Advice Needed RE Facebook imposter

[hackbike 666]

I have had it pointed out to me recently that someone has set up an imposter account of my natural name which isn't a common name and of which I am unaware of anyone in London having the same name as me,where this person claims to come from.As some of this persons 'friends' are from a messageboard website of which I frequent then I suspect the guilty party must be from the same messageboard.

I have had a word with Facebook about this but have basically got nowhere.

Can I copyright my name and then 'force' facebook to back down.(It is an unusual name of which I used to hate)It was the butt of jokes on this certain messageboard but as I didn't really bite for once it soet of died out apart from the fact of this facebook imposter.

I think the Facebook people are a bunch of )'s for allowing this to happen.

Has anyone got any tips and advice?

 

[dodgy]

Ignore it, who cares about Facebook, twitter et al. It's not real, it's fantasy.

 

[oxbob]

You have more chance of pi$$in into a force 10 and not getting splashback

 

[iLB]

Ignore it, who cares about Facebook, twitter et al. It's not real, it's fantasy.

thats clearly a ridiculous statement, rethink please

 

[dodgy]

thats clearly a ridiculous statement, rethink please

No thanks.

 

[iLB]

No thanks.

but you were wrong

 

[vernon]

but you were wrong

No he wasn't.

 

[vernon]

.

Has anyone got any tips and advice?

Don't lose sleep over it.

The fact that you have an unusual name is neither here nor there; there are lots of duplications of names on Facebook.

I'd not be in the slightest bit worried if my ID ( I too have a unique name) was duplicated - I'd be flattered to think that someone wants to waste enough of their time doing something even more pointless than having a regularly maintained Facebook account.

 

[Fnaar]

I agree with ilovebikes. If I came on here, pretending to be you, and started insulting people, writing racist stuff, etc... there'd be a problem. It can have repercussions.

 

[buggi]

Change your name on Facebook to John Smith

 

[vernon]

I agree with ilovebikes. If I came on here, pretending to be you, and started insulting people, writing racist stuff, etc... there'd be a problem. It can have repercussions.

There's no mention of those activities taking place.

Still think it's a storm in a teacup.

Why not create several dozen imposter accounts to cloud the issue abit?

 

[Rob S]

Of course Facebook is real.

The main problem would be for potential new friends rather than existing ones. You can't expect Facebook to do anything about your situation but it does offer various security levels which should restrict the damage this person may do. The first thing I would do is limit your profile visibilty and list of friends to just friends...or if you are in the process of regularly acquiring friends (perhaps because you have only just joined) set it to 'friends and their friends'. I would also restrict yourself to the one profile pic for the time being. Although it depends how malicious this imposter it is it would make it easier for him to appear genuinely you if he saved one of your old profile pics and used it as his.

 

[thomas]

Can I copyright my name and then 'force' facebook to back down.(It is an unusual name of which I used to hate)It was the butt of jokes on this certain messageboard but as I didn't really bite for once it soet of died out apart from the fact of this facebook imposter.

You can't copyright any brand/name. You could trademark your name, but if someone is actually called that name you can't sue them over it.

If you trademarked your name now, it would give you legal rights over any domain names they bought with your name (after it was trademarked - none from before).

I really wouldn't worry about a silly facebook account.

 

[dodgy]

but you were wrong

In your opinion.

 

[iLB]

In your opinion.

well if you take the definition of

'fantasy'
n., pl. -sies. The creative imagination; unrestrained fancy.

and then apply it to the concept of facebook or twitter where people communicate with other people whom they already know; and who therefore by definition exist in reality, your argument loses all integrity.