Stupid: my identity has been stolen on Instagram
My inbox was flooded on Wednesday with screenshots. Whether I was this person, why I was asking for numbers, and a few lucky ones immediately saw that it was a fake account. Someone is copying my name and contact list on Instagram to engage in shady business.
‘There is only one Aad in this life,’ Lil sent me as support. Which is really true, believe me. But there is someone out there who is misusing my identity to scam my contacts, my family, my friends, and that feels so rotten. I wouldn’t want it on my conscience if someone gets into trouble in my name. Which I don’t have on my conscience of course, but it still happens in my name. I feel uncomfortable with the idea and by now I’m just angry. Just go work for your money.
In the hope that Instagram would intervene quickly, everyone started reporting. By the way, I can’t see the fake profile with my own account, because they’ve probably blocked me. Apparently, they are that smart. Fortunately, I manage more than one account, which gives me a little visibility on whether it’s still up. Silicon Valley seems to be a bit slower than an average government agency, because so far there has been no contact. What am I saying? I have to prove that I am really me. I still need to recover from that.
It’s set up so sneakily that if you look quickly, you don’t even notice it. You see my photo, my name, my bio about wanting to live in Greece, and even my Linktree. Without linked links, which is of course a missed opportunity. But one thing caught everyone’s attention: the messages sent in my name. This is the way to find out if you’re talking to someone you know. After a sharper look, most people fortunately saw the double ‘LL’ in my first name. And you must be really out of it if you can’t even spell your own first name correctly.
In the meantime, the appointment with the police for filing a report is set, because if someone acts in your name, that is hard identity fraud. I only realized this when someone pointed it out to me. The two officers I spoke to on the phone were dead serious. So, is someone else pretending to be you online? Call the police. It can only be registered that you have nothing to do with those shady practices.
