Impersonation and fake profiles: record it, then get it removed
Fake accounts in your name, defamation, abusive content. Timestamped technical record, traceability and documented takedown requests.
The situation
What you have found
This kind of content moves and disappears quickly. What is not recorded today will be hard to prove tomorrow.
An account in your name
Your photo, your job title, your company — used to write to your contacts, your clients or your colleagues.
Statements aimed at you
Defamatory posts, false reviews, abusive comments, sometimes amplified by several coordinated accounts.
Misused documents
Your logo, signature, letterhead or invoices imitated to make it all look genuine.
The evidence erodes
Posts are edited or deleted, accounts renamed, and your screenshots are challenged.
A useful distinction: a screenshot you took yourself can always be challenged. A timestamped, hashed technical record is far harder to argue with — that is the difference between a grievance and an established fact.
The examination
What we establish, in practice
The content is frozen first, then analysed. The record is documented so it can be verified, whether the matter ends in a takedown or in court.
01
Recording the publications
Full capture of pages, accounts and content, with URL, date, time, SHA-256 hash and display context.
02
Extent of circulation
Looking for reposts, copies and mirrors on other platforms, and for the audience actually reached.
03
Linking the accounts
Technical elements shared by several profiles: aliases, addresses, posting hours, recurring turns of phrase.
04
Timeline
The order in which the content appeared, successive edits, account creation dates.
05
Routes to removal
Reporting to the platforms, formal notice, and the exhibits an urgent application requires.
06
The report
Findings, method, hashes and chain of custody. Written to be read by a platform, a lawyer or a judge.
Right now
Strictly avoid
- Mass-reporting the account before it has been recorded: it disappears, and the evidence with it.
- Replying publicly or arguing under the posts.
- Contacting the suspected author to ask for a takedown.
- Relying on screenshots taken from your phone.
Do this
- Write down the exact URL of every post and every profile.
- Note the date and time you found it, and what you saw.
- Warn the people who might be approached in your name.
- Have it recorded before requesting removal.
How it unfolds
How a record is made
-
1
First conversation
You set out the situation, we define what has to be recorded, and in what order.
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2
Recording
Timestamped, hashed capture of the accounts, pages and content concerned.
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3
Analysis
Extent of circulation, links between accounts, timeline.
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4
Report and next steps
Delivery of the signed record, support for takedown requests, the complaint or the proceedings.
Frequently asked
Frequently asked questions about impersonation
Isn't a screenshot enough?
Rarely. It is too easy to alter not to be challenged. A technical record carries the URL, the timestamp, the hash of the content and the method followed.
Can you find out who is behind the fake account?
Sometimes, from accessible technical elements and cross-checks between profiles. Naming a person usually requires a judicial order served on the platform, which our record supports.
Do platforms actually remove content?
More readily when faced with a precise file: URLs, recorded elements and legal qualification. An isolated report is processed automatically, often with no outcome.
What if the content is already gone?
Traces usually remain: reposts, copies, caches, mentions by third parties. We will tell you what can still be recorded.
Record it before it disappears
First conversation free and confidential. We will tell you what has to be frozen first.
- Professional secrecy
- Quote before any work
- Court-registered expert