Several of Bill Benson’s fake friends on the social networking site Facebook pretended to like his fake sports team by clicking a button yesterday, giving Benson a false sense of pride in both his own popularity and his Yahoo Fantasy Football roster.

“I wasn’t so sure about my team until I posted it to Facebook,” said Benson, moments before hitting refresh on his browser to see if he had garnered any new likes. “But then some guy I went to elementary school with ‘liked’ my roster. Next thing you know, three more people followed, from my cousin I haven’t seen in years to some woman my wife works with … even my friend’s dog ‘liked’ my picks.”

In addition to the multiple likes, one person, Benson’s high school science partner, complimented the roster with an impressed “Nice” in the comments.

“It means a lot,” said Benson. “I had four likes within a half hour, which is a real ego boost. It also confirms what I thought: my fantasy football roster is inspiring enough to motivate about 5 percent of the people I barely know to click a button. Life is pretty great sometimes.”

Heckler George