Fake social media accounts, otherwise known as catfish accounts, are those who may steal your photos, identity, or brand to use for their own benefit. These accounts have been rampantly growing across all social media platforms, leaving users with very few tools to remove them.
Here’s an all-in-one guide on what you need to know about social media’s growing catfish problem as a content creator.
Who’s behind the catfish account?
There are 3 main culprits behind a catfish account. The first are fans who believe that imitation is the best flattery. They typically want to help you by taking part in your promotion and they may also want your attention.
Then there are the solo scammers that create accounts to run scams. They will typically trick other fans with 1-on-1 relationships and request money or solicit private images from victims.
Lastly are bots, these are scams on a large scale. They create many accounts using technology through image databases and variations of your name. The accounts are created quicker than you can take them down and usually point to a fake landing page where they solicit money.
In almost all cases, social platforms will never disclose the person behind a catfish account due to their privacy policy leaving most creators and victims in the dark.
Catfish Hurt Many Aspects of Your Brand
Catfishes hurt more than just your earnings, and it’s important to understand the full scope of their damage. They come for your wallet, but these accounts do so much more.
Your reputation is impacted when you are targeted by fake accounts. These catfish may spread false narratives about you and misspeak on your behalf without those following knowing if it’s real or not.
They impact the trust your fans have in you. Fans that are victims of scams become hesitant to purchase and support you in the future.
Lastly, your SEO is impacted especially if you are an NSFW creator. You may be shadow banned and your real account does not show up when searching your name on Instagram and Twitter. Catfishes on the other hand are popping up first and are gaining followers, notoriety, and popularity. You may even find brands tagging your catfish instead of your real handles due to this.
Removing Them, The Challenge
The real issue with catfish accounts is they are not technically protected by copyright laws. DMCA protects digital content, which are media files such as images and videos. With a DMCA, creators can remove the avatar photo, the header, and the posts of a social media catfish.
Well, what if you want the entire profile removed, and not just the images? This falls under a platform’s terms of service. If you want the profile completely deleted, you need to prove to websites like Instagram & Twitter that this catfish is breaching their terms of service.
Since most of these websites use AI to assess terms of service breaches, these machines are not usually smart enough to differentiate a catfish. This is usually why when you self-report a catfish account using Instagram or Twitter’s reporting system, you rarely see. Even when cases are escalated to humans, their support can also be pretty hit-and-miss.
What constitutes a terms of service breach to remove an account?
In my experience, I see a few patterns that AI and social media support agents look for which can lead to a successful full-profile takedown.
First – The catfish cannot use the term “fan” or “fan account”, these accounts are protected by most platforms’ terms of service. We can file copyright claims, but platforms refuse to remove the entire account.
Second – The catfish should be using a photo of your face or your trademarked logo. This is how support agents and AI easily associate a fake account to your original brand.
Third – You have a long-standing profile on the platform. Usually, the website wants to compare the fake profile, to the media of your official profile. This can be difficult for sex workers who often get their official profiles deleted.
Fourth – They are using your brand’s name and are copying aspects of your description and other posts. These aren’t required, but it increases the chances.
How can you reduce the impact of catfish accounts?
The first way to reduce their impact is to report them as soon as they pop up. Mass reporting can be helpful to push AI to recognize the account is fake. You can also use the catfish report form platforms provide. However, if you are a creator, never provide your ID or personal information to social media platforms to “prove” you are legitimate as you may never know how that information is stored or who has access to it. We highly disagree with this practice.
Rather, if it comes to this stage, we recommend you use a takedown service that will protect your identity and report for you. They can also do the copyright claims should the platform not want to remove the profile and that way the images will come down leaving an empty profile.
Consider also reducing a catfish’s impact by creating profiles on all major social media (even if you don’t keep them active) so you can retain the name and presence. You can also help your fans and brands find you by watermarking your content with your handle and creating a landing page with all your legitimate links.
