83 million illegitimate Facebook accounts - it is hard to trust online

We were surprised to learn last week that there is an estimated 83 million illegitimate accounts on Facebook.

We knew there was an issue with fake Facebook accounts, like in many of the other popular social networks, but given the nature of  'The Social Network' - it's the place to connect with people you know, your family and friends - we did not expect it to be so high.

The BBC reported that 8.7% of Facebook's 955 million active accounts broke its rules. The bad accounts were made up of duplicates, pet profiles, businesses set up as individuals and 'undesirables' or fakes.

Every week we see the issues around online safety and trust grow. There has been an increase in identity theft and impersonation through our social networks, and a recent spate of stolen passwords incidents on LinkedIn, eHarmony, Pinterest, Dropbox and iCloud, to name a few, all increase our risk and vulnerability to fraud online.

It is a viscious circle and it's making it harder and harder to trust on the web. How can we really be sure that the person behind the profile really is who she says she is online?

At miiCard we are working hard to bring a greater level of trust online and when stories like these come out we always look to ways to help.

We want to know if you are worried about fake accounts and identity theft on Facebook and if you would like a miiCard app to prove your real identity to the people in your network.

Please visit our Facebook page, take the poll and share your thoughts.