I’ve always heard that the Gila Monster, a Sonoran desert reptile (hey Canada, you have NO Sonoran desert) is notorious for a bite that is never released.
I am going to be the same way with Facebook until they come out of their blue castle and explain they illogical, inconsistent, way they attend to reports of fake accounts, more so, how their indifference provides a nurturing home to scammers. That is a legacy worth boasting about?
I submit again a detailed summation, with proof of originality of the photos being of me, how Facebook does not apply its own stated community standards, yet in rejecting my efforts to report a fake account, claim that they do.
Let me show you have Facebook adds 1 and 1 and gets an imaginary number as a result.
This is my Facebook account, with a photo of me taken in 2008 posted by Reilly Lievers on flickr (the photo is © All Rights Reserved, but Reilly has given me permission in writing to use the photo).
Compare that image to someone supposedly named “Malle Gottfried” whose account on Facebook has a rather similar looking photo— err the exact same photo. I wonder if he has asked Reilly permission, because if not, that bad ass Malle is a copyright infringer. I would say that Facebook is too, but they have their ass covered in the small print of their Terms of Service. But as is “Malle” is a dirty low down copyright infringer… yet Facebook would never remove his account.
Several times, I, my friends, colleagues, my sister, have reported this account to Facebook, sometimes using the option that it is a fake (it has 3 other og my photos in it’s stream), or that it;s impersonating me (technically is not), or that it is pretending to be someone else.
In every case, at least 8 that I know of, Facebook has denied reports on this account, claiming that they have reviewed the account and that it does not violate their community guidelines.
Now check this out. Yesterday, my sister told me she saw another account in Facebook under the name Roddick Henderson that was using my photo. In November, I came across 3 different accounts for “Roddick Henderson” each with a different photo of me for a profile and photo of a boat for a cover photo. They were taken down quickly after reporting.
And yes, indeed, I found yet another zombie cockroach Roddick Henderson account, with a photo of me taken in 2008 (I offer Roddick bonus points if he can name the woman standing behind me as well as described the game I am playing).
Curious how “Roddick’s Facebook profile photo is an exact copy of a photo of me taken in Japan in 2008
My sister reported this one under the option of “A friend reported a profile they think is pretending to be you”, and shazam, in like 2 hours:
So why in one case does Facebook see “Roddick Henderson” as going “against our community standard on identity and privacy”, yet the profile for “Malle Gottfried” which also uses my photo (AND THE SAME FREAKING ON ON MY OWN PROFILE) does not?
#HEYFACEBOOK- this does not add up.
Because Facebook tells the world nothing about what it does when it “reviews” a report, because it never allows a report filer to explain the situation with anything other than a radio button, we can only make up reasons for this inconsistency.
The “Roddick” Henderson account, created in November 2015 had only a cover photo, my photo as a profile pic, and no status updates. “Malle Gottfried” has an account also bearing my photo as his profile pic, it was also created in November 2015, but it has 18 status updates- four of them being uploads of my photos, the rest being clip art images and miscellaneous bible quotes.
One might guess that Facebook’s review is automated? An account with no updates in 4 months is fake, but one with fake updates is not?
Who knows? As far as we know, this is the technology Facebook uses to deal with reports of fake accounts. Because they take it so seriously.
modified from flickr photo by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com https://flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/2403514661 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
Ironically, I noticed “Malle” claims this photo of him uploaded November 27, 2015 as being in taken in France:
Malle says this is a photo of him in France.
yet I can show easily that this is MY photo I took of myself November 2008, north of Selfoss Iceland. If Facebook actually cared, or investigated, they might find at least 12 other photos I took through this same window during the month I spent in Iceland.
Do you think they might ask Malle about that? How does his photo in France match the same window I took photos out of for a month in Iceland? Or can Malle explain how he, as supposedly an engineer on a transport ship, came to own a WordPress sweatshirt? They are not just given away; mine was a gift from Llyod Budd who in 2008 worked for WordPress, and sent it to me as a gift. I have proof what the F*** does “Malle” have?
This of course is completely in vain. In Facebook’s review process, despite the fact their tiny little box says “Help Us Understand What is Going On” what opportunity to they give you to so?
A fucking radio button labeled “other”.
That is it.
If that is not bullshit, you don’t know what it smells like.
Facebook does not want to properly take reports for fake accounts. They do not want to act consistently or reveal their process.
I have provided more than sufficient proof that “Malle Gottfried” does not exist as a person, yet Facebook adamantly refuses to remove that account. They refuse to ask “Malle Gottfried” for proof of his identity. Meanwhile, that account is active in use of luring woman like M into romance scams and funneling him money (based on a story of a sick child named Harrison who does not exist).
So why will Facebook quickly remove one account using my photo, certifying it is fake, yet it will not take down another doing the same thing?
And once again, I want to know, and you should want to as well, why Facebook stands silent to criminal activity that is based on fake accounts they allow to exist on their site.
In the meantime, I sent “Malle” a friend request. No response yet.
Darn, he looks like such a nice guy.
UPDATE: March 4, 2016 If you need any more evidence of how f***ed the Facebook system is, I have gotten messages from two people who filed reports on the “Mealy Gotfake” account (I am tired of his bullshit fake account and fake name so he gets a new name from me) — and get this — after reporting Mealy as a fake account, his face (which is MINE goddamnit) shows up a a friend suggestion.
How much more shit do you need to see how screwup Facebook is?
Join me in leaving Facebook.
UPDATE: March 5, 2016 Join me in a joyous moment of non-silence as I mark the death of Halle Gottfried’s (aka Mealy Gotfake) Facebook Fakebook profile. This is no victory. the scammers continue to create fake Facebook Fakebook accounts on a massive scale, Facebook Fakebook continues to look the other way, and almost no one gives a shit about this.
I. Will. Not. Stop.
Top / Featured Image: I did a google image search on “bad math” looking for something to show obvious bad arithmetic. I found almost nothing useful in the images licensed for re-use, so I flipped it off for a wide open image search. The difference in results, as always is astounding. For as much as one can find licensed for reuse, the percentage of the total must be infinitesimal; our default for media is DO NOT SHARE.
But this image I found on an investment site was on target. Chris chamber does not cite the source of the image, but it does show up in many places via reverse image search. So if Chris does not own the image nor make a statement of origin, is using that image a copyright infringement? On who? I was ready to use this as a rationale, but I am looking at the image, seeing a gradient fill background and a chalk style brush, and recreated my own version in 5 minutes of Photoshop effort.
And so, is it a copy? Is it legal? Who knows or cares?
This guy I know is going through the same thing – I encountered “Alessio” on Tinder, then we followed each other in Instagram and talked on the phone (and exchanged photos) for 3 weeks, when I finally started getting suspicious. I did some major detective work; reverse-image search didn’t work, but searching the text next to his IG photos finally yielded the truth: “Alessio” had stolen photos (and stories) from 2 different IG accounts. I found both “Alessio” and the person whose photos he had stolen on FB and alerted the latter that his images had been used to create social media profiles on FB, IG, Tinder, Snapchat (who knows where else). He alerted FB yesterday to this fake “impersonation” profile and they denied his claim! I just contacted them myself…keeping my fingers crossed. Who knows what these creeps are up to – political meddlers, sexual predators, financial scammers…?
Glad you figured it out. It’s an old scam in a new place, the con in con game comes from fooling your confidence. Don’t be hard on yourself but don’t expect much help from Facebook. They don’t care about anything but more activity in their catfish house
Someone (friend? I don’t know) reported a profile stating it is impersonating myself.
But I don’t know what is this profile and I don’t know which friend reported.
Facebook just sent me an email with this text:
Hi Adriano,
We reviewed the profile your friend reported and found that it isn’t pretending to be you and doesn’t go against our Community Standards.
Note: If you see something on someone’s profile that shouldn’t be on Facebook, be sure to report the content (ex: a photo or video), not the entire profile.
For more information about our policies, please read the Facebook Community Standards:
https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
Ana
—-
Crazy! Useless shit
Yes that was their usual canned responses I saw many times when I was trying to deal with this from within Facebook. They get to make the standards and all the decisions.