Dear Twitter,
Please be advised that someone is impersonating me on Twitter. This person has registered http://twitter.com/johnchowcom and is pretending to be me. He is using my name and my image and claims to own johnchow.com.
The official twitter account of John Chow dot Com is located at http://twitter.com/johnchow. I was alerted to the impostor by a reader who has been following him for months thinking he was me. I have alerted your office about this impersonator and you’ve asked me to fax over proof that I am the real John Chow.
In addition to sending over the proof you asked for, I offer you this blog post on John Chow dot Com proclaiming that the official Twitter username for John Chow is @JohnChow. I requested that you remove and ban the impostor and turn the @johnchowcom account over to me.
Thank you.
The Real John Chow
Is Someone Impersonating You on Twitter?
Impersonation is a violation of the Twitter rules. Twitter users are allowed to create parody, commentary, or fan accounts. However, accounts with the clear intent to confuse or mislead are not allowed and may be permanently suspended.
If someone is impersonating you on Twitter, you can report them here. Twitter takes impersonation very seriously and will respond within 48 hours.
Did you enjoy this post? Get John Chow Dot Com updates via email...
Stay up to date with all of John Chow’s tips for making money online and blog posts by subscribing via email. Your email will be kept private and never shared with anyone.
One of the most common complaint (or excuse) I hear from potential new bloggers is they don’t know how to install WordPress. Terms like FTP and CPanel are like a foreign language and setting up a database might as well be setting up the space shuttle for a launch. Because of the technology barrier, many would-be bloggers never start their blogs...
{ 37 comments }
Geez, hope everything works out. Its bogus that someone would impersonate another individual. PPL need to get a life.
Best Wishes John.
Seriously… also it does not seem like he is making any money with that account. I had a quick look and did not see any affiliate links. Dunno what fun do people get out of this. It’s funnier when people follow fake profiles… it’s good that twitter has something called as verified listing. I have a post on this at http://www.thedotcomblog.com/twitter-verfied-listing
PS: Also look like the JohnChowCom user is making some mula off your name, brand and image.
I know. I wonder if he made anything from impersonating John.
Jesus, isn’t this the second this this has happened to you? Some people have no lives. Hopefully Twitter do something about it ASAP.
OK , you are so famous for someone
His tweets are from 2009. You’re just now getting around to this?
Do you think they’re going to transfer that account? I guess no.
The maximum Twitter will do is ban that account.
Wow! You know you’ve arrived when someone impersonates you on Twitter.
hope everything works out
ha! thats hilarious! nice job catching that though… anyways who cares really, i mean you know you made it when people make fake twitter accounts under your name right?? lol true john chow readers obviously will know hes a fake, i doubt he will get a lot of followers…
That person needs to get a life!
He’s still up!
Hmmm..wil it cost you extra to get your identity verified at twitter like some celebrities do? Impersonation is really a serious issue. It could literally destroy your name and rep.
Looks like this guy already got many followers by impersonating John Chow.
Looking at his tweets, I can make it out, its not you.
At this moment I don’t know..but reading this post is about to make me go check..
“TrafficColeman “Signing Off”
There is nothing worse than impersonating. I’ve never personally have anyone impersonate me, claiming to be me on the other places, but they where using my name, and even if just that I really disliked it.
This guy has been ‘stealing your market’ John
They can steal but very little and for very less time only.
Ugh, that sucks. Hopefully they weren’t copying your campaigns, that would really confuse readers. I don’t suppose you can sue for lost commissions?
woah another jhon chow wanna be huh???
Thanks for the heads up!, I can believe how people can be omg,
Thanks John Chow the real one lol
wow. Surprising they think you won’t find out they are pretending to be you. In some Texas counties they are filing charges against people who do this. It’s their Online Harrassment Name/Persona charge. It’s a class c felony.
In some other parts, people can get away with online impersonation since there are no specific internet laws.
I remember calling the Cyber Crime dept. here in Mumbai, India few years back. A friend of mine was getting unwanted calls because her ex was giving away her number in chat. The person answering my call said it’s her mistake and they cannot do anything about it. Things have changed now for sure though… for good.
His account is suspended. Maybe a name alert would be nice to keep track of such people.
Yeah, it’s gone. Looks like Twitter acted fast.
Till now I am thinking that people Impersonating only Television celebrities but looks like they also Impersonating web celebrities.
On a positive note, that just shows how famous you are, John. And that means you’re doing pretty well on this website.
But seriously, impostors should get a life. And Twitter should do something about them quick.
Actually, someone did that to us for our business account, and once we reported it Twitter killed the account and passed ownership of the name to us. The guy went crazy trying to recover the password, then eventually gave up.
Everybody wants to be John Chow, nobody wants to work hard!
Yes I agree they think they can make money by fooling people, they usually do this to get referrals for some fake make money online site.
Nice, they suspended it! I just checked! Nice move!
Some people don’t like the idea to build their own empire, but instead they end up stealing other people’s hard work.
I’m glad that you caught those bad buys, and hopefully the learn their lesson by knowing that somebody else is always watching was going on.
Just does to show the importance of searching for your brand or your name online every month or so. From Twitter, to setting up blogs to Facebook and so on, there has been quite a rush of social media and website impersonation going on. Pretty scary times and it does make me wonder why on earth someone would want to be a cheat and a thief rather than making a living for themselves.
No one thinks about the dark side results until the ban or negative results in real for him/her and this should be recommendation for each and every company to do the policy acts like this.