Facebook trolls infiltrate Jewish community

ANT KATZ

These social media trolls are creating fake identities and profiles and, in that way, are intruding into the social media environments of South African Jewish individuals and groups. Their motive is not known at this stage, say Jewish security officials who are trying to get to the bottom of it.

However, an official working on tracing intruders this week – and who asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of the matter – said: “The motivation is, without any question, nefarious.”

We share intimate, sensitive and lifestyle details on social media, he says. Once on your friends-list, he says, “trolls will start chatting and move on to asking questions”. This could lead to people unwittingly assisting them.

Theories on the motives being investigated, range from swindlers who falsely believe all Jews are wealthy and want to engage with them, to terrorists – and everything in between.

Pro-Israel activist Benji Shulman says the first time he knew of an intruder being identified “was a case late last year with a fake profile of “David Katz”. It had been up on Facebook for a while, says Benji, and this troll had a small group of friends all of whom were “either Jewish or Christian and pro-Israel”. That was harder to identify, says Benji, and the profile was later shut down by Facebook.

The latest wave of “attacks” started up in the past few weeks. The first profile known to have been used in this campaign was that of a “Candice Freedland” – which turned out to be fake and was shut down.

However, no sooner was the fake profile shut down with the aid of Facebook, than it popped up again under the name of Minnie Berkowitz (see picture). That, too, has been shut down.

Philippa Bergman, whose husband, Darren, is a member of parliament, accepted “Minnie Berkowitz”, as her profile seemed to tick all the right boxes last week. Philippa is an administrator of a popular Jewish WhatsApp group, the name of which cannot be mentioned for security reasons.

The group did remove the person and report it to the Community Security Organisation (CSO) in Johannesburg. The profile was quickly blocked and subsequently deleted within days by Facebook. “Minnie” joined several private and group social media accounts and was reportedly making enquiries about other Jewish social groups she could join.

“Fake profiles can be used for various reasons,” warned the CSO on Wednesday. These, they say, include “information gathering by terrorists, paedophiles or criminals”. It is vital says the CSO, that one thinks before one accepts friend requests.

Nobody knows how many of these intruders there are out there and they may already be present in people’s social domains. The CSO also warns that one should never “share personal or sensitive information with anyone” on their social media profiles.

Social media users “often have a false sense of security”, warns the CSO, and even those who are not on your own friends lists, “can still listen in to your conversations via wall posts and general tweets, responses to other tweets, etc”.

They warn the community not to post information of themselves or tag themselves at places they visit. “It can expose you and give away enough information to enable unsavoury people to track you,” says the CSO, who view the matter seriously. They issued some security tips for the community to consider this week:

•           Only add people you know personally or are sure their profile is not a fake one. Just because you have mutual friends or followers, do not assume their profile is legitimate;

•           Keep personal information private, do not give out: your home address; your cell phone or home phone number; or your e-mail address;

•           Turn privacy settings on so that only friends can see your posts;

•           If someone strange asks questions about you, your family, your community or specifics about communal installations, immediately stop all interaction and report it to the CSO on 086-18-000-18;

•           Think before you post any photos; and

•           When posting photos, ensure the location settings of your device have been turned off.

One thing that all social media security experts warn is that users may well already have cyber-trolls on their friends-lists – and that they should assume they are being observed whenever using their social media accounts.