Protecting your handle from impersonators

Know which problem you have — they need different reports

• •Impersonation — an account pretending to be you. Report as impersonation, not copyright. This is usually the fastest removal.
• •Content theft — your material posted by someone not claiming to be you. This is a copyright matter and DMCA applies.
• •Both at once — a fake profile using your photos. File both; they are handled by different teams and one succeeding does not depend on the other.
• •A scam using your name off-platform — a fake trial link, a fake payment page. Report to the host and to the platform being imitated.

What DMCA does and does not do

A DMCA notice compels a host to remove specific infringing material at specific URLs. It is powerful and it works, including against hosts who ignore everything else.

It does not remove an account, does not stop the same person reposting, and does not apply at all where no work of yours is being used — someone using only your name is impersonation, not infringement.

• •File against the host, not just the site. Hosts respond to DMCA because their own liability depends on it.
• •Identify exact URLs. "This whole site" is routinely rejected.
• •Include the good-faith statement — notices without it are invalid.
• •Keep every notice. A pattern of repeat infringement is what eventually gets an account terminated.

Make yourself a harder target

• •Publish a single canonical list of your real accounts, in the same place, and link to it everywhere. Then "check my links page" is a complete answer to every "is this you?" message.
• •Keep your public profiles cross-linked. An impersonator can copy content but cannot post from an account they do not control, and mutual links are what let people verify that.
• •Register the obvious near-miss handles yourself where it is cheap. Underscore variants, "official", "real", the doubled letter.
• •Tell your audience once, plainly, that you never send unprompted trial links. Most impersonation converts through exactly that message.

What we do

A claimed profile here proves control of the listed accounts via a code in the public bio, and shows only the accounts you confirmed. That gives your audience one more place to check.

Impersonation reports about profiles on this site are prioritised above everything except content involving minors or non-consensual imagery. The profile is suspended while we check.

What not to bother with

• •Paid takedown services, at least before trying the free routes. Most of what they do is file the same notices you can file yourself.
• •Arguing with the impersonator. It confirms the account is worth running and gives them your attention.
• •Telling your audience to mass-report. Coordinated reporting is frequently deprioritised as brigading and can slow the real report down.