Method for detecting suspicious individuals in a friend list

A method is provided for detecting friend or potential friend candidates as being suspicious in an OSN. A processor is used to obtain at least one candidate as being a suspicious friend in the OSN. One or more risk factors are used in the analysis. Heuristics are applied to the risk factors with the processor. In response, a determination is made as to whether the candidate is a suspicious individual. The processor can be software, hardware, or one or more individuals can use manual methods, to do the analysis and make the determination.