How to stop a social media imposter

I own a private ‘Butler’/housekeeping’ service for high net worth clients. We use Facebook alot. One of our consultants has been impersonated online and the person behind this fake profile is posting defamatory information about our services and clients. It is seriously damaging our business, but how do we take action without knowing who is responsible?

Rodney Hylton-Potts, leading litigation lawyer said;

Report the abuse to the social media site operator. Its terms and conditions will show how this can be done. Online notification can be difficult and so you should write a legal letter to the company requiring it to block the fake address and postings, and to take them down.

It is possible to find out who is behind fake defamatory postings by an application to the court for a Norwich Pharmacal Order, which forces the host to disclose the IP address of the fake profile. You have to agree to pay the hosts’ costs, but usually this can be dealt with by a consent application and the costs can be limited by dealing with it without the advocate actually having to attend court.

Once the IP address is obtained, depending on whether it is a static IP address from somebody’s office or a dynamic one from a personal computer, you can find out who is using that computer, or go to the internet provider to find out who was using the dynamic IP address on the date that the account was set up.

Depending on the information obtained, you can choose whether to pursue the poster of the defamatory material for an injunction or damages.

For more information or a free legal opinion telephone 020-7381-8111 (24 hour service) or email [email protected].