Imposter account detection and remediation in a social networking system

A method comprising:

• receiving a request from a requesting user of a social networking system to establish a connection to a target user of the social networking system;
• retrieving a user profile associated with the requesting user including information identifying characteristics of the requesting user and information for identifying users of the social networking system connected to the requesting user;
• retrieving a user profile associated with the target user including information identifying characteristics of the target user and information for identifying users of the social networking system connected to the target user;
• comparing data from the user profile associated with the requesting user with data from user profiles associated with one or more users of the social networking system connected to the target user;
• calculating a fraud probability score based on the comparison, the fraud probability score indicating a likelihood that the requesting user is a duplicate of a user of the social networking system connected to the target user;
• and
• performing an action affecting the request to establish the connection based on the fraud probability score.