How to Handle Fake Profiles on Facebook

Social networking sites have been gaining ground in recent years, so are name squatters. Impersonated profiles on sites like Facebook and Twitter, even not registered in bad faith, can violate copyrights and cause great confusion. Here’s a case study on how to tackle this thorny issue.

Columbia International College, the largest private boarding school in Canada, has been using Facebook since August, 2009.

Soon after signing up, the school found several impersonated profiles using its name, logo and images without permission.

It reported the cases to Facebook and successfully had them blocked. Since then, CIC’s fan base on Facebook has been growing steadily.

Here’re some useful tips from the school:

 Use search engines to find out if your brand name is squatted. Search term can be “Facebook Your School Name” (without the quote) on Google.

 Reserve a Facebook page for your brand, even if you have no intention of using it. Although CIC succeeded in having the fake profiles blocked, Facebook is not likely to deal with every report the same way.

 Requesting your Facebook username: (http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=Client_Username)

 Notice of Intellectual Property Infringement (Non-Copyright Claim) (http://www.facebook.com/legal/copyright.php?noncopyright_notice=1)

 Report a fake profile: go to the impersonated profile page and click “Report Page” in the bottom left column. In the pop-up window, select “Impersonating me or someone I know” as the reason and submit.