Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Multiple personalities

Have you ever been "Catfished"?  What is a Catfish you ask?  A Catfish is someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities.  In light of recent catfishing stories in the news (one big one being Manti Te'o), I was curious.  Could somoeone possibly be using my image without my consent?  I was completely shocked at what I found.  Turns out, I have multiple personalities..

So what can you do to find out if this is happening to you?  It's actually very simple.  
  1. Open Google.
  2. Click on the "images" tab
  3. Drag and drop your image into the search box.  The internet will then scan for any images that may be a match.  
So you've found out someone has been impersonating you, now what?  Most social networks have impersonation policies, so don't be afraid to contact them if you find someone is using your image without your consent.  You may also want to consider contating the impersonator directly, and insisting that they immediately stop using your image.  Most of all, be proactive.  Check Google regularly for any new activity that may be occuring, and then take the necessary actions to stop it.  I know I will be doing regular searches from now on!  

How about you?  Has this happened to you personally or to anyone you know?  I'd be interested to hear about it.  It's a wild, wild web out there!

16 comments :

  1. Yikes!! That's so crazy. I'll have to try this!

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  2. ohmygosh - will do that now! thanks!

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  3. This is crazy! I'm going to check now...

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  4. Wow this is crazy!! Now I need to go check for myself

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  5. That is just crazy! I appreciate you sharing the steps to search for our own images. Luckily I'm safe {at least for the one photo I tried!}

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  6. Creepy! Makes me glad I almost never post photos of myself.

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  7. Thanks for this, Angie! I'd never even heard of catfishing. People are so strange, aren't they?

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  8. Hi Angie - I wanted to let you know that I nominated your blog for the Liebster Award. I hope you will participate and pass the award on. For more details please visit my blog: http://lifeonvirginiastreet.blogspot.com/2013/02/liebster-award.html

    Congrats!
    Sarah

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  9. uhhhhh.... didn't think it had happened to me, and so i followed your instructions, and it turns out, i have about 6 people using my profile picture on pinterest. WEIRD! ugh. i made comments, requesting that they remove my picture. one more thing to have to worry about. gheesh!

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    1. Creepy, right?! Have you contacted Pinterest about it? They have a non-impersonation policy, & were very helpful in fixing the problem. The user accounts were blocked and deleted from Pinterest all together. I'm hoping it doesn't happen again, but you better believe that I'll be checking!

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  10. OK, so I was just sure no one would use my picture, and sure enough...I was wrong. YUCK! Thank you so much for the tip! I would never have thought of this. Bummer.

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