Here’s a helpful Facebook tip if someone ever tries to impersonate you or someone you know online. I know of a few cases where scammers have used the names of deceased people to start Facebook accounts. Another I’m familiar with involved someone who was running for office. Someone who didn’t like the candidate set up a fake account in his name and posted all manner of outrageous things that were attributed to the actual candidate.
The most disturbing case I know involved a friend and former co-worker where a stranger with some obvious mental health issues, used not only her name, but photos of her husband and baby to impersonate her on line. The disturbed woman had begun to believe that my friend was impersonating her.
So what can you do if something like this happens to you? Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to report this.
Go to the profile you believe to be fake and click the icon with the three dots.
Choose Report from the drop-down menu.
Then select Report this account.
You can then select why you want to block the account. Either the person is impersonating you or someone you know or perhaps they’re using the name of a character or business that you have the rights to.
It may take Facebook some time to get around to investigating, but it’s a good first step. Also, it’s not a bad idea to report something like this to the police, especially if it appears someone is impersonating you for some type of financial gain.
~ Cynthia
I’ve had this happen, reported it several times as did some of my friends. It’s now over 1 year and the fake page is still there. Don’t count on Facebook to take it seriously or actually do anything about it.
FB once closed my account down because someone tried to sign into it from Poland, and I only signed into my account from the USA. They did good!