What to do when someone creates a fake facebook profile

Jun 1, 2022

How often does one come across a profile on Facebook that is pretending to be someone else? The answer would probably be ‘daily’. This practice on the platform where someone pretends to be someone else, with an intention, to deceive someone is known as impersonation. Another great aspect covered under “impersonation” on Facebook is that if someone uploads any imagery on Facebook that is likely to deceive the origin of that imagery, is also covered under Impersonation. Anyone can report impersonation on the platform, whether they are being impersonated or someone they know. One can also report if they feel a public figure is being reported. While platform reporting is an option for the same but there are several other recourses, which are all mentioned in the following list.

1.  In-platform reporting

The simplest thing, which one can do on the platform if they come across any such issue, is to do the in-platform reporting. Just follow the following steps

• One just has to find the ‘3 dots’ below the imagery
• Select “Find Support or report profile”
• Then follow the on-screen instructions to file the report

To get the exact specifics of this process one can follow this link.

1. Report form

A rather direct and more affective approach to report an impersonated account is to fill out this form , through the portal provided by Facebook. It is important to note this is only for the situations where the victim of impersonation does not have a Facebook account or the thing is being reported by a Legal Guardian or an authorized person. To fill up an impersonation account form follow the hyperlink mentioned above or here and take the following steps.

• Select “Someone created an account pretending to be me or a friend”

• Select “no” to the question “Do you have a Facebook account?”

• Select either of the first two options of next question, which states “Is this account impersonating you?” , depending on the situation

• After this enter the Victim’s Name, their email address , The full name on the imposter profile(it is visible on top right of url), and the url to the imposter profile.
• After this upload a picture of the victim holding a valid government identification card ( like aadhar card or passport) , where both the face of the victim and the face on the id card are visible.
• Just hit send after that and impersonated profile is likely to be taken down within a few hours.

1. Privacy violation

While the above stated options are rather two specific choices and resources which one can take to report an impersonated profile, one can also take the recourse of privacy violation reporting. Technically, in these scenarios, the victim’s privacy is being violated as well as their personal data is being used without their permission. The following steps will be useful to remove a photo or a video that has been posted without the owner’s permission.

• The first step is to follow this link, which will lead one to a privacy violation-reporting portal

• Select the type of Content which one needs to report , whether it’s a photo or video

• Then select whether it’s a profile picture or any other picture.

• In the next step For India one needs to select “outside the Us”

• For better results one needs to hold the URL of the reported picture, as it will lead the platform to the said post”, otherwise it will be very difficult for the platform the remove the content based on the description. Therefore, at this stage select “ Yes, I have a URL”
• After selecting that, one will be bought to another window, where one will need to select whose policy is being violated. One needs to keep in mind that this portal is only available to people who re themselves reporting the incident or parents/legal guardians of kids below 13/ people who can’t do this themselves due to mental or physical disability.

• On the next step enter your details, enter the URL of the post, and hit send. An action is likely to take place within 24 hours.