Report fake pages, says Martin-Swaby
Published:Sunday | December 12, 2021 | 12:08 AM
Having done extensive research on cybercrime, head of that unit at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Andrea Martin-Swaby, pointed out that identity theft has been a problem which predates the evolution of social media.
However, she said, it has been magnified in the digital age because of the limitless reach of the Internet and the significant amount of personal information which is stored by persons in the social media age.
“The effect of this is that it is a lot easier for persons to be impersonated in this space,” Martin-Swaby added.
She noted that when persons are confronted with the unauthorised use of your identity in this space, it is always difficult to determine who the perpetrator is, making it difficult to investigate such activities.
She said based on research, there are self-help tools that persons have successfully employed to facilitate the removal of the impersonating Instagram account.
Martin-Swaby advises the following:
Gather evidence of the fake page through taking screen grabs and also scrolling through the imposter’s profile page. While on the imposter’s page and profile, click the three little dots on the upper right side of the profile. Here you may see a number of drop menus. Look for ‘Report Profile’ and then look at the drop menu. There may be three menu options: ‘me’, ‘someone I know’ or ‘a celebrity or public figure’. Tap on ‘me’. When you make this selection, Instagram may deliver you to a help page. This should be where the actual reporting process starts.
Continue making the selections as directed and which suit your situation. Look until you see the line which says “If someone is pretending to be you on Instagram, you can report the account with this form”. You may fill out the digital form with your full name; email; the name you have for your impersonator (this may likely be a fake name) as well, and his user name. Then, click to confirm that you are the one being impersonated.
To finish, the report will ask you to upload a selfie while holding a valid form of ID. Some persons use their driver’s licence. However, the research shows that, if your Instagram name is not the same as the name on your identification, Instagram will not recognise you as being the true person depicted on the ID. Therefore, what persons have done is to then go into their Instagram account and edit their profile to reflect the name on their identification and then resubmit the report with ID photo as well. Some persons who have done this have been successful in eradicating the fake account.
Re Facebook, she said there are helpful tips on the Internet. Please see this video: https://youtu.be/i7l4j6QN5gU
You may also follow a similar process as on Instagram. The thing is that you have to report from the impersonator’s profile and follow all the steps. You must demonstrate to the social media site that you are the real authentic person.
Note: This information does not constitute legal advice and neither are these views expressed those of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions .