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What to do about Facebook Identity Theft

Facebook · April 22, 2016

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So… My identity was cloned last week on Facebook.  It’s not the first time. Much to the amusement of my Wife (of 28+years) I’ve also had people impersonate my on sites like Match.com and Christian Mingle (really!).

I received a notification on my Facebook Business Page wondering if it was me.  The profile name wasn’t but all the pictures certainly were!

Alexandra Silver' Profile
Alexandra Silver’ Profile
Alexandra Silver' Pictures
Alexandra Silver’ Pictures

Whoever he is, he sure is a handsome devil! 😉
The profile pic I recognized from a Flickr folder from when I was invited by the US Coast Guard to go out on one of their ‘SWAT boats’.  Yes that’s a 50 Cal gun – and no, if you know me I didn’t touch it – although the others did!

My pics in Flickr
My pics in Flickr

The cover image was from an Early REBarCamp San Francisco – maybe the 2nd one?

No matter what, the bad guy grabbed a whole bunch of my pics and then created a new profile.

WILL FACEBOOK TAKE THEM DOWN?

The simple answer is yes.  All I had to do was go over to his fake profile and a few clicks later he was reported, a few minutes later and he was gone!

Here’s how.

Under the … Icon you’ll see a drop down.

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 7.20.40 AM

Click on Report and “Report this account“.

Would you like to report this

Next you’ll see a more indepth question. In my case it was easy, “This timeline is pretending to be me”

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 7.21.03 AM

Next click the Me box – or if you have found a friend who this has happened to you would click that box. In the case of an Elvis impersonator it’s up to you 😉

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 7.21.28 AM

Continue and you’ll see the “Submit to Facebook for Review”

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 7.21.43 AM

Once you’ve done that you are finished.  Here’s what happens next. Your request is not handled by anyone in this country. The notification is shipped off to a remote location in a third world country (seriously).  It’s there that they have a human being make the snap decision to either give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down. They do have special tools (like tineye) to check but don’t expect them to spend much if any time on your case.

If everything goes right, and it did in my case, you’ll have a answer back in just a few minutes.

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 7.46.35 AM

And that’s all it takes.

Now if you see one of your friends being spoofed on Facebook, take a moment and let them know so we can get the slimeballs out of there. (now if we could just do something about all the crappy marketers and politicos – right?)

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Mike Mueller
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Mike Mueller
VP of Happiness at AreWeConnected.com
A former professional hand model, Mike builds Custom WordPress Websites that rock!


He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, bought a cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and now,a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
Mike Mueller
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