I inpersonated someone on facebook

LegacyUser

I have being very silly. I done it for a laugh and the guy involved has found out and is apparently going to the guards. I set up an account about 2 weeks ago and added 120 friends. I didn't say much just that he was in a relationship and put up a pic of him I found on someone elses page. He is a drunk is the local area, always drunk and in trouble with the guards and has a criminal record for shooting a firearm in a pub. He has being in court several times and has lost his driving license for drunk driving. The guards are nearly always on his door step and they hate him. Although he is popular, everyone takes the piss out of him and he is a waster, never done a full day's work in his life. I thought it would be a laugh to do it, but now I'm worried after hearing this. I have deleted all pictures and everything and deactivated the account. Could I be in bother for this?

being silly

being silly wrote: »

I have being very silly. I done it for a laugh and the guy involved has found out and is apparently going to the guards. I set up an account about 2 weeks ago and added 120 friends. I didn't say much just that he was in a relationship and put up a pic of him I found on someone elses page. He is a drunk is the local area, always drunk and in trouble with the guards and has a criminal record for shooting a firearm in a pub. He has being in court several times and has lost his driving license for drunk driving. The guards are nearly always on his door step and they hate him. Although he is popular, everyone takes the piss out of him and he is a waster, never done a full day's work in his life. I thought it would be a laugh to do it, but now I'm worried after hearing this. I have deleted all pictures and everything and deactivated the account. Could I be in bother for this?

well firstly no matter what you think of someone, NO ONE has the right to put someone on the internet without their consent.

what you done breaches privacy laws and constitutes slander and perhaps even fraud no matter if the content is malicious or not.

its different compared to setting up a tribute page to someone because you pretended to be this guy. i dont know the whole ins and outs of the law but if this guy feels aggrieved enough to go to the gardai then brace yourself. id issue a frank written apology to start off with

Blatter

There was another thread about this a couple of weeks back. I think the conclusion drawn was that it is almost impossible for impersonators to be caught. You've been an idiot, but from the sounds of it, you didn't damage his reputation so I wouldn't think the guards would pursue it as 1. you have deactivated the profile and 2. you haven't personally abused the person.

mikemac

Deleted User wrote: »

what you done breaches privacy laws and constitutes slander and perhaps even fraud no matter if the content is malicious or not.

Libel was the written form of defamation, while slander was the spoken form.
Hardly slander if I read a facebook page.
But lets not get too technical on legal terms, but realy if you say yourself you don't know the law then don't quote it

You've deleted it, the gardai are very unlikely to do anything here.
Nothing will come of this, just don't do it again

Unless you want to start a tribute page to me :cool:

WhodahWoodah

being silly wrote: »

He is a drunk is the local area, always drunk and in trouble with the guards and has a criminal record for shooting a firearm in a pub.

Aside from the legal aspect of what you did, just from a common sense aspect what on earth would posess you to do something like that to a person like this? Are you not worried he's going to get drunk and decide to shoot you?? Definitely a really really silly thing to do!!!

By the way, careful about doing a written apology because it'll also serve as a written confession if he does decide to prosecute you. Talk to a solicitor and don't do anything without running it past them first!

tenchi-fan

Deleted User wrote: »

id issue a frank written apology to start off with

This is absolutely idiotic. Op, this could be used against you in court.

If I were you I'd log into the page immediately (although it's deactivated it's still there). Then change the name to Charlie Brown. Then change the registered email address from your address to a made up one, and change the password to something you won't remember. If the garda request info from facebook hopefully they will not receive anything useful.

tenchi-fan

tenchi-fan wrote: »

This is absolutely idiotic. Op, this could be used against you in court.

If I were you I'd log into the page immediately (although it's deactivated it's still there). Then change the name to Charlie Brown. Then change the registered email address from your address to a made up one, and change the password to something you won't remember. If the garda request info from facebook hopefully they will not receive anything useful.

my hands are up you are spot on on that note to be fair.

tenchi-fan

Deleted User wrote: »

my hands are up you are spot on on that note to be fair.

lol np.

I think the op should deny all knowledge of the page. If the gardai come knocking, only speak to them if your solicitor is present. It may be tempting to say "aw i hold my hands up, it was only a bit of fun" but you need to have a solicitor present if it looks like you'll end up in court.

LighterGuy

Guards wont care about this. That I can guarantee you. This is seen as trivial in their eyes. Nothing that some teenagers dont do anyways. So you are ok on the guard front.

However, ultimate question is did you tell anyone that you did it? ... cause if you even told one person there is a likelihood of it getting back to him.



I don't mean to bash you op but the lines:
"...Although he is popular, everyone takes the piss out of him and he is a waster, never done a full day's work in his life...."
Why did you even post that line? If you think this guy is a waster then thats his deal. Did you do this whole facebook thing out of some other reason? that you dont like him or something? ... But that doesnt matter. Just chalk it down to experience op that some things we may do might backfire.

lau1247

tenchi-fan wrote: »

This is absolutely idiotic. Op, this could be used against you in court.

If I were you I'd log into the page immediately (although it's deactivated it's still there). Then change the name to Charlie Brown. Then change the registered email address from your address to a made up one, and change the password to something you won't remember. If the garda request info from facebook hopefully they will not receive anything useful.

Can they not trace you through IP for each logon?

I know with the likes of Gmail, at the bottom of the page it list when you last login and the IP associated with it.. surely with Facebook and all these advertising, you'd think they hold at least some form of data??

Cheap Thrills!

being silly wrote: »

He is a drunk is the local area, always drunk and in trouble with the guards and has a criminal record for shooting a firearm in a pub. He has being in court several times and has lost his driving license for drunk driving. The guards are nearly always on his door step and they hate him. Although he is popular, everyone takes the piss out of him and he is a waster, never done a full day's work in his life.

Oh !!! thats OK then! YOU have judged him as a loser so HEY YEY!!! Defame his character all you want! It's ok! These secondhand rumours and tittle tattle means its ok to destroy his privacy/reputation and personal life.

:mad: YOU have behaved idiotically. :mad: You are a disgrace.

being silly wrote: »

I thought it would be a laugh to do it, but now I'm worried after hearing this. I have deleted all pictures and everything and deactivated the account. Could I be in bother for this?

All you are worried about is yourself. You are only concerned with getting caught, not with the cowardly. pathetic, embarassing thing you have done to this person. You have behaved foolishly. The only thing you can do is go to this person and admit this was you, then fess up on Facebook to everyone you contacted re this person and try to limit and retract the damage you have done.

Meanwhile reflect upon this mess and look at your behaviour.

Blatter

Cheap Thrills! wrote: »

Oh !!! thats OK then! YOU have judged him as a loser so HEY YEY!!! Defame his character all you want! It's ok! These secondhand rumours and tittle tattle means its ok to destroy his privacy/reputation and personal life.

:mad: YOU have behaved idiotically. :mad: You are a disgrace.



All you are worried about is yourself. You are only concerned with getting caught, not with the cowardly. pathetic, embarassing thing you have done to this person. You have behaved foolishly. The only thing you can do is go to this person and admit this was you, then fess up on Facebook to everyone you contacted re this person and try to limit and retract the damage you have done.

Meanwhile reflect upon this mess and look at your behaviour.

That is way out of line. How the hell did the OP destroy the guys' reputation and personal life if he only made up the profile, added friends and put up a picture of the guy that he found in an album( which he dosen't state was an offensive pic and I'm sure he would have done because what's the point coming on here looking for advice if you're not willing to give the full story.

Also this forum is meant for helpful advice to the OP, if you have nothing helpful to contribute, then don't contribute. The advice you gave about the OP confessing is also rubish. Ignore it OP.

Also, have a quick read of the forum charter, I think you might find you have broken a rule or two.

JonathanAnon

You wont get in trouble over this... The guards wont be interested in this...

Why dont you just apologise to the guy, say it was stupid thing to do and leave it at that..

tenchi-fan

lau1247 wrote: »

Can they not trace you through IP for each logon?

They can, but it depends on what records they keep. They might not be allowed to keep extensive records with all your previous usernames. Also the garda generally want paper evidence and unless the guy has screenshots they won't even pass the details on to their IT people.

Cheap Thrills!

SOCCER4LIFE wrote: »

Also this forum is meant for helpful advice to the OP, if you have nothing helpful to contribute, then don't contribute. The advice you gave about the OP confessing is also rubish. Ignore it OP.

Also, have a quick read of the forum charter, I think you might find you have broken a rule or two.

Yes my post was harsh and probably a little OTT but I felt a wake up call was needed and therefore helpful to OP. Especially in this case where the OP seemed to consider it ok to do such an invasive thing 'for a laugh' and then tried to justify it on the grounds the person was a drunk/loser etc

That is not acceptable. If all the posts were to minimise OP's actions how does that discourage him/her from doing it in the future? Telling someone the reality of the situation might shock them into realising what they have done and stop them doing anything like this again. It's not harmless, it's an invasion of privacy and anyone would be livid if it happened to them.

It's not for you to decide what is and isn't helpful or tell me I've 'broken a rule' -that's the job of the mods so please quit with the back seat modding there. If you've a problem with my post use the report button.

seamus

What a very bizarre thing to do, especially if you have no particular grudge or relationship with this person.

Anyway, unless he knows it was you or you have otherwise admitted to it, then there's very little that he can do.

It's not a criminal matter, the Gardai won't be interested. Depending on what you posted on the page, he can start a defamation suit against you, but this is long and costly and would be entirely dependent on getting a court order to demand that facebook release IP and logon information about the account in order to link you to it.

Since the page is gone, any solicitor will tell him to drop it, that it's over. Don't admit to anyone that it was you, and definitely do not apologise. Say nothing about it, cop onto yourself and it will go away.

ongarboy

I guess you could just call this a 21st century prank - no more, no less. Like other posters said, the police/courts are not going to waste time investigating this as no crime was committed.

OP - as took the time to bring this up on Personal Issues forum, perhaps you should take some time to reflect on why you felt the need to carry out this impersonation. Has this person ever done anything to you personally and you wanted to exact revenge in some form? Not that revenge ever gives true satisfaction, what was the motive? "Just for a laugh" is a bit childish, isn't it? If you see this "waster" as you call him, being a trouble maker, you have made yourself more similar to him than you realise by conducting this sort of "trouble making" behaviour.

Nothing more will come of it so put it down to a lesson learned and focus on doing something positive. I gaurantee you'll feel far happier and satisfied. As the saying says "What goes around comes around"....this applies to both good and bad actions. Good luck!