Is the real you on Twitter? Persona hijackers can taint your ID or brand

Using your name and image, frauds can have a little fun — or wreak a lot of havoc

Folks in Austin, Texas, may have thought they had a direct line into the mind and tactics of their local police department via Twitter, the online micro-blogging service. “Warming up my radar gun,” was one of the tweets posted at “Austin PD,” which also used the official city seal.

In March, however, the 450 followers of the account found out “Austin PD” was a fraud as officials worked to have it shut down. Although the fake tweets appeared to be mostly joking in nature, not everyone whose identity has been misappropriated on Twitter has been so lucky.

Matt Friedman, co-founder of Tanner Friedman public relations agency in Farmington Hills, Mich., said someone “used our company name to post disparaging and vindictive tweets about us. We are now trying to get our name and the ID from Twitter, so we can start using it for our own business.”