I completely disagree. I have a fake facebook profile that I use to access useful groups / access content from organizations that use it.

I would absolutely hate to use my real profile as I find the whole 'incoming' side of it intrusive and desperate.

The last thing is need is to have to deal with all the useless drivel people would be expecting me to take part in with a real profile.

I would also say that at least 4 of my friends do the same.

Don't confuse how you use fb with the overwhelming majority of users. We are not the average user.

Yes I have a few accounts too. But my mom, my sister, my hundreds of uni friends have incredibly personal stuff on their fb profile.

With all due respect, how do you know you haven't seen a fake profile?

Fake profiles can be quite elaborate.

  Fake profiles can be quite elaborate.

In social networking terms, "fake profile" usually refers to profiles that claim to be some celebrity. Friendster/orkut etc. are full of them.

You are referring to profiles where someone builds an elaborate fake character. I don't think those were ever that common.

Lastly, facebook always reports active users. I have a couple accounts with fake names that I haven't logged in for at least a year. I created them to test out something.

The only fake profiles I ever see are from other developers testing their facebook apps.