Twitter and Social Media Identity Theft

Social media identity theft is becoming a bigger and bigger problem.

Several high-profile celebrities have been in the news regarding fake Twitter accounts and some have gone to court over the issue. A few of the more popular cases involved:

• Tony LaRussa, baseball manager, who filed a lawsuit against Twitter, alleging an unauthorized and defamatory page in his name.
  
  UPDATE: Later, on the day this post was published, Twitter co-founder Evan Stone responded to LaRussa’s lawsuit and detailed Twitter’s plans to combat false accounts, which include a “Verified Accounts” feature. Read Stone’s blog post.
• Kanye West, Grammy-winning hip hop rapper/producer, who famously flamed Twitter on his blog over a fake account.
• Shaquille O’Neal, NBA superstar, who one-upped a Twitter Shaq impersonator by setting up his own Twitter account. Game over.

As an Internet marketer, your ability to be effective in your marketing is directly related to
(a) creating a name for yourself and/or your brand online and
(b) establishing the credibility of your name and brand.

If someone is abusing your name on social media sites or pretending to be you, that can have a negative affect your image and can adversely impact your business.

Two recent incidents made me realize that social media identity theft is an issue that marketers and not just celebrities need to be concerned about.

Well-Known Internet Marketer Gets Impersonated

A little while ago, I starting following a well-known Internet marketer on Twitter. I sent him a tweet, saying that I’d followed his site and newsletter for quite some time and was happy to follow his tweets. No response. Which I thought was odd, given his very personable, accessible online persona. Turns out, it wasn’t him. This week in his newsletter, he recounted the entire story of how he haggled with Twitter over the imposter using his name. Ultimately, he prevailed and staked claim to the username and all is now well. (The weird photo on his fake Twitter account should’ve tipped me off!)

My Name Gets Taken on Twitter

I first signed up for Twitter using this site’s name as my username: @roadmapp, which is the account I currently use. Later, I thought it would be a good idea to also create an account for @benmapp. Taken. Huh? At the time, there were no posts to that account. A Twitter squatter (or, would that be a Twuatter)? I opened a Twitter support ticket. Got a quick response, saying Twitter’s policy was to allow six months to go by before taking action. I didn’t think I could force further action because nothing egregious had happened. Yet. That issue’s still pending. Today, I just checked the @benmapp account. There is some activity so maybe there is another real “Ben Mapp” out there on Twitter. (But, the photo…? C’mon, dude.) As a “defensive measure,” I signed up for @Ben_Mapp. We’ll see how this plays out.

After researching this “fake username” issue for a while, I’ve come to realize that there are lots of them out there. And it got me concerned that my name could be scooped up on other social media sites before I got around to it.

What You Can Do About It

So, I started to go around to the most popular media sites to claim my name on them before someone else did.

Talk about a time-suck.

Then I came across a service called KnowEm. They check the availability of your name, domain name, or brand name on about 120 social media sites.

All you have to do is type in the username, and KnowEm checks all the sites to see if that username is still available. Convenient.

Stung by my Twitter experience, I used their paid service to create “benmapp” accounts on all the sites that didn’t already have one.

It takes a few days to complete because they do it all manually. But, to me, it’s worth it. Saves tons lots of time. Prevents misuse of my name.

Go to KnowEm to check if your name is available in 120 social media sites:

http://www.RoadMappMarketing.com/go/KnowEm

Wishing You the Best,

Ben Mapp

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Comments

2 Responses to “Twitter and Social Media Identity Theft”

1. Ben Mapp says:

   June 8, 2009 at 1:13 am

   Before you go and accuse someone of identity theft get your facts straight, my name is Ben Mapp is it so hard to imagine that two people in the world have the same name.

   Reply
   • Ben Mapp says:

     June 8, 2009 at 9:13 am

     Thanks for your comment. And, thanks for clearing up whether @benmapp is a real person or not.

     Just to be clear, I did not accuse you of identity theft.

     What I said was:
     * My firstnamelastname on Twitter was taken (which it is). ‘Taken’ doesn’t mean ’stolen.’
     * I opened a Twitter Support ticket on the issue and I reported Twitter’s stated policy. That ticket (in my mind) is still ‘pending’ because it is within the company’s 6-month window.
     * I have been concerned about someone using that name in a way that may reflect poorly on me (and could lead to confusion) — in the way other fake accounts were used for Tony LaRussa and the Internet marketer I referred to.
     * I also left myself (and readers) open to the possibility that there is someone else with the name Ben Mapp (I believe you are in the UK; there’s also someone else that I’m aware of in the US with that name).

     Bottom line: I didn’t accuse you of ‘identity theft’.

     However, in the context of the other actual reported cases of identity theft mentioned in the post, the @benmapp account heightened my awareness that identity theft could happen to me and other marketers. And if it did, it would be a big problem to untangle.

     Again, happy tweeting. And if you get any tweets meant for me, please forward them on. I’ll do the same.

     Reply