---
title: "What is impersonation?"
term: "Impersonation"
description: "Someone presenting themselves as you, your business or your staff, in order to borrow the trust that belongs to the real one."
aliases: ["account impersonation", "fake account", "identity impersonation", "social media impersonation"]
category: "Threats"
canonical: "https://fraudox.com/glossary/impersonation"
publisher: "Fraudox"
publisher_url: "https://fraudox.com"
license: "Free to quote with attribution to the canonical URL."
---

# What is impersonation?

**Impersonation.** Someone presenting themselves as you, your business or your staff, in order to borrow the trust that belongs to the real one.

*Also known as: account impersonation, fake account, identity impersonation, social media impersonation.*

Impersonation is the broadest of the abuse categories, because it describes an intent rather than a method. A cloned social account, a fake support number, a page carrying your logo and an executive's photograph on a profile that is not theirs are all the same move: borrow an identity that people already trust, then spend that trust.

It is also the category platforms act on most reliably, and the reason is worth knowing. Impersonation does not require a registered trademark. What a platform needs is evidence that the real account or person is you, which for most people is a link to their own profile. That makes it the one route open to individuals rather than only to companies with an IP portfolio.

The damage lands on the audience rather than the target. Followers who are messaged by a copy of your account, customers who pay a fake shop, applicants who send documents to a recruiter who does not exist: none of them chose to trust the impersonator, they chose to trust you.

Removal is usually fast on the large platforms and slow everywhere else, and a determined operator will return. Repeat filings against the same person build a record, and that record is what eventually reaches the underlying account rather than only the latest copy.

## Getting it removed

Fraudox handles this as [fake account removal](https://fraudox.com/social-media-takedown): Accounts impersonating you or your staff on the large social networks. These run through each platform's impersonation queue, which is slower and needs identity evidence the other tracks do not.

## Related terms

- [Brand impersonation](https://fraudox.com/glossary/brand-impersonation): Any use of a brand's name, logo or visual identity by someone unauthorised, in order to borrow the trust that brand has earned.
- [Executive impersonation](https://fraudox.com/glossary/executive-impersonation): Impersonating a named senior employee to exploit the authority attached to their name rather than any technical weakness.
- [Content theft](https://fraudox.com/glossary/content-theft): Publishing someone else's work as your own, or giving away work they charge for. Unlike impersonation, the claim is on the material rather than the identity.
- [Takedown](https://fraudox.com/glossary/takedown): The process of getting infringing or malicious content removed by the party that controls it, and confirming it is actually gone.

*Canonical version: https://fraudox.com/glossary/impersonation. Part of the [Fraudox brand protection glossary](https://fraudox.com/glossary).*

---

Published by Fraudox (https://fraudox.com), a brand protection takedown service that
removes phishing sites, impersonating pages, fake social accounts, counterfeit apps,
scam domains and stolen content, and bills only for confirmed removals.