Enhancing fake profile detection through supervised and hybrid machine learning: a comparative analysis

Abstract

In modern times, social networks have become ubiquitous platforms facilitating widespread information dissemination, resulting in significant daily data generation. This increase in data production encompasses a wide range of user-generated content, which in turn promotes the proliferation of fraudulent users creating fake profiles and engaging in deceptive activities. This article aims to address this challenge by employing machine learning algorithms to accurately identify fake profiles. The research involves a thorough analysis of various user behaviors, engagement metrics, and content attributes within social platforms. The primary goal is to develop robust models capable of effectively detecting deceptive profiles by meticulously examining user activities and content characteristics. The study explores the application of robust methodologies such as K-means and K-medoids clustering, alongside supervised machine learning classifiers including K-nearest neighbors (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), Bernoulli Naïve Bayes (NB), logistic regression, and linear support vector classification (SVC), specifically tailored for the detection of fake profiles.