Via my last post of Facebook Catfishing a commenter led me to this facebook profile of “Timothy Boostrom” who is not using my photo on his profile, but liberally sprinkled them (me) in his own photos:
Sorry Timothy, these photos are not you. Dream on, you scum sucking dirt bag
Many of the photos have captions and comments purporting to be in Scotland on July 7, 2015:
Not Timothy, Not Scotland
When in fact, and if Facebook had in its infinite arsenal the ability to reverse image search, would land you on MY PHOTO OF ME IN ICELAND IN NOVEMBER 2008:
flickr photo shared by cogdogblog under a Creative Commons ( BY ) license
The worst is Timothy seems to be preaching some kind of bullshit of God and Love and even in comments sounds like he is collecting donations, when he is obviously a complete lie.
And he has been doing this for months.
Excuse my bomb but a hearty FUCK YOU to facebook for making it so easy for people to do this. Another FUCK YOU for how many times I will have to report it, supply evidence to show that Timothy is a fake.
Please please tell people to use tools like in Google Chrome, control right click, and image, and select Google Image Search
And when you find that this person named “Timothy Bootstrom” has a photo that seems associated in multiple sites with someone named Alan Levine.
I have reported https://www.facebook.com/timothy.boostrom.98 as a Fake, but again, it will take maybe 3 efforts to get Facebook to remove it. Please help me and bombard facebook with reports. Go to the link, and under the three dot menu select Report (DO NOT CLICK SEND MONEY, jay zus what is facebook doing here?)
Timothy Boostrom is [NOT] Real – and why does it take Facebook so long to do anything? If anyone has ears inside Facebook, we need to start demanding that they be more open, more diligent with cutting down on Catfishing.
And now I need a tag in my blog for these posts.
UPDATE: Nov 4, 2015 Facebook’s initial response to my report was the usual “This does not violate Facebook’s Community Standards”:
This seems rather strange, since the way I read their community standards, these fake accounts are using my content without my permission for accounts with fake names:
There is no way to show them my evidence, and I scoured all of Facebook’s reporting forms and found nothing that allows me to show the evidence I outlined above.
But something changed just recently, as it seems like Timothy’s account has been zapped. It only took me 2 hours of time spent reporting and documenting this bullshit.
Even more, look at this:
But they do allow people to use accounts with my photo! Just reported below, check this out, THERE ARE TWO PROFILES WITH THE SAME NAME USING MY PHOTO!
https://www.facebook.com/roddick.henderson.568
https://www.facebook.com/roddick.henderson.94
Just to make it more clear, I made my own profile the photo many of these scammers use:
I’ve reported both Roddicks (and you can too). Just for fun, I sent a friend request to one. I wonder what he will think when he sees my profile (he will probably try to report me, eh?)
I am frustrated beyond measure, but frankly, there is nothing really I can do. So I may stop tracking these, and just hope that people wise up to fake accounts.
BECAUSE FACEBOOK HAS NO INTEREST IN ENFORCING THEIR OWN COMMUNITY STANDARDS AND THEY CATER MORE TO CATFISHING SCAMMERS THAN ME
UPDATE: Several Hour Later
As expected, this is the way Facebook runs things. Now one of the crooks accuses me of impersonating someone else?
F*** you facebook, f*** you.
Top / Featured Image: Screenshot of a Facebook profile I hope will soon be a dead link https://www.facebook.com/timothy.boostrom.98/. Sue me, Timothy for violating for f****ing privacy
I have run across these accounts before, but have never talked with anyone whose photos have been stolen. Looks like he was shut down though. That’s a good thing.
I reported the doucebag. i would be really mad too if someone used my images to con people. I guess this means you have a very likable face!
Hello Mr.Levine, I wanted to let you know that these animals have made 3 accounts by the name of Roddick Henderson on Facebook. They are trying the romance scam, but they can’t spell and don’t even know proper English. I could tell that when i talked to “Roddick Henderson” that i was actually talking to approximately 3 different individuals. I wish that there was a way i could help stop these bastards. If you want to see Roddick Henderson’s account with your pictures on it go to Lozana Prescott on Facebook and type his name in my friends list. I haven’t deleted or reported him yet. I have been encouraging them to keep talking to see if there was anything i could do to stop them. They state that they are from Columbus, Ohio. This number is one that they sent to me: 614 741 5170. It is in fact some form of landline from that area. So sorry that this has happened to you.
Thanks for letting me know Lozanna. I have reported both. Facebook does not seem to take action unless I enlist others to report.
I have made my own profile pics one of the ones they use often (https://www.facebook.com/cogdog) and have in the comments a link to the original photo on flickr. If anyone does a reverse image search on it in google, they will see it obviously associated to someone named “Alan Levine”. You’d think someone at Facebook might have the technical expertise to do this? Nah. Just for fun I sent a friend request to the one Roddick, I’d like to know what they thought when they see my profile
The phone numbers are fake. These are organized teams operating overseas. They do this at a massive scale, to get a sense of the sophistication, read what a colleague experienced
http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/2627
Hiya,
I went to report him as well – curiously, the original link in your post (https://www.facebook.com/timothy.boostrom.98/( is now dead, but another one has resurfaced: https://www.facebook.com/timothy.boostrom.101
So I reported that one instead…ridiculous that you need to police the site like this.
Jennifer
Update: This was Facebook’s response to my report:
“Thank you for taking the time to report something that you feel may violate our Community Standards. Reports like yours are an important part of making Facebook a safe and welcoming environment. We reviewed the profile you reported for pretending to be someone they’re not and found it doesn’t violate our Community Standards.
Please let us know if you see anything else that concerns you. If you want us to look at something specific on a profile, be sure to report the content (ex: photo), not the entire profile. We want to keep Facebook safe and welcoming for everyone.”
And hence the problem. As I wrote, the profile clearly violates their Community Standards (posting other people’s content without permission, using someone else’s photo for a profile picture, pretending to be someone else e.g. the previously deleted Timothy Boostroms), but the response does not explain how they came to that conclusion.
Plus, as I have shown, you cannot report the profile pic because the report form is broken.
What does work, I am guessing is multiple reports from other people. That’s a stupid way to go, Facebook’s process is flawed.
Thanks for pushing through the reports. However, it is a losing battle- see this response to my medium post for a chilling example how easy it is to create fake accounts
https://medium.com/@dave79/scammers-use-automated-pieces-of-software-to-create-massive-fake-facebook-profiles-as-quickly-as-b989c059cf1e