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Published online 23 April 2009 | Nature 458, 1089 (2009) | doi:10.1038/news.2009.398

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Fake Facebook pages spin web of deceit

Stem-cell scientists are caught up in fictional friend network — but no-one knows why.

Lucas Laursen

In September 2008, Forbes science editor Matthew Herper and former Washington Post reporter Rick Weiss appeared together on a panel at the World Stem Cell Summit in Madison, Wisconsin. In late February, Herper received an invitation to 'friend' Weiss on the Internet social-networking site Facebook.

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  • we need more net police,i think.

    • 24 Apr, 2009
    • Posted by: Kunpeng Ge

  • The old saying about the internet is still true: "where the men are men, the women are men, and the children are FBI agents." While it is tempting to use these types of networking devices for academic applications, the fact is they are easily exploited for a variety of purposes. No one should ever trust an external site, especially one that does not verify who people are. The fact is, people lie, and the internet - including Facebook, Wikipedia, blogs, Twitter, and all other unmonitored, user-modified sites - should always be viewed with suspicion.

    • 04 May, 2009
    • Posted by: C Honeycutt