When Simone Lahbib came face to face with herself on Facebook, the social
networking website, she was horrified by what she found.
The page in her name contained some of the actress’s personal details, but
also photographs of her that friends had posted. The site, set up by an
imposter, was realistic enough to fool even those who know her well. “I
don’t even know how to describe how I feel,” she says, “but I feel worse for
the people who were tricked into thinking they were communicating with me.”
Having developed a large cult following of fans from her role as a bisexual
prison officer in Bad Girls, Lahbib understands the nature of celebrity and
the scrutiny that results from it. Yet she remains shaken by the
vulnerability she felt.
Unknown to her, somebody had reached into her social circle, immersing
themselves in her life. When she learnt of the imposter and the potential
harm they could have wrought, she shuddered, chilled by the fear of what
might have been.
“I became more and more troubled about it,” she admits. “This person got in
touch with my friends. They were saying to me this person found them on
Facebook and added them as friends. It’s that thing of not knowing what was
said, how they conducted themselves, just people believing it. It’s very
distasteful and I’m very angry about it. I can get in touch with my friends
and say I’m really sorry about it, but I can’t to other people. I dealt with
it as soon as I could and I hope they don’t feel silly or foolish, or
anything worse.”
Despite sending e-mails to Facebook complaining about the fake profile, it
took Lahbib several weeks to get it removed, during which time she worried
friends might be fooled into meeting up with the person posing as her.
Even now, she feels that the site did not react swiftly enough to deal with
the situation, and she still does not know the identity of her imposter.
“I’d love to think that Facebook could find that out and that they would be
interested enough to do it, that there would be some kind of recourse for
it,” she adds. “Surely that’s a type of fraud?”
It is the ease with which a fake profile can be created that is telling. So,
too, is the difficulty for the website to establish which is a real identity
and which is fabricated. The freedoms of the internet are also its
vulnerabilities and the accessibility of Facebook creates a breeding ground
for the growing obsession with celebrity. On the internet, fantasy and real
life can merge.
“I have had about 99% really good experiences with fans,” says Lahbib. “You
wouldn’t believe how lovely people can be: presents, people remembering your
birthday with cards, or remembering Skye’s [her daughter] birthday, just the
loveliest gestures. I’ve had less than a handful of bad experiences and
usually it’s just over-zealous fans getting carried away, finding a
contact for me or that kind of thing and in the end there was nothing
sinister in it.
“I’m hoping this fake Facebook site turns out to be another case of that. I
also hope that nobody out there experienced anything bad from this, but how
would I know?”
Shabana Bakhsh, another Scottish actress, was the victim of a similar fraud,
when somebody stole her identity to set up a Facebook page then used it to
chat to cast and crew members of Waterloo Road, the BBC drama series she
stars in. The imposter was told of forthcoming storylines for the programme,
and even arranged a date for coffee with one of Bakhsh’s colleagues, before
the deception was uncovered.
Hardeep Singh Kohli, a comedian and broadcaster, also discovered a fake
Facebook site set up in his identity when he searched for people who shared
his name. “I found a photo of me and looked a bit further into it and
realised somebody had gone to a great deal of effort to make it look like
they were me,” he says.
Facebook is an internet phenomenon. Since being created more than four years
ago by Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Harvard students, it has attracted 67m
active users to become the second-most-trafficked social media site in the
world. Mostly used as a way to keep in touch with family, friends and work
colleagues, social groups and networks also rapidly developed. Yet it has
proved to be open to abuse.
When Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was named as chairman of the Pakistan People’s
Party last December after the assassination of his mother, Benazir, a
prankster set up a fake Facebook site in the 19-year-old’s name. Newspaper
reporters seeking information about Zardari were fooled into thinking the
site was real and published data lifted from the profile page.
Alex Curran, the wife of Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard and prominent Wag,
was also the victim of a fake Facebook site, as was Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s former wife.
What is common to the deception is the ease with which people can be fooled,
using basic knowledge such as date and place of birth and photographs that
can easily be found on the internet. In the US, lawyers are even beginning
to specialise in online reputation management.
For celebrities, fake sites are often the work of over-zealous fans or
pranksters, but a sinister edge can creep in. A businessman, Mathew Firsht,
was awarded £22,000 compensation last month after an old friend created a
fake Facebook site and posted false claims about his sexuality, political
views and debts.
Like Lahbib, Singh Kohli found the website sluggish in dealing with the fake
site set up in his name. Having grown tired of sending e-mails and receiving
no response, he established his own group on the site, called Get Rid of the
Facebook Imposter.
“Facebook ignored every request. You send them an e-mail saying, ‘This is
going on, can you sort it out?’, and you don’t get a response. Nothing gets
done,” he says.
As friends continued to join the fake site and it began to affect his working
life, Singh Kohli became more aware of the perils of having his identity
stolen.
“I’d deputised for Mark Kermode doing movie reviews on Radio 5 Live and I
hadn’t heard anything back from the producer,” he says.
“I was a bit miffed, because when you don’t hear anything you assume you’ve
done a bad job, but the producer had been posting on the imposter’s site,
saying how happy he was and how he’d like to do it again and to get in
touch.
“There was also a worry that somebody might behave inappropriately in a
personal context. As it turned out, he was just an unemployed bloke in west
London who liked my work and thought it would be good fun. He hadn’t thought
it through, but he wasn’t a nasty man at all.”
Facebook defends its practices, pointing to the inherent difficulties of
regulating user-led content on the internet. “Facebook is based on a
real-name culture and will remove fake profiles for violating its terms of
use,” a spokesperson said.
“Before we do so, we examine a range of criteria to determine whether a
profile is authentic, including reports from users, profile content, the
e-mail associated with an account, length of time the account has been open
and network affiliations. As soon as we are made aware of a possible fake
profile, our user investigations team examine it immediately and remove it
from the site.”
The concern for Singh Kohli and others is what could have happened.
Social media is has become an enduring part of peoples' lives. User generated content is another considersation and there's a lot of it on facebook. Sadly, not all users act responsibly. There's no 100% control on the Web so fraudulent activity is common, so vigilance by all users is critical.
Jacqueline Yeo, Singapore, Singapore
To Simone....for whatever it's worth, You've done the right thing by exposing this. As for the fans, we will still be here looking for the latest work from you. No matter what, the only thing that matters in the end is that you and your family are safe.
Cheers !
Eileen, austin, TX, USA
As a fan I found this very disappointing and sad that someone had done such a thing. I am not sure what we can do to communicate to her that she has fans that respect her and don’t want to ever offend her. Why would anyone do such a thing just blows me away. She does have a Facebook Fan Page. WeCare
Kay Kelison, Seattle, USA
Its difficult for the website - they know who the offender is (they have IP addresses in their logs), but that's all they know.
they cannot tell you who in real life the person is without co-operation from ISPs who match it to a phone line; nor can they tell if you are who you say.
get a court.
andyb, Swindon,