by Mark
Ollig
Most folks
are understandably curious about what the great-and-powerful Google Oracle
knows about them.
I’m not
(remarkably) vain, but I do admit to googling my name every so often.
When I do,
the usual social media footprints indexing my online life appear; nothing too
embarrassing, mind you.
A couple
of weeks ago, for no specific reason, yours truly typed his name inside the
Google search box.
The
typical results appeared: links to my newspaper columns, to my blog, LinkedIn
mentions, images, articles, and comments from my social media sites.
There were
Facebook references, messages from my Twitter account, and other gleaned data
about me.
While
looking through some 1,860 Google search results, I noticed something very odd
about the ones containing my Twitter username.
“What the
heck is this?” I said out loud.
I saw a
number of search results with links and attached messages saying: “Mark Ollig
(@bitsandbesty) Twitter. The latest tweets from Mark Ollig (@bitsandbesty) –
Freelance technology journalist. Telecommunications engineer. I blog and
provide social media content to print and digital news outlets. All views are
my own.”
The
information was correct – except for one glaring error: the Twitter username
for Mark Ollig was wrong.
You see,
my Twitter username is: @bitsandbytes not: @bitsandbesty.
“Oh, I am
so going to find out what this is all about,” I tersely said to myself as I
quickly logged into my Twitter account.
I
immediately went to the Twitter profile page for: @bitsandbesty.
My eyes
widened in disbelief: @bitsandbesty was the Twitter user name of a “Mark
Ollig.”
Their
personal Twitter profile photo was of me when I had climbed up a telephone
pole; the same one I use on my Twitter account.
The
Twitter background image I posted of the historic Burden Water Wheel, and my
personal profile description; all had been copied from my @bitsandbytes Twitter
page.
The
realization slowly sank in: I was the victim of Twitter Impersonation.
Someone
created a new Twitter account using my name, Twitter photos, and profile user
information.
This
charlatan was unable to steal my @bitsandbytes Twitter username, as it is
unique; so they came up with a very close name, one which could be easily
mistaken for mine.
The
impersonator Twitter account was sending out tweets from what would appear to anyone
viewing them as being from my @bitsandbytes Twitter account.
Their
tweets had my Twitter profile photo attached to them.
The only
way for someone reading these messages to know they were not mine, would be to
look closely at the username; but this is easily overlooked, as the
impersonator’s Twitter username blended so closely with my authentic username.
The only
thing I could do was to embark on a glorious quest to reclaim my uniqueness in
Twitterville.
Using what
I considered reasonable logic, yours truly visited the Twitter Help Center, at:
https://support.twitter.com.
I typed:
“Impersonation Policy” in the search box.
Here is
the link for Twitter’s Impersonation Policy:
https://support.twitter.com/articles/18366#.
While
reading through their policy, I noticed: “Twitter users are allowed to create
parody, commentary, or fan accounts.”
What?
Could someone think I was popular enough to warrant a fan-made parody account?
While
considering this intriguing possibility, the sobering answer yours truly came
up with was: “Um, no.”
Twitter
states: “Impersonation is a violation of the Twitter Rules. Twitter accounts
portraying another person in a confusing or deceptive manner may be permanently
suspended under the Twitter Impersonation Policy.”
“Ah-ha,” I
thought. This account is definitely trying to portray yours truly “in a
confusing or deceptive manner.”
I emailed
Twitter Support, and explained to them why I felt my Twitter account was being
impersonated.
Twitter
replied; they needed to first confirm my identity with a valid government photo
ID.
They
provided a special Internet link for me to upload my ID proving I was who I
said I was; even though I already knew who I was. Of course, they have no idea
who I am. This makes sense, right?
Using my
smartphone, I took a picture of my driver’s license, and uploaded it to
Twitter.
I waited.
A few days
later, I received another email from Twitter saying; “We’ve removed the
reported account for a violation of Twitter Rules, and specifically our rules
regarding impersonation on Twitter.”
Victory! I
did a fist-pump into the air.
With
confirmation the impersonator’s account had been suspended, I logged back onto
Twitter.
Carefully,
I typed @bitsandbesty inside the Twitter search box, pressed “enter” and then
clicked the highlighted @bitsandbesty link.
I smiled.
On my
screen, in large, bold-print type, it read: “Account suspended.”
Yours
truly had fought the good fight against the Twitter impersonator – and won.
Here is a
screen-capture of the Google results showing my impersonated Twitter account
link references: http://tinyurl.com/bytes5.
I saved
the correspondence Twitter sent to me. You can see it here:
http://tinyurl.com/bytes-TM.
The
Twitter online justice system does work; if you take action.
What
should you do after discovering an account on Twitter is pretending to be
yours?
Start by
reporting it at: https://support.twitter.com/forms/impersonation.
Visit my
official Twitter account page at: https://twitter.com/bitsandbytes.
