 17
7. Output of the Project

• Case :─ Creating Fake Profile

• State : Andhra Pradesh
• City : Hyderabad
• Section of : 67 Information Technology Act 2000 507, 509
of the Law Indian Penal Code

❖ Background : The complaint received an obscene e−mail from

an unknown e−mail ID. The complaint also noticed that obscene
profiles along with photographs of his daughter had been
uploaded on matrimonial sites.

❖ Investigation : A procedure to find the Digital Evidence.

The investigating officer examined and recorded the statements of
the complainant and his daughter .The complainant stated that his
daughter was divorced and her husband had developed a grudge
them due to the failure of the marriage.
The investigating officer took the original e−mail from the
complainant and extracted the IP address of the same. From the IP
address he could ascertain the Internet service provider.
The IP address was traced to a cable Internet service provider in
the city area of Hyderabad. The said IP address was allocated to the
former husband sometime back and his house was traced with the
help of the staff of ISP.
A search warrant was obtained and the house of the accused was
searched. During the search operation, a desktop computer and a
handicam were seized from the premises. A forensic IT specialist
assisted the investigation officer in recovering e−mail (which were
sent to the complainant ), using a specified disk search tool as well
as photographs (which had been posted on the Internet) from the
computer and the handicam respectively. The seized computer and

Page | 18
the handicam were sent to the forensic security laboratory for
further analysis.
The experts of the forensic security laboratory analysed the
material and issued a report stating that: the disk of the seized
computer contained text that was identical to that of the obscene
e−mail ; the computer had been used to access the matrimonial
websites on which the obscene profiles were posted ; the computer
had been used to the access the e−mail account that was used to
send the obscene e−mail ; the handicam seized from the accused
contained images identical to the ones posted on the matrimonial
Websites. Based on the report of the FSL it was clearly established
that the accused had : created a fictitious e−mail ID and had sent
the obscene e−mail to the complainant ; posted the profiles of the
victim along with her photographs on the matrimonial sites

❖ Current Status : Based on the material and oral evidence , a

charge sheet has been filled against the accused and the case is
pending for trail.

Page | 19
8.0 Skill Developed/ learning out of this Micro-Project
We learnt,
1. The concept of Digital Evidence.
2. The concept of Ethical and Unethical investigation.
3. Scope of Digital Forensics.
4. Efficient communication skills.
5. Working as a team member for developing c program.
6. Developing leadership qualities.

Page | 20
9.0 Applications of the Project
1. This project can be used in the implementation of Digital Evidence
in solving the criminal cases.
2. The project can be also used to understand the concept of Digital
Evidence.
3. The project can be used for data stored within electronic devices or
system.

Page | 21
 Conclusions
Fake profiles are created in social networks for various reasons by
individuals or groups. The results are about detecting the account is
fake or genuine by using engineered features and trained using
machine learning models like neural networks and random forest. The
predictions indicate that the algorithm neural network produced 93%
accuracy. In the future, there is a hope that new features make to
detect and identify easily like implementing skin detection can be
done by using natural language processing techniques more accurate.
When Facebook introduces new features then it will be easy to
identify fake accounts easily . Furthermore, we have human behaviour
and interaction between common user profiles and our fake profiles
and described the patterns we found. We also demonstrated that
profiles that do not display social activities and a high number of
friends are more likely to be perceived as fake than profiles that
display social activities and interactions with others. Moreover, we
examined Facebook users’ privacy considerations and gained a deeper
understanding of the connection between fake users and common
users. In the end, we discussed the correlation between the number of
registered profiles and the correctness of the user data and its impacts
on the Facebook business model. In this work, we also proposed a
training method to increase user awareness as a valid countermeasure.

Page | 22