What Is Social Identity Theft?

You get an e-mail one day from a prospective employer. They had praised you in your interview and were impressed with your grades and your extracurricular activities. In fact, it had seemed that they were all but offering you the job. But then there was silence until you received word that they’d done a routine background search, which for them includes “Googling” your name. It seems your MySpace page soured them on you. It leaves you shaking your head.

And then you get a text from your mother, whose college alumni group encouraged her to join something new and fun to stay in touch called “Twitter.” She wants to know why you haven’t been attending classes, why your Twitter page is filled with tweets about partying all hours, about going here and there with boys whom she’s never heard of. Again, you’re left reeling.

What’s this all about? How could they come by such a wrong impression of you? You know you stopped messing with MySpace months ago because of all the ads and reputation for being a place to hook up. And Twitter? Your studies take up your time. You’ve never even bothered with that site.

So you go to MySpace and learn that there are two pages under your name: the one you abandoned with the rainbow on it and Coldplay playlist - and a raunchy page with your picture on it, one that’s filled with horrible links and terrible images and suggestive posts that you’d never think to associate with. So, you notify MySpace of the problem. They investigate and let you know that a girl you were forced to room with your freshman year has assumed your identity on MySpace! And when you contact Twitter, you see clues that she created the page in your name there too!

Is this the precinct of a bad teen movie?

No, it’s an increasingly common occurrence. It happens so often at present that there is even a slang for it: You’ve been “twitterjacked.” But to law enforcement agencies it is known as “social identity theft.” And while money isn’t usually at stake, your reputation definitely is.

Online Impostors

The reasons for this are as numerous as there are cases. Many times there are poseurs for the rich and famous, from President Obama while campaigning, to Donald Trump, to Oprah, to Britney Spears. These are usually pranks and in the case of celebrities fairly obvious ones at that. But in an age when everything that seems private is now public thanks to the way the Net is constructed and the way search engines function, it is best to be vary aware that almost nothing is private online.

So, back to the girl in the above fictional scenario. Did you know there are actually instances of people’s careers being derailed or failing to launch because of such “pranks”? And when it does such damage to a person’s reputation, can it really be considered a prank?

Who hasn’t heard of the mom who posed as a teenage boy to entice, then dump and harass a young woman whom she considered to be a rival to her daughter? If you recall, the harassed girl ended up killing herself. And her harasser was charged with several crimes associated with identity fraud.

What Can You Do to Prevent Social Identity Theft?

You have to be vigilant about your name and reputation online. MySpace, for instance, only verifies that the e-mail address someone has listed is valid. Anything else can be faked or copied from someone else, including the name. So, how can you monitor your online presence?

• Enter your name into a web search engine - If anything you know you didn’t create pops up, contact the administrator of that site. While sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter have loose requirements for approving a page, they do take action when they learn social identity theft may have occurred.
• Visit social sites and enter your name - Again, if something you didn’t create for yourself pops up, contact the administrator of that site. These might come up in a general search of the web, but they could be so far down the list that you don’t see them. By visiting the sites themselves, you can usually enter a name and see what comes up.
• Enter your name into a search engine again - Make it a habit, say every couple of months.. It’s not about being paranoid or narcissistic, but rather about being aware that identity theft can happen. And you might even come across someone with your name who is very different from you. It would be good to be aware of that person when you next interview for a position. If an employer lets you know that they do those kinds of background searches on candidates, you can let them know in advance and take away the potential sting.
• Set your access to private - Most online networking sites let you restrict who can see your page. It is wise to set privacy at its highest level, or leave yourself at risk.
• Be careful who you “friend” - There are loads of great people online, but it only takes one experience with the wrong person posing as a friend to set the ball in motion. Know who you are communicating with or “friending” on sites like Facebook or LinkedIn.
• Enroll in an identity protection service - Initially conceived to protect identity theft for things like loans and credit card scams, many are now guaranteeing protection against social identity theft as well.

The web is a great place to get to know people or to stay in touch with family and old friends. Just play it safe, and know that there could be an online identity theft lurking to exploit your good name.