# If someone is pretending to be you on facebook can you track them down without the police? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 11, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-is-pretending-to-be-you-on-facebook-can-you-track-them-down-without-the-police/609207 "2012-01-11T20:54:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-is-pretending-to-be-you-on-facebook-can-you-track-them-down-without-the-police/609207/21 "2012-01-13T18:53:37Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > In most jurisdictions, it probably constitutes criminal impersonation. Statutes criminalizing harmless behavior require actual intent to do harm (or defraud). Impersonating somebody else on Facebook _might_ expose you to civil liability, but it certainly won’t give rise to criminal culpability without additional factors. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-is-pretending-to-be-you-on-facebook-can-you-track-them-down-without-the-police/609207/22 "2012-01-13T19:55:57Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > Also, most municipal police departments have “cybercrimes” units designed to deal with these sorts of issues. I think there is a term that the kids have to explain what I did. I believe it is called “LOL”. At the state or maybe county level there may be a dedicated unit. Or in major citys. On the municipal level it is at best one of many hats one guy wears. > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Statutes criminalizing harmless behavior require actual intent to do harm (or defraud). > > Impersonating somebody else on Facebook _might_ expose you to civil liability, but it certainly won’t give rise to criminal culpability without additional factors. That is exactly right. You would have to look at the specific laws in your area. For the most part they will say something like “Subject x does y _for the purposes of_ z.” For x to commit a crime there must be y and z. But these laws are constantly evolving as the technology and culture evolve. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-is-pretending-to-be-you-on-facebook-can-you-track-them-down-without-the-police/609207/23 "2012-01-13T21:24:00Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > …It’s also against Facebook’s policy, and they have a [page that explains how to resolve this issue](https://www.facebook.com/help/search/?q=Impersonation) But really, this action doesn’t violate any of those policies, which specifically refer to impersonation–i.e., explicit misrepresentation. Simply uploading someone else’s picture is not necessarily misrepresenting oneself. Many people, for example, will use a photo of their baby or their pet, instead of their own picture. This Facebook page isn’t using the OP’s friend’s name, so it isn’t “pretending to be” her. In fact, how did the OP’s friend even discover that this page exists? > [@anson2995](#): > > You are incorrect. There are specific statutes making online impersonation illegal [in California](http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_16970284) [and Texas](http://www.mmalaw.com/Houston_Criminal_Defense_Blog/2011/September/Impersonating_Someone_Online_In_Texas_Is_Illegal.aspx) (and perhaps other states I’m not aware of). What if I upload a (non-copyrighted) photo of Barak Obama as my profile picture? Is that impersonation? > [@MikeS](#): > > I think, however, that you can still report the offending account to Facebook by clicking on the appropriate link. You only need the additional info if you want to find out what the hell is going on. I’d be curious to see how Facebook responds. As far as I know, there’s no rule that says: “Your profile picture must be you.” This probably is a case of what happened to **Francis Vaughan** ’s friend–an automated account set up for phishing. Really, otherwise, what motivation could there be? You can’t search for people by (untagged) photos on Facebook. (I have to wonder, though, how **astro** ’s friend even discovered that this account exists–and why does it matter that the other “person” displays “a completely different lifestyle”?) ---
**Author:** ![BeaMyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BeaMyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeaMyra)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-is-pretending-to-be-you-on-facebook-can-you-track-them-down-without-the-police/609207/24 "2012-01-15T10:40:16Z")
I hear bill collectors, bond agents and other such people, trying to locate others, do this all the time. And it makes sense, have the people come to you. The cops have a photo of you, they put up a phony Facebook account and wait for one of your friends to unintentionally rat you out. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-is-pretending-to-be-you-on-facebook-can-you-track-them-down-without-the-police/609207/25 "2012-01-15T21:01:48Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I think there is a term that the kids have to explain what I did. I believe it is called “LOL”. At the state or maybe county level there may be a dedicated unit. Or in major citys. On the municipal level it is at best one of many hats one guy wears. I meant to write metro rather than municipal, but I suppose you know that. A one-man department obviously wouldn’t have a separate cyber crimes unit. > [@guizot](#): > > What if I upload a (non-copyrighted) photo of Barak Obama as my profile picture? Is that impersonation? If you create a page and pretend that you are him (unlikely, since you misspelled his name), that’s impersonation, The OP hasn’t returned to clarify, but if the only issue is indeed that some unknown person has reposted pictures of them, that’s a simple copyright issue and easily dealt with. Sure, lots of people post cartoon characters as their profile pic and nobody squawks. But that’s not what’s at issue here. This thread would really benefit by the participation of the OP 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-is-pretending-to-be-you-on-facebook-can-you-track-them-down-without-the-police/609207/26 "2012-01-15T23:52:10Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > I meant to write metro rather than municipal, but I suppose you know that. A one-man department obviously wouldn’t have a separate cyber crimes unit. > > If you create a page and pretend that you are him (unlikely, since you misspelled his name), that’s impersonation, > > The OP hasn’t returned to clarify, but if the only issue is indeed that some unknown person has reposted pictures of them, that’s a simple copyright issue and easily dealt with. Sure, lots of people post cartoon characters as their profile pic and nobody squawks. But that’s not what’s at issue here. > > This thread would really benefit by the participation of the OP 🙂 My female friend is quite attractive. The other site is using her pics, specifically some summertime bathing suit pics and some modeling pics, and are posting these as their profile pics. The other site is under a different person’s name. The other site is also posting these pics as candid shots under updates and gets waves of male admirers telling her (the fake facebooker) how hot she looks, and sometimes makes teasing replies to these comments. She also implies via comments that she’s bi-sexual which my friend is not. The location represented for this fake facebook user is in another state. That’s as far as it’s gone so far. It appears to be (for whatever reason) mainly a bid for male attention. The fake site is not asking (so far) for money. Based on the replies so far it sounds like the best solution is simply to have Facebook take the site down if that is possible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-is-pretending-to-be-you-on-facebook-can-you-track-them-down-without-the-police/609207.md?page=1)