Today, I and @fashtioluwa discussed the concept of impersonation and identity theft as seen in the world today while also sharing our personal experiences.
We recognise that it is almost impossible to avoid being impersonated as we can’t possibly control everything but we limit the amount of personal information shared on the internet so it wouldn’t be used against us.
Impersonation and identity theft has become a norm in the society especially on social medias like Instagram, twitter and many others. We see a lot of catfish accounts that imitate celebrities and influential figures.
While some are simply for fun and entertainment, the majority are used to tarnish the image of the real person as those accounts are often used to commit fraudulent acts in a bid to make money off their names and identity.
While my name is Kristoffer Quincy on every other platform such as read.cash, facebook, and on twitter, I couldn’t use kristofferquincy here on hive since it had already been taken by an impersonator.
It should be known that the username @kristofferquincy on hive is an impersonator and a fraud. This person created an hive account using my name and picture in the month of October 2021, copied my introductory article on read.cash and began making money off all my Axie infinity related articles.
I stopped playing Axie infinity and stopped writing about such but the impersonator began to translate previous articles to other languages and began publishing since he or she was out of Axie infinity related articles to copy. The user was discovered by hive watchers and was blacklisted.
I was accused of being responsible for the fraudulent action on joining hive last month and was surprised to see that there was already an account in my name and articles. On thorough investigation with Mr @jamerusell it was discovered that this person also created about twenty (20) other accounts using names and pictures of other writers on read.cash and began making money off their account as well.
A very surprising case of impersonation and damage of reputation. Impersonators are everywhere and cannot be completely avoided.
We simply need to be careful so we wouldn’t fall victims of scams using a stolen identity by double checking and verifying their identity by every means possible.
Feel free to share your experiencewith impersonators and identity thieves in the comment section. We'd be glad to hear it!
Regards!
Uchihanagato!
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Is there no way to punish the impersonators?
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Investigations show that the criminal is from the AxieBCH guild since only my articles on Axie infinity were copied as a way of promoting the guild while making money off it. But there's no way to pinpoint the exact culprit since the guild has over 500 to 100o members.
In one way or the other, a lot of people have either being impersonated or their identity being stolen or misused especially via social media. People have lost a lot while some have ended up in prison just by being a victim not culprit with no reasonable evidence to defend themselves.
I believe the best thing for us to do is to be more careful and also try to verify peoples identity before engaging them further.
Yes. We need to verify identities in order to ensure we are not unto a catfish account. At the same time reduce the amount of personal information shared online.
This issue of impersonation has grown to be the other of the day which needs to be taken seriously because we never can tell people using another persons picture and names for fraudulent activities are seriously destroying others image. Which can in one or the other affect such personal individual negatively.
Yes. We simply need to be careful to We don't fall victim to identity thieves on the Internet. And if we discover identity thrives thrives any point they should be instantly reported.
Thanks for your contribution.
This is even rampant now a days, people using other people identity like they own it, some even make money more than the owner of the identity
Yes. For instance in my case where an account was created in my name and articles copied. More money was made by the impersonator than I actually made off them.
It was shocking as I had never seen any such thing until that moment.
I can understand
Identity theft is a serious offence.
In the world of social media there are so many impersonators that it makes it hard to differentiate the real from the fake hence we need to be very careful inorder to spot them.
A serious offence that cannot be completely curbed but can be avoided by creating awareness such as what was done in today's video.
They are everywhere and waiting to attack which is why we need to be vigilant so we wouldn't fall victim.
Simple enough, many issues of personification happen daily, in the exam hall, during elections, and on many occasions.
There have been little or no reactions to this (personality theft) other than for people to protect their money (finance)
Yes, Impersonation is everywhere and nothing can truly be done to eliminate it completely.
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Impersonation is a criminal act.
Isn't there is a way those who engage in such act could be pinpointed so they could be punished severely?
Not always. Sometimes they get to escape the long arm of the law and sometimes they get caught. It all depends on the ability for the supposed victim to act fast and understand that the person he or she is dealing with is a fraud hence leading to police involvement.
Well i had an experience with my social media account. Someone used my name and my picture to ask money online. My older brother saw it and called my attention to it. There was nothing I could do but to report that account.
Woah.. that's some real case of impersonatuon.Was the account banned afterwards and were you able to get the culprit?
I hope the events didn’t get you into trouble.