Youngsters fake identity online to get easy access to girls

Internet-savvy youths are increasingly creating fake identity profiles to come close to people from the opposite sex

Devanshi Joshi

Monday, June 23, 2008

The anonymity Net affords to users has for long been in debate for its convenience and misuse. Critics found its faceless interactive attributes too shady and potentially risky. As if faceless was not bad enough, now it's come down to down right cheating and misrepresentation. Users are projecting opposite genders. Chirag Prajapati (24), an employee in private firm, has two accounts in a social networking community, one with his real identity and another with a fake one. In the fake profile, Chirag is a girl working in a call centre. She is a fan of Shah Rukh Khan, loves cooking and hates flirting.He says, "I have made friends with more than 100 girls with my fake identity. I have adopted the name 'Aditi'. I created this profile seven months ago just to be friends with girls. Girls will easily trust you if you are a girl yourself rather an anonymous boy. Sometimes I approach other boys of my group too with my female profile, just to play pranks with them.""I have joined groups like 'I Love Lipstick', 'Mascara', 'Long Hair' and other girls' interest groups to give my profile a realistic touch," says Ashish Sharma, a college student who created a fake female profile to come close to his classmates. "One classmate, whom I am virtually dating online, doesn't know that I am a boy. We chat online for hours. She doesn't talk to me in class, but she is a good friend of my fake female identity. I may be cheating her, but have never crossed my limits. I am doing it for friendship with her."Another college student Hemal Patel adopted girls' profiles from networking sites to create a female identity of his own. "Most girls will easily accept you as a friend if you are a girl. You can keep yourself anonymous in the virtual world. It's fun talking to girls by assuming girl names. I have a big list of friends in my profile, some of whom are known people while some are 'net friends' who know me as a girl," says Hemal.Talking of the amusing experience he is going through, Rishi Shah (23), an IT firm employee, says, that sometime ago, he created a profile named 'Suhasini' and pasted an attractive girl's picture as his. “A lot of people would call up my cell phone number asking for Suhasini, and I would have to fake the conversation saying 'she was away and would call back later, or things like 'she was away at Ooty with her boyfriend, call her when she breaks up'. A lot of friends too are using such fake profiles posing as girls."Psychologist Dr Vishwamohan Thakur says, "Boys create fake female profiles with the intention to come closer to a girl. In online world, they are able to hide their identity. But it can be dangerous, for one doesn't know when a person is up to serious mischief. Everybody needs to be cautious about whom they are interacting online and know how far to go."(Names have been changed on request)