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    83 Million Facebook Accounts Are Fake

    By Todd Wasserman | Mashable – Thu, Aug 2, 2012

    The number of fake accounts on Facebook is roughly the size of Egypt's population and larger than most of the world's countries, the company disclosed this week.

    In a 10-Q filing, Facebook acknowledged that a total of 8.7% -- or 83 million -- accounts on the network are bogus. Of that 8.7%, 4.8% are duplicate accounts, 2.4% are user-misclassified accounts and 1.5% are "undesirable" accounts, a.k.a. spam.

    [More from Mashable: Facebook: Better for the Planet than Google]

    The figure is a bit higher than the company's previous estimates. In a March filing, Facebook claimed about 5% to 6% of its accounts -- or 40.3 million to 50.7 million -- were fake. The company also says it bans at least 20,000 accounts daily and estimates about 600,000 accounts per day are compromised.

    Taking the latest figures into account, Facebook's latest claim of 955 million active users would be downgraded to 872 million.

    [More from Mashable: Discover Music In Real Life With Spotify on Tour [EXCLUSIVE]]

    BONUS: How the Facebook Profile Has Changed

    2005 - The Facebook

    Back in the days when The Facebook was only available to select networks, the News Feed didn't exist. Users hopped between profiles like this one.

    Click here to view this gallery.

    This story originally published on Mashable here.

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