How to report a fake account that uses your photos or your brand

Fake accounts are one of the most common ways identities are misused online. They copy your photos, your name and sometimes your writing style, then message your friends, followers or customers. Most are built to scam: asking for money, selling fake content or collecting personal details.

Impersonation, not spam: the report that works

The single most important choice is the report type. On Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X and most other networks, there is a dedicated route for accounts that are 'pretending to be me' or 'pretending to be someone I know'. These reports are reviewed by a different team than spam reports and are taken more seriously. It is the route we use for you, and a strong report has four parts:

• The full address of the fake profile, not just its name.
• A report on the profile itself, not on one of its posts.
• Impersonation as the reason, naming the person being copied.
• Identity confirmed if the platform asks. An ID photo is used only to check the report.

Collect what the people who know you received

When the account has contacted friends, followers or customers, their screenshots add weight to the case. Ask them to send you what they received; it goes straight into the evidence we file.

If it's your brand, use the brand route

For fake shops, fake support accounts and lookalike websites, the strongest route is a trademark or brand complaint to the platform, plus fraud reports to the domain registrar and the hosting provider. A registered trademark makes these reports faster, but fraud can be reported without one. We file every one of them for you.

Warn people before the scam starts

A short post or story saying 'this account is not me' protects your contacts while we go after it. For a brand, publish a list of your official accounts and say clearly where customers can and cannot pay.

Why fake accounts come back

Removing one fake profile often isn't the end. The same person opens a new account with a slightly different username a few days later. That is why the work doesn't stop at the first removal: someone has to keep looking for new accounts that use your face, your name or variations of your usernames.

What Praivon does

Praivon finds accounts that use your photos, your name or your brand across the major platforms plus thousands of websites. You can let us handle fake accounts automatically, with 24 hours to stop any request, or ask you first. We report each account through the platform's official channel, stay on it until it's resolved and keep watching for the next one.