After being alerted to a fake Facebook account, Bill Prady went to his followers on Twitter for help in having the account removed. In a short time, the fake account is now unavailable.
billprady Bill Prady “CAN ABOUT 1000 PEOPLE POST ON THIS PAGE THAT IT IS FAKE? http://on.fb.me/A7s9Nm (LINK TO THIS TWEET)”
billprady Bill Prady “Attention: THIS IS AN IMPOSTER (sic) FACEBOOK PAGE: on.fb.me/A7s9Nm THIS IS NOT ME!!!”
billprady Bill Prady “Okay, if you’re on Facebook, please go to this page on.fb.me/A7s9Nm and report it as a SCAM — THIS IS NOT ME! RISE UP, INTERNET!”
billprady Bill Prady “It is simply baffling to me as to why someone would seek to impersonate me on Facebook.”
This isn’t the first time a celebrity or writer has had a fake account made on a social network site. At one time Twitter had required certain things to happen in order for the real celebrities and writers of popular TV shows to be verified by the public.
Twitter is no longer allowing the public to be able to help verify people like Prady. Facebook needs to have similar verification processes put into place to help those like Prady not be taken advantage of on their site.
Impersonating someone on a social network site could be considered identity theft. While most people steal more than a person’s name to take over their identity, impersonating someone while hiding in this fashion seems like it should be a criminal act. In the case of Prady, the definition of impersonate from thefreedictionary.com falls under the first description of the word.
This type of impersonating is different from those who impersonate Elvis or a person’s voice. With this type of impersonating you see and hear the person while they will tell you they are not the person they are imitating. That’s where the difference comes into play. The second definition from thefreedictionary.com describes the preceding act.
Sources
Bill Prady; Twitter.com
Definition of Impersonation; Thefreedictionary.com