Fake profiles invade the facebook

Are you friends with Chewbacca? Have you been poked by AC Slater? \nIU students and students from other universities have created alternate www.thefacebook.com profiles to take their online experience to a new reality.\nNearly 40 members belong to the Indiana Chapter of the Association of Fake profiles. Sophomore Stormie Foust created a profile for Hogwart's potion master Severus Snape. \n"I wandered around TheFacebook one day and saw the fake alliance, and it seemed like an interesting thing to do," Foust said. "I'm a really big 'Harry Potter' geek, and Snape is one of my favorite characters." \nFoust said students all over the country have added Snape to their friend list, including Harry Potter (who apparently transferred to Harvard), Ronald Weasley, Albus Dumbledore, and Hermione Granger. Foust said the characters make comments on her wall that follow the Harry Potter storyline.\nRecent IU graduate Scott Johnson created profiles for Bruce Lee, Frodo Baggins and Chewbacca the Wookiee in addition to his personal profile. He said he got the idea from one of his roommates. \n"Creating more accounts help us waste time," Johnson said.\nHe said when creating the profiles, he thought of characters that people would want to befriend. He said Bruce Lee had a big following in the beginning, but Chewbacca is ahead now because the final "Star Wars" movie is in theaters. \n"It's cool to have a fake profile because you can poke people and message them," he said. "It's random and funny to be poked by Chewbacca."\nIU graduate Pete Schrock created Usher Raymond's profile on Oct. 23. He said he saw someone using an "@iub.edu" e-mail as his school e-mail, and found out how to create another account. He said he chose Usher because he recently had some hit songs. \n"He was basically on top of the world, and I just made that profile to honor him," Schrock said.\nHe said he receives friend requests from graduates of Usher's high school, North Springs in Georgia. "Oh wow! Usher, I love you so much, keep up the good work!" Schrock said a student told him.\nHe said for awhile Usher was "in a relationship" with Alicia Keys at NYU, but one day she dropped him without explanation. \nSophomore Jason Corcoran saw Usher's profile and decided to create one for AC Slater because he used to be a huge "Saved By the Bell" fan.\nCorcoran said students -- like "Lisa Turtle" and "Kelly Kapowski" -- send a message to Slater, asking him to leave birthday notes on their walls. Corcoran said he tried to include information from the show to list on his profile. Slater's listed interests include football, wrestling, cooking, and "hangin' at the Max."\nThe terms of use listed on www.thefacebook.com state: "Your profile must describe you, an individual person. Examples of inappropriate profiles include, but are not limited to, profiles that purport to represent an animal, place, inanimate objects, fictional character, or real individual who is not you."\n"Whenever we hear about someone who has created a fake profile or posted false information, we take a look at it," said TheFacebook spokesperson Chris Hughes in an e-mail. "If the accusation turns out to be true, we either warn the user or remove his/her account from the network."\nTheFacebook officials intervened when U.S. Senator and IU alumnus Evan Bayh's office became aware of his false profile. "Our office contacted thefacebook.com because the fake profile of Senator Bayh caused confusion amongst some of our constituents," Bayh's Press Secretary Meghan Keck said in an e-mail.\nGlobally, there are 109 profiles for George W. Bush, 49 for Ron Burgundy, and Jesus Christ is the king at 126.