Detecting impersonation on a social network

• US 8,225,413 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2009
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Bogart, Colin M., De, Arijit, Collins, Caitlin S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Goodchild, William
• Application Number:
  US12/495,099
• Time in Patent Office: 1,113 Days
• Field of Search: 726/26, 726/22
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/316 by observing the pattern of computer usage, e.g. typical user behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes

Abstract

In one implementation, a method includes receiving a claim that identifies a first user profile page as allegedly impersonating a second user profile page on a social network, and retrieving first information associated with the first user profile page and second information associated with the second user profile page. The method can also include comparing the first information and the second information to identify indicators of impersonation. The method can further include, based upon the identified indicators of impersonation, determining that the first user profile page is likely impersonating the second user profile page on the social network, wherein first user profile page is determined to be likely impersonating the second user profile page when the first and second user profile pages are determined to be similar to each other; and returning a flag indicating that the first user profile page is likely impersonating the second user profile page.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving at a server system a claim that identifies a first user profile page on a social network as allegedly impersonating a second user profile page on the social network;

retrieving by the server system first information associated with the first user profile page and second information associated with the second user profile page;

comparing by the server system the first information and the second information to identify indicators of impersonation, wherein comparing the first information and the second information to identify indicators of impersonation comprises identifying similarities of elements on the first user profile page and corresponding elements on the second user profile page;

based upon the identified indicators of impersonation, determining that the first user profile page is likely impersonating the second user profile page on the social network, wherein first user profile page is determined to be likely impersonating the second user profile page when the first and second user profile pages are determined to be similar to each other; and

returning by the server system a flag indicating that the first user profile page is likely impersonating the second user profile page.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing by the server system the first information and the second information to identify indicators contrary to impersonation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein an indicator contrary to impersonation comprises the first information including a first field of the first user profile page that is similar to and pre-dates a second field of the second user profile page that is included in the second information.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein an indicator contrary to impersonation comprises the first information including a first image of the first user profile page that is similar to and pre-dates a second image of the second user profile page that is included in the second information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the identified indicators of impersonation comprises the first information including a first level of activity on the social network associated with the first user profile page that is less than a second level of activity on the social network associated with the second user profile page that is included in the second information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a level of activity on the social network associated with a user profile page is based on at least one of the following:

a number of messages sent and received using the user profile page, a number of fans of the user profile page, a number of times the user profile page has been flagged for review by other users of the social network, and a number of acquaintance relationships the user profile page has with other users of the social network.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing the first information associated with first user profile page for additional indicators of impersonation.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein one of the additional indicators of impersonation comprises the first information including content that defames the second user profile page.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises first fields of the first user profile page and the second information comprises second fields of the second user profile page.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises first images of the first user profile page and the second information comprises second images of the second user profile page.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the identified indicators of impersonation comprises the first information including a first field of the first user profile page that is similar to and post-dates a second field of the second user profile page that is included in the second information.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the identified indicators of impersonation comprises the first information including a first image of the first user profile page that is similar to and post-dates a second image of the second user profile page that is included in the second information.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the identified indicators of impersonation comprises the first information including first contact information for the first user profile page that is similar to and post-dates second contact information for the second user profile page that is included in the second information.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the identified indicators of impersonation comprises the first information including membership in a community on the social network by the first user profile page that is the same as and post-dates membership in the community on the social by the second user profile page that is included in the second information.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising verifying that the claim was made by a user who corresponds to the second user profile page.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising

scoring the identified indicators of impersonation based upon how strongly impersonation is indicated;

and

computing an overall match score by aggregating the scores for each of the identified indicators of impersonation, wherein determining that the first user profile page is impersonating the second user profile page on the social network comprises determining that the match score meets a threshold score for impersonation.

17. A system for identifying impersonation of a user profile page on a social network, the system comprising:

one or more servers;

an interface to the one or more servers to receive a claim that identifies a first user profile page on a social network as allegedly impersonating a second user profile page on the social network and to return a flag indicating that the first user profile page is likely impersonating the second user profile page;

a user profile retrieving component to retrieve first information associated with the first user profile page and second information associated with the second user profile page;

a comparison module to compare the first information and the second information to identify indicators of impersonation, wherein comparing the first information and the second information to identify indicators of impersonation comprises identifying similarities of elements on the first user profile page and corresponding elements on the second user profile page; and

an impersonation analysis component to determine that the first user profile page is likely impersonating the second user profile page on the social network based upon the identified indicators of impersonation.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein one of the identified indicators of impersonation comprises the first information including a first field of the first user profile page that is similar to and post-dates a second field of the second user profile page that is included in the second information.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein one of the identified indicators of impersonation comprises the first information including a first image of the first user profile page that is similar to and post-dates a second image of the second user profile page that is included in the second information.

20. A system for identifying impersonation of a user profile page on a social network, the system comprising:

one or more servers;

an interface to the one or more servers to receive a claim that identifies a first user profile page on a social network as allegedly impersonating a second user profile page on the social network and to return a flag indicating that the first user profile page is likely impersonating the second user profile page;

a user profile retrieving component to retrieve first information associated with the first user profile page and second information associated with the second user profile page;

means for comparing the first information and the second information to identify indicators of impersonation, wherein comparing the first information and the second information to identify indicators of impersonation comprises identifying similarities of elements on the first user profile page and corresponding elements on the second user profile page; and

an impersonation analysis component to determine that the first user profile page is likely impersonating the second user profile page on the social network based upon the identified indicators of impersonation, wherein first user profile page is determined to be likely impersonating the second user profile page when the first and second user profile pages are determined to be similar to each other.