Being impersonated?

[D]

Have you ever been impersonated online? Has anybody ever signed up to a well known forum using your username and pretended to be you? If so, how did you deal with it?

I just found out that somebody is doing this to me, they have signed up to a very large forum pretending to be me and are doing things which could be damaging to my name.

Related Video:

[youtube]eJO5HU_7_1w[/youtube]

 

[iSuit21]

Can't watch the video 🙁

"Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights." - Every time...

 

[CM30]

Nope, it's never happened to me.

 

[LiquidServe]

I ain't that cool for it 😛

 

[David]

I don't think you can have copyrights to a username on all privately owned forums.

If someone else goes by ShadyX, then that's their choice, and there's not much you can do about it, except snatch that username first.

 

[Venom]

I don't think Shady means someone just has the same name as him, but Is saying "Hi i'm ShadyX from forumpromotion.net".

If someone just has the same name, then there's nothing you can do.

 

[GrabThe.com]

Wow, no. It has not happened to me, but then again I am curious as to why and what they are doing?

 

[Fergal]

It's happened to me. Someone joined a forum using my full real name and my photo as their avatar, then they started posting religious hate messages. What they did was actually a crime (Incitement to Hatred). The content was removed after I reported the matter to the police and the company that was hosting the forum in question. You might try doing the same ShadyX?

 

[Pinky]

I think it's terrible that somebody would do that. It's never happened to me and hope it never does.

 

[cenydd]

Not a nice thing to happen. If it were me, I'd join under another name, and contact the admin/mods on that forum to make them aware of the issue (confirming it by posting something on other forums under that name for them or whatever), and ask permission to state it publicly on the forum so that people members are aware of it.

It can happen quite by accident, of course - more than one person coming up with the same username. If they are actually pretending to be you, though, I'd want to at least make the other members of the forum aware of it somehow.

 

[Fergal]

@ShadyX any update?

 

[D]

@ShadyX any update?

I don't think there is anything I can really do about it, I have let people on the forum know that this person is definitely not me though as he is doing things that are damaging to my name.

 

[Kaynil]

Oh man, sorry to hear that. I think it is because you are well known, worked hard got results and someone envious is trying to take it far. I hope her/his act falls flat.

I have never been impersonated. Other people has used my username but like people say above it has been so far been coincidence and not malice.

 

[Fergal]

I don't think there is anything I can really do about it

You could;

1. Report it to the forum admin, most forums don't allow defamation of character
2. Report it to the hosting company hosting the forum. Most hosts don't allow that kind of content either.
3. Report it to the police, it's illegal and damaging to you. Personally I would only do that as a last resort.

Is there any reason you wouldn't do the above?