A Public Service Warning About Catfishing

I write with a warning about identity fraud. There have been infamous imposters since Martin Guerre, the French soldier of the sixteenth century, who vanished and had his family stolen by a swindler pretending to be he. The imitator eventually was found out, suffering execution for the crime. The internet, however, has made the practice now called "catfishing" much more powerful and damaging, as people around the world can be swindled by an anonymous wrongdoer. Please beware!

A personal encounter prompts me. My only role is to have the strange luck to have my photographs copied and pasted into social media accounts. The miscreants have been clever to avoid copying my name and other biographical details. Observers have said I ought to be flattered that my mug has been chosen for this purpose.

There is a likely explanation. I happen to have enough of a public profile that it is easy enough to gather images of me, giving a speech, presenting an award, welcoming a dignitary, or engaged in other activities that appear suitably respectable. Yet I am not genuinely famous, such that the impersonation would be obvious.

The victims here are not me, but the women who have been deceived into turning over their life savings to someone — not me — whom they thought had become a friend. The scheme apparently involves the claim that the phony needs funds for a charity. It's galling. The villains are vile. They are romancing persons who are too trusting, which should be counted a virtue. Their conduct is unconscionable.

The problem is recurring. Each time I find out that an account has been opened by the scammer — probably scammers plural, from what I have learned about this organized crime — I do everything I can to ensure it is shut down. That does not stop him or them with any effectiveness. They simply start again with another pseudonym, and I cannot catch up to them until it is too late.

Infuriatingly, some websites I have notified of the issue have doubted me. They have rejected my report that I am me. (LinkedIn has been good.) Among the best means to address this phenomenon would be for companies that make their money from our desire for networking to redouble their efforts. They owe a responsibility. None of us as ordinary people can protect our individuality on our own. We mortals of flesh and blood are powerless against our avatars.

The best I can do is offer this cautionary note about the perils of identity fraud.