Someone is pretending to be you online

The two get mixed up, and they need different reports.

• Impersonation is an account pretending to be you: your name, your face, your channel art or your logo, set up so people believe it’s really you or officially yours.
• A copy account posts your videos under its own name. It isn’t pretending to be you. It’s using your work.

Many bad accounts do both. A fake “backup” channel with your name and profile picture, posting your videos, is an impersonation problem and a copyright problem. Report the identity as impersonation, and each copied video as copyright. For the copyright side, see our guides to Facebook reposts, TikTok copies and YouTube reuploads.

YouTube’s policy gives useful examples of what crosses the line. It includes “Using workarounds like typos, special fonts, or extra punctuation to trick viewers into thinking you are a different creator”, copying “profile pictures, banners, or specific color schemes”, and “Pretending to be a backup channel by adding words like ‘Backup,’ ‘Shorts,’ or ‘Live’ to a creator’s name”. YouTube adds: “The channel does not have to be 100% identical, as long as the intent is clear to copy the other channel.”

Fan accounts are different. YouTube says: “If you operate a fan channel, make sure you state so explicitly in your channel name or handle.”

This is the rule that catches people out. On Facebook and Instagram, only you or your authorised representative can report impersonation of you.

• Facebook: “Unfortunately, we can only act on reports from the person who’s being impersonated or their authorized representative (ex: parent or legal guardian).”
• Instagram: “We can only act on reports from the person who’s being impersonated or their authorized representative (ex: parent, legal guardian).”
• YouTube privacy complaints: “First-party claims are required.” YouTube accepts third-party claims only in narrow cases, such as a parent, a legal representative, or someone acting for a vulnerable person. It won’t accept complaints from co-workers, employees or “A company”.

So a fan, a friend or a takedown service can’t simply report the fake on your behalf. We can prepare everything for you, but on Meta the report has to come from you or a genuine authorised representative.

• The exact link to the fake account, and its username and display name as shown.
• Screenshots of the profile, its picture, bio and a few posts, with the date visible. Fake accounts rename themselves and vanish.
• Screenshots of any messages it has sent to your followers, especially requests for money or personal details.
• The link to your real account on the same platform.
• Photo ID, for Facebook’s and Instagram’s no-account forms. Instagram accepts “A photo of yourself holding your ID”. Only ever upload it through the platform’s own form.
• A note of any copied content, with links, for the separate copyright reports.

1. 1

   From your account

   Go to the impostor profile, click “Options” below the cover photo, and choose “Report profile”. For a fake Page, choose “Report Page”. Follow the on-screen prompts.

2. 2

   Without a Facebook account

   Use the Report an Impostor Account form. Under “Which of the following best describes your situation?” choose “Someone created an account pretending to be me or a friend”.

3. 3

   Confirm who’s affected

   Answer “Is this account impersonating you?” with “Yes, I am the person being impersonated”, or the authorised representative option if that’s you.

4. 4

   Add the details and your ID

   Give your full name and contact email, the name shown on the fake profile, any email or phone it lists, and the link to it. Facebook says: “Please confirm your identity by attaching a picture or pictures of your ID(s).”

1. 1

   Open the fake profile

   Instagram’s steps: “Click or tap their username from their Feed or story post, or click or tap Search and search their username to go to their profile.”

2. 2

   Report the account

   “Click or tap Options next to their username. Click or tap Report, then click or tap Report account.”

3. 3

   Choose impersonation

   “Click or tap It’s pretending to be someone else. Select the type of impersonation and follow the on-screen instructions.”

4. 4

   No Instagram account?

   Use the impersonation form. It asks for your name, email, your relationship to the person impersonated, both accounts’ usernames, and ID. Instagram says “Your ID will be deleted within 30 days”.

Instagram lets you report accounts pretending to be “You”, “Someone you follow”, “A celebrity or public figure” or “A business or organisation”. It also notes: “At this time, you can only report an account for impersonating someone or something, but not for misrepresenting itself.”

YouTube

YouTube’s impersonation policy says: “If you feel that yours or another creator’s channel is being impersonated, you can report the channel.” The report form is behind a sign-in, and YouTube doesn’t publish its fields, so have your screenshots and your real channel link ready.

If the fake uses your face or voice, including AI-generated versions, YouTube points to its privacy route: “If you find your personal information, a video featuring you, or AI-generated content mimicking your likeness or voice without your consent, you can file a request for removal under our privacy guidelines.” For that route, “The individual must be uniquely identifiable in the content”. YouTube’s privacy pages don’t ask you to upload an ID document.

For AI likeness, YouTube considers whether the content is altered or synthetic, whether that’s disclosed, whether you can be uniquely identified, whether it’s realistic, and whether it has parody, satire or public interest value. It says “we won’t share your name or contact info with the person who posted the content.”

TikTok

TikTok’s legal webform includes “Reporting a possible impersonation violation” as one of its issue types, alongside copyright. TikTok hasn’t published what evidence it asks for on impersonation reports, so have your real account link and screenshots to hand, and answer what the form asks. Don’t send anything the form doesn’t request.

None of these platforms publish a timescale for impersonation reports.

• YouTube: “If we determine that a channel was established to impersonate another person or entity, the channel may be removed.” For privacy complaints, YouTube may first give the uploader time to remove or edit the content.
• Facebook and Instagram review against their Community Standards. Instagram says the account you reported “won’t see who reported them”.
• Copyright reports are not anonymous. If you also report copied videos, Meta regularly shares your name and email with the uploader. Use a business email for those.

• The wrong person filed it. Meta’s forms refuse reports from anyone other than you or your authorised representative.
• It isn’t impersonation. An account clearly labelled as a fan or parody account is usually allowed.
• The account “misrepresents itself” without copying anyone. Instagram can’t act on that under this route.
• The evidence has gone. A fake that renamed itself before you screenshotted it is hard to prove.
• It was filed as copyright. A fake identity isn’t a copyright issue, and a copyright form won’t deal with it.

Where there’s a free-text box, keep it short and factual. An example to adapt:

This account copies my name, profile picture and channel art so that people believe it is me. My real account is [link]. The fake account [link] has messaged my followers asking for money, and I have never asked followers for money. I am the person being impersonated.

Only include what’s true. Don’t add claims about the person behind the account.

Keep every report, screenshot and response in one dated record. A pattern of new accounts using the same name, picture or content is useful when you report again.

• Post a warning on your real account. Tell followers the account is fake and that you’ll never ask them for money or personal details.
• Consider verification. Meta says “Verified profiles will receive proactive impersonation monitoring protection”, but “If we cannot verify your identity, these two benefits won’t be active.” It’s not a complete defence. According to an investigation by the Spanish fact-checker Maldita, published in 2026, blue-tick profiles were themselves used to run fraudulent ads.
• Report copied content every time. Platform repeat-infringer policies allow accounts that keep posting other people’s work to be disabled.

This is general information, not legal advice. Copyright doesn’t protect your name: UK courts have held that a single name isn’t an original literary work, and protection against confusing use of a name belongs to trade mark law and passing off. Your photographs, channel art and videos are protected by copyright, so a fake that copies them can be reported for that too. If a fake account is taking money from your followers or damaging your business, speak to a solicitor about what’s worth pursuing.

Evidence that an account is working from your channel is often in the text. On TikTok, the giveaway in copied parts is a creator’s own title quirks and typos, copied character for character, and the same record helps when a fake account reappears under a new name. Because Meta’s impersonation forms refuse third-party reports, we prepare the evidence and the creator files the impersonation report themselves. If the account is also copying your videos, the free pack at the top of this page fills in the copyright form for you to paste and submit.