Taking on Facebook fakes

A friend of mine today asked how to get a phony Facebook profile deleted. It seems someone else had created an impostor site using my friend's name and some of this friend’s real information. The impostor also used a lot of incorrect information, which is a real problem.

Compounding the problem is that my friend lacks the password used to log into the impostor profile and therefore can neither deactivate nor delete it.

I took an e-mail route to the press contacts at Facebook, and was sent a link to a section of the site’s frequently asked questions section. After more poking around, I found this link, (http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=798), which leads to a page with instructions for handling impostor profiles. I sent the information to my friend, and will update you when I learn whether my friend gets the phony profile removed.

This scenario illustrates why you should search sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter for your own name, even if you haven't created an account or opened a profile. You may discover someone else has done it for you.

Stay tuned.