How to Stop Facebook Impostors

Lisa Larter

January 22, 2014

Read time: 3 mins

Post Summary

Has it happened to you? Have you been duped by a Facebook impostor?

Here’s how it happens:

You log into Facebook and the first thing you do is check your notifications to see what’s going on.

That’s when you notice a new friend notification and click to find a friend request from “Shannon” (insert your friend’s name here). For a second you think… “Wait a minute, am I not already friends with her?”…

Then, you click on the friend request and you see her picture as the profile image, a picture of her family vacation as the cover, plus a bunch of other people you know who are already friends with her so you figure it must be okay, right?

Maybe she created a new account. Maybe she unfriended you by accident and added you again…you shrug and click on confirm then go about your Facebook business.

This is where you made your first mistake and how you help Facebook Impersonation grow.

When you get a friend request that you suspect to be duplicate the first thing you want to do is go look for your friend on Facebook and ask them “Did you create a second Facebook account?” A quick Facebook private message can often clear things up.

Most of the time the new friend request is impersonation and without even realizing it you are allowing someone who is pretending to be someone they are not to have access to all your personal information on Facebook by accepting the friend request. You do not want to do this.

The reasons for impersonating someone on Facebook can vary from hackers looking to collect personal information about you to stalkers who are trying to get information on the person they are pretending to be. Regardless of the reason, you want to put a stop to it right away.

This is what you want to do:

Step One: Go to their profile, click the drop down arrow.

Step Two: Select Report/Block.

Step Three: Submit a Report and select Report Person’s Account

Step Four: Select This timeline is pretending to be me or someone I know, and select appropriate sub section and type name of person being impersonated in and press continue.

Facebook will give you the option to let the person who is being impersonated know too, so they can file their own report and put an end to the impersonation.

This is how you stop a fraudulent account from gaining momentum.

So, the next time you get what you think might be a duplicate friend request, instead of just confirming them as a friend, follow these steps and get the Facebook Impersonator shut down.

Have you ever had an impostor or been friended by one? Share your story in the comments below!