10 steps to stop identity hijackers

If you’re not in control of your digital identity, the odds are pretty good that someone else is, or will be if you have any brand recognition at all.

Consider the recent example of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, whose digital doppelganger created false identities spanning a range of social media sites and even claimed he had been diagnosed with skin cancer. ESPN advised in its NFL Rumor Central,

“Not real, folks. In fact, if you see an athlete with a Twitter, you should assume—at least at first—that it’s fake. Assume it’s a Twitter twerp.”

Likewise, President Bill Clinton last week lost an arbitration case over the rights to three domain names bearing variations of his name. The ruling panel found that Web of Deception’s Joseph Culligan had not shown “bad faith” in registering the URLs.