Facebook weirdness - duplicate account?

[Circe]

Okay, so, funny thing: I found a FaceBook account under my name that isn't ... mine.

And here's the thing: I have a really unusual name. I'm the only child of an only child who was - drumroll, please - an only child. In the past, Google searches have brought up me, me, me (to the tune of roughly several thousand results), and a hit apiece for each of my parents. Dedicated searching gets me a photo of Orthodox Jews in Portugal from the turn of the century (where and when, my father tells me, a branch of the family did indeed vanish).

The other weird thing is, my actual account codes like this: http://www.facebook.com/my-last-name-here

The weird duplicate account? Codes like this: http://www.facebook.com/people/my-full-name-here/100002426256427

And the weird duplicate account doesn't come up under a normal Google search, or even an internal FB search: the only reason I found it is that while I was doing a vanity search (I like to see the responses to my articles!), I saw an image that was neither me at a conference, nor an illustration associated with one of my pieces.

So ... WTH? Can anybody out there reassure me that this is not the beginning of some nefarious identity theft/convoluted prank?

ETA: and, in further weirdness, the fako link for the duplicate takes you to a page, even though I changed the number. Let's change that again so as to not bother some random stranger, but ... why does the duplicate incomplete address do that while the real incomplete address doesn't? GAH.

 

[Circe]

Nobody? If I'm being a paranoid freak, don't hold back - I just can't figure out if it's actually weird or not!

 

[lyra]

You should contact FB first. They should be able to take care of it for you. Sounds weird.

 

[iheartscience]

Do you know that it is definitely not you? Can you see any of the information or wall posts or anything? If it's not a real person who happens to share your name I would contact FB and see if they can look into it.

Edited to make sense-tired!

 

[Dreamer_D]

Hmmm that is creepy. I admit, I find facebook creepy in general though. I suspect we will discover at some point in the future it is a data gathering tool for aliens who want to control us. Or something.

 

[Circe]

Do you know that it is definitely not you? Can you see any of the information or wall posts or anything? If it's not a real person who happens to share your name I would contact FB and see if they can look into it.

Edited to make sense-tired!

It is DEFINITELY not me - there are pics, she's apparently a mom of 4 who attended Brigham Young University, she's a fan of "Glee" ... like, the anti-Circe.

There is the distant possibility of it being a real person, but ... we're talking the 1-in-a-million longshot of those distant Portuguese ancestors producing a scion who married a Mormon (all without ever raising a blip on Google). It just seems ... unlikely. Guess I'll be contacting FB to see what they do ....

 

[ZahraLeyla]

I have one of these too! My normal Facebook page (that I set up) is just my first name and surname, but the duplicate account includes my middle name as well (which is a very unusual name, as are my first name and surname). The only reason I found out about the duplicate account was because Facebook suggested that I might want to be friends with it! One person that I know has friended the duplicate account (how, I don't know, because I certainly didn't approve the friend request), but other than that it seems pretty dormant.

I find it very strange, but have been too lazy to do much more research about it.

 

[iheartscience]

Do you know that it is definitely not you? Can you see any of the information or wall posts or anything? If it's not a real person who happens to share your name I would contact FB and see if they can look into it.

Edited to make sense-tired!

It is DEFINITELY not me - there are pics, she's apparently a mom of 4 who attended Brigham Young University, she's a fan of "Glee" ... like, the anti-Circe.

There is the distant possibility of it being a real person, but ... we're talking the 1-in-a-million longshot of those distant Portuguese ancestors producing a scion who married a Mormon (all without ever raising a blip on Google). It just seems ... unlikely. Guess I'll be contacting FB to see what they do ....

Ah, gotcha. That is strange! Have you thought about doing a search on Intelius.com with her name and city/state to see if she's a real person? I worked on a research study a few years ago and Intelius was definitely the best of the people finding sites to track participants down.

 

[lyra]

Celebrities can have duplicate or false accounts investigated, and you should be able to also. I really don't like the implications of this. It might be an identity theft of some sort. I would never be able to prove that if it happened to me, as I have an extremely common and even unisex full name. It's the part about them having the same middle name that really bothers me about your situation. Get that thing looked at!

 

[Circe]

Do you know that it is definitely not you? Can you see any of the information or wall posts or anything? If it's not a real person who happens to share your name I would contact FB and see if they can look into it.

Edited to make sense-tired!

It is DEFINITELY not me - there are pics, she's apparently a mom of 4 who attended Brigham Young University, she's a fan of "Glee" ... like, the anti-Circe.

There is the distant possibility of it being a real person, but ... we're talking the 1-in-a-million longshot of those distant Portuguese ancestors producing a scion who married a Mormon (all without ever raising a blip on Google). It just seems ... unlikely. Guess I'll be contacting FB to see what they do ....

Ah, gotcha. That is strange! Have you thought about doing a search on Intelius.com with her name and city/state to see if she's a real person? I worked on a research study a few years ago and Intelius was definitely the best of the people finding sites to track participants down.

I'll give it a shot, but ... her name is my name, and she supposedly lives in my city. So I'm forseeing a lot of interesting confusion ....

 

[Circe]

I have one of these too! My normal Facebook page (that I set up) is just my first name and surname, but the duplicate account includes my middle name as well (which is a very unusual name, as are my first name and surname). The only reason I found out about the duplicate account was because Facebook suggested that I might want to be friends with it! One person that I know has friended the duplicate account (how, I don't know, because I certainly didn't approve the friend request), but other than that it seems pretty dormant.

I find it very strange, but have been too lazy to do much more research about it.

Huh! Okay, glad I'm not alone, but ... not-glad that you might have to deal with whatever the heck it is, too!

 

[Circe]

Do you know that it is definitely not you? Can you see any of the information or wall posts or anything? If it's not a real person who happens to share your name I would contact FB and see if they can look into it.

Edited to make sense-tired!

It is DEFINITELY not me - there are pics, she's apparently a mom of 4 who attended Brigham Young University, she's a fan of "Glee" ... like, the anti-Circe.

There is the distant possibility of it being a real person, but ... we're talking the 1-in-a-million longshot of those distant Portuguese ancestors producing a scion who married a Mormon (all without ever raising a blip on Google). It just seems ... unlikely. Guess I'll be contacting FB to see what they do ....

Ah, gotcha. That is strange! Have you thought about doing a search on Intelius.com with her name and city/state to see if she's a real person? I worked on a research study a few years ago and Intelius was definitely the best of the people finding sites to track participants down.

Just tried, and ... nope, just me. Also, Intelius is creepy! I'm not willing to spend the 40 bucks to see how accurate it is, but the idea that somebody (see also: my creepy ex) can get my address that easily gives me the shivers ...

 

[iheartscience]

Do you know that it is definitely not you? Can you see any of the information or wall posts or anything? If it's not a real person who happens to share your name I would contact FB and see if they can look into it.

Edited to make sense-tired!

It is DEFINITELY not me - there are pics, she's apparently a mom of 4 who attended Brigham Young University, she's a fan of "Glee" ... like, the anti-Circe.

There is the distant possibility of it being a real person, but ... we're talking the 1-in-a-million longshot of those distant Portuguese ancestors producing a scion who married a Mormon (all without ever raising a blip on Google). It just seems ... unlikely. Guess I'll be contacting FB to see what they do ....

Ah, gotcha. That is strange! Have you thought about doing a search on Intelius.com with her name and city/state to see if she's a real person? I worked on a research study a few years ago and Intelius was definitely the best of the people finding sites to track participants down.

Just tried, and ... nope, just me. Also, Intelius is creepy! I'm not willing to spend the 40 bucks to see how accurate it is, but the idea that somebody (see also: my creepy ex) can get my address that easily gives me the shivers ...

I think a lot of it depends on things like having a landline, etc. For some reason none of my addresses showed up when I searched myself, even with the paid one. So your stuff might not all be on there.

Also, have you heard of reputation.com? It's a service to manage your online information. I haven't used it, just heard of it, but I think it can hide/get rid of info you don't want out there, if you were concerned about creepy ex seeing you online.

 

[VRBeauty]

does your doppelganger show up on any other data mining sites, such as pipl or zabasearch?

 

[Amys Bling]

You should contact FB first. They should be able to take care of it for you. Sounds weird.

Great advice. If it's really not someone else with your name I would contact Facebook.

 

[gardengloves]

Circe,

Do you or your husband know anyone in IT who can help track this down or explain it? - it would make me very uneasy too

 

[centralsquare]

Can you see the friends in that profile? is this person trying to trick your fields? Definitely contact FB!

 

[Mara]

the funny/diff coding is probably a function of how you found and were traffic driven to the page itself.

i often will start at someone's page then surf over to my friends then into pics and the url looks odd like

/original-name-of-persons-page-i-was-on/photos/abcd.jpg

even if the person's pic i am looking at is NOT the original person's page i was on. it's just the way FB shows your 'path'.

the rest...not sure. i would agree to contact FB and maybe just say you are worried about ID theft and could they investigate both your and her account and make sure things seem kosher.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Do you know that it is definitely not you? Can you see any of the information or wall posts or anything? If it's not a real person who happens to share your name I would contact FB and see if they can look into it.

Edited to make sense-tired!

It is DEFINITELY not me - there are pics, she's apparently a mom of 4 who attended Brigham Young University, she's a fan of "Glee" ... like, the anti-Circe.

There is the distant possibility of it being a real person, but ... we're talking the 1-in-a-million longshot of those distant Portuguese ancestors producing a scion who married a Mormon (all without ever raising a blip on Google). It just seems ... unlikely. Guess I'll be contacting FB to see what they do ....

Ah, gotcha. That is strange! Have you thought about doing a search on Intelius.com with her name and city/state to see if she's a real person? I worked on a research study a few years ago and Intelius was definitely the best of the people finding sites to track participants down.

I'll give it a shot, but ... her name is my name, and she supposedly lives in my city. So I'm forseeing a lot of interesting confusion ....

Eh, yeah, for sure contact FB if she says she lives in your city. Sounds suspicious. FB is pretty good about looking into things. One of my relatives has the same name as a celebrity and FB wouldn't let her open an account using that name. lol! She had to hyphenate her name to make an account.

Also, maybe get copy of your credit report to see if anything odd is on it!

 

[Circe]

Update: you know how they say once is coincidence, twice is conspiracy?

Now there are TWO fake accounts under my name. The first one dates to May 12th, and now DOES show up in FB proper when you search my name: the second dates to May 11th, has the exact same interests ("Glee," Brigham Young University, etc.), but has considerably more ... porntastic ... profile shots, and still doesn't show up in a Facebook search as such: when I went back to Imposter #1 to see if anything had been done about it post-complaint, Imposter #2 and my ACTUAL account were both suggested as alternatives in a sidebar.

I ... just .... WHAT? I could maybe sort of figure there was another person out there with my name who'd flown completely under the radar of the internet until now, but TWO? Who pop up within two days of one another? No way, Jose. What gives?

 

[lyra]

I'm a paranoid person usually, so, do you think someone set this up as an ID theft situation. Or to somehow associate your name with something bad (you said porntastic pics) just for the "fun" of it? It sounds so fishy. I'd keep on FB and explain that you have a professional name to uphold (ie you're published, right?). I don't know if you have any recourse, but I'd keep squeaking if I were you. Have you tried contacting these two people? Or having someone else do it for you?

 

[Circe]

I'm a paranoid person usually, so, do you think someone set this up as an ID theft situation. Or to somehow associate your name with something bad (you said porntastic pics) just for the "fun" of it? It sounds so fishy. I'd keep on FB and explain that you have a professional name to uphold (ie you're published, right?). I don't know if you have any recourse, but I'd keep squeaking if I were you. Have you tried contacting these two people? Or having someone else do it for you?

I just have no idea what the net gain on something like this could be! I tried reporting to FB using the "Report/Block" button, and so far I have heard nada. And the site isn't exactly user-friendly, so I'm stumped as to how to get in touch with A Real Person.

I haven't tried getting in touch, because while there's the chance it's some random spambot using my name for whatever weird reason of its own (... I don't even know), if it is my creepy ex upping the ante (again, I do not even know HOW), I don't want to encourage him by reestablishing contact. God, now I DO sound paranoid ....

 

[lyra]

You have a right to be paranoid. I was thinking the ex angle too. It doesn't need to make sense to *you*, but it could make sense to him. Or maybe it's just some sort of spambot. FB should be doing something. You might tell them you feel unsafe and possibly a bit harrassed, or stalked. They should respond to something. Argh!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I'm a paranoid person usually, so, do you think someone set this up as an ID theft situation. Or to somehow associate your name with something bad (you said porntastic pics) just for the "fun" of it? It sounds so fishy. I'd keep on FB and explain that you have a professional name to uphold (ie you're published, right?). I don't know if you have any recourse, but I'd keep squeaking if I were you. Have you tried contacting these two people? Or having someone else do it for you?

I just have no idea what the net gain on something like this could be! I tried reporting to FB using the "Report/Block" button, and so far I have heard nada. And the site isn't exactly user-friendly, so I'm stumped as to how to get in touch with A Real Person.

I haven't tried getting in touch, because while there's the chance it's some random spambot using my name for whatever weird reason of its own (... I don't even know), if it is my creepy ex upping the ante (again, I do not even know HOW), I don't want to encourage him by reestablishing contact. God, now I DO sound paranoid ....

Was it someone else here or didn't you have a stawker problem a few years back? I may be confusing you with another person.

 

[Maria D]

Update: you know how they say once is coincidence, twice is conspiracy?

Now there are TWO fake accounts under my name. The first one dates to May 12th, and now DOES show up in FB proper when you search my name: the second dates to May 11th, has the exact same interests ("Glee," Brigham Young University, etc.), but has considerably more ... porntastic ... profile shots, and still doesn't show up in a Facebook search as such: when I went back to Imposter #1 to see if anything had been done about it post-complaint, Imposter #2 and my ACTUAL account were both suggested as alternatives in a sidebar.

I ... just .... WHAT? I could maybe sort of figure there was another person out there with my name who'd flown completely under the radar of the internet until now, but TWO? Who pop up within two days of one another? No way, Jose. What gives?

What do you mean by "dates to May 12th?" I can't find on FB the date an account was opened, but I could be missing something obvious. The reason I ask is that it would bother me that a new account was opened AFTER you posted about the first one here. If they are fake accounts meant to creep you out, it seems like someone has equated "Circe" with you and is following your posts here.

So there you go, I'm even more paranoid than you are!

 

[Circe]

Was it someone else here or didn't you have a stawker problem a few years back? I may be confusing you with another person.

Yep, c'est moi - which is one reason why I DO leap to the worst possible conclusion and get paranoid. My RL friends to whom I've shown the profile feel like they're probably spambots because all of their interests are in alphabetical order, which has calmed me down a bit (sound plausible to y'all)?

What do you mean by "dates to May 12th?" I can't find on FB the date an account was opened, but I could be missing something obvious. The reason I ask is that it would bother me that a new account was opened AFTER you posted about the first one here. If they are fake accounts meant to creep you out, it seems like someone has equated "Circe" with you and is following your posts here.

So there you go, I'm even more paranoid than you are!

If you go aaaaaaaaaaaaall the way back on any given FB profile, it tells you when it was established. Imposter #1 dates to May 12th: Imposter #2, who I swear to god didn't show up when I searched FaceBook three days ago, apparently dates one day earlier, to May 11th. You raise a DEEPLY CREEPY point, which I am hoping is not the case - I don't like the idea of spambot weirdness, either, but much better that than the alternative!

So I've complained to FB about both profiles: one of these is apparently worth investigating. Fingers crossed they do something, and before my incipient ulcer gets any worse ....

 

[LGK]

Geez. All I can say is, creepy indeed! I hope a Real Person (tm) does indeed help you out because those profiles, with one being ****-y, and you having stalker-ex, is just a little... much. I hope it's just spam, that would be annoying, yet awesome, all at the same time!

Definitely update us if you find anything out later. It sounds disturbing, all the way around. People are nuts!

I haven't had anything exactly like your situation happen, but I've definitely had other PS members walk up to me IRL and put my backpiece tattoo, my avatar, and my ring together with my PS username. Luckily they've all been nice, sane girls and fun to chat with. Still, it kind of... weirds you a little when you realize that anyone who's seen good, closeup pics of particularly unique jewelry any of us wear, can totally ID you if you're out and about wearing it.

 

[Maria D]

I don't get how spam can create a FB account. The whole thing does indeed appear very weird! Well, that's good that the accounts were created before you started posting about them here. I hope you can get to the bottom of it.

 

[Indylady]

I think someone you know has created this profile. For attention? Why, I don't know, but I think it must be the most plausible explanation..

Save screenshots, report to Facebook, and keep us updated please!

 

[Verdy]

I think someone you know has created this profile. For attention? Why, I don't know, but I think it must be the most plausible explanation..

Save screenshots, report to Facebook, and keep us updated please!

This might be very plausible, it's one thing to have it happen once, it's totally different when there's TWO accounts under your name. Especially if your name is one of those that don't get seen too often - if at all. Hopefully FB will get to the bottom of it (much dust your way)! Can you think of anyone that doesn't like you very much, has had a hostile relationship with you, a recent argument, etc.? Friends often do it out of spite to others when there's been an argument or something of the sort. Let's hope you get this resolved ASAP, it's a very creepy situation as it is!