Last night my sister-in-law messaged me to ask if I had set up a new facebook profile.
I hadn’t, but upon searching facebook I can see that someone has kindly taken a picture of Eliza from my blog and set up a profile in my name.
Being a blogger I know I share a lot of our lives over social media, however my own personal profile is locked down really tightly, so tightly in fact that I have friends unable to find me on it unless we have a mutual connection.
Surprisingly, I am also very careful about what information I share online even though I use the kids first names. I regularly check google to see if I can find my kids names on there and am relieved that they don’t come up……..the only Eliza with our surname I can find was born in 1824!
I have seen people pretending to be bloggers to obtain what they believe to be “freebies” and I have seen people set up pages as if they are that blogger, but never seen someone try to replicate a personal facebook page before.
I reported it straight away but found it frustrating that I could not put a reason why I was reporting it, other than that they were pretending to be me and this morning I received this reply:
Hi Kara,
Thanks for letting us know about something you think may go against our Community Standards. Reports like yours are an important part of making Facebook a safe and welcoming environment.
In this case, we reviewed the profile you reported and found that it doesn’t go against our Community Standards.
Note: If you see something on someone’s profile that shouldn’t be on Facebook, be sure to report the content (ex: a photo or video), not the entire profile. This will help us review your report more accurately.
For more information about our policies, please read the Facebook Community Standards:
https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
Not helpful at all.
So now I have reported the page and the photo again in the hope they will take it down.
The question is, why would someone make up a personal facebook profile pretending to be me. Was the intent a malicious one or some bored and lonely person hoping to get some attention?
I am not going to share a link to the profile here, but if you are friends with me on facebook in real life, I would really appreciate it if you could report both the page and the photograph.
Has this ever happened to you?
Facebook are a joke when it comes to reporting things sadly. I really hope you can get it taken down, there are some very weird people in this world.
Stevie x
Oh no that’s awful hope it’s closed down soon The best thing is do what you are doing and share this info I will do same x
That’s just shocking that they didn’t take it down, I’m not friends with you on fb sadly.. however I will try and find the other fake one and report it hun. Hope you get it sorted quickly xx
It is so bad that they even took a photo off of your blog! I reported and got the same reply as you. I think there should be away of contacting them other than by form as like you say the info can not be put. I hope it gets taken down asap.
Facebook are useless when it comes to things like this, it must be so frustrating hope it gets taken down soon.
Facebook ought to be ashamed to even allow something like this. I hope it is removed soon. I really can’t understand why anyone would do this.
This makes me so angry, especially when they steal photos of others children? Why would anyone do that? Will try to search for that sicko and report that fake profile. x
This makes me so angry I try not to put many photos of Blake up on my blog as I worry about who seems them. I hope you manage to get the Facebook profile closed.
Why would someone do this. I can’t imagine for a second that the intentions are good and surely Facebook doesn’t want fake accounts. It doesn’t help them if they are advertising to fake people does it. I hope it gets sorted for you
Oh bless you xx
That’s terrible! I don’t know what’s more shocking – someone using your photos and pretending to be you, or FB not donig anything about it!
Oh dear! This is absolutely unacceptable!
It has on Instagram. I have reported the profiles using my pic as their display pic. A few of them actually. So scary.
This is so awful, I hope that things get sorted and they take the page down. xx
Why would people do that? It baffles me. I really feel for you. I would hate it to see duplicate profiles or my pictures or my little ones anywhere else. I hope it gets taken down. x
I was so glad to see on facebook this morning that you managed to sort this out. What an incredibly stressful experience for you 🙁
OMG that’s not good. Why do people do things like that. I had the same thing done but on pinterest years ago where they used my name and photo. Hope it’s sorted soon x