Bogus user profiles are both part of many other scams -- serving as phony "developers" for the aforementioned rogue apps -- and a threat in and of themselves, Peck said. From simply friending people and stealing their information to spamming shady ads to becoming part of the "trusted friends" access recovery system and directly hijacking accounts, fake users pose a serious risk to Facebook.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

in Network World's Wide Area Network section.