By Gina Gomez
Mar 17, (THAINDIAN NEWS) It seems that the recent upsurge in the use of social networking sites can now come handy for the United States federal law enforcement officials. A justice department memo that was released recently has revealed that agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation have created fake accounts in various social networking sites with the aim of nabbing criminals as well as looking for evidences in a number of cases.

The documents that have been accessed by the advocacy group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation highlights the fact that undercover FBI officials have created fake profiles in sites such as Facebook, My Space, Linkedln and Twitter which is likely to play a significant role to know the whereabouts of suspected criminals by befriending them and gaining access to their social network. The 33 page document which is known as Obtaining and Using Evidence from Social Networking Sites further points out that such ventures can be extremely fruitful for communicating with suspects as well as keeping a track of the personal communication of the suspected criminals.

At the same time, the profiles of the criminals can be evaluated by the FBI agents to get an idea about their motives while also tracking their present locations and verifying the alibis that they furnish. Meanwhile, the manner in which the social networking site can be used to nab criminals can be comprehended from a particular case in which a culprit wanted in Seattle for bank fraud cases was taken into custody after authorities took help of his Facebook profile.