Today I battled it out with a fake identity on social media. It could have been a bot, not sure. I’ll start at the beginning.
During the daytime, I see an alert on my phone that a celebrity I follow in a social media platform was doing a live feed. It’s been a while since I opened that platform and needed a break so decided to check him out since I know he’s been doing an outdoors road trip which sounds really fun right now.
I watch a little bit and sent a comment or two. What I didn’t realize was that my comments are forever linked to that video, because it was posted on the account. In the past I would watch these and all the comments would go away because it was a live feed. Now I’m guessing he decided to post it up after live feeding? I’m getting further and further away from how social media is working these days.
I go about my day and all the sudden I get a direct message (DM) from the celebrity! I open it up, slightly suspicious. By now, I’ve deleted the whole interaction so below is what I remember from about nine hours ago. I was hard at work so I didn’t give it much thought but the message said, “Hi, are you a super fan of mine?”
And I replied right away that yes I was and was familiar with his work way back when.
“Nice,” was the message I got and then soon after, “What’s your first and last name and where do you live?”
Hoping to remind myself and others to always make secure passwords and change them regularly.
My heart starting pumping a little harder because of the personal nature and I could see the ellipses going during our whole interaction. Was this him? It couldn’t be. But it could be, and I noticed the profile and looked it over. Just newly created with 0 followers and following no one.
My next question was is this really you? And the reply was “Yes”.
Me, “Okay what book was on your desk during [certain show] and who inspired it?”
Nothing after that. Probably 45 minutes or so afterward, the account no longer existed.
I share this experience with others hoping to really combat the junk the out there. I feel ashamed to even admit this happened but really it could happen to anyone. What freaked me out the most was whoever this was, might be trying to get in contact with my contacts - that’s the worst.
My identity has been stolen and my stuff is out there, anyone can buy me. Now since that experience, I lead a pretty under the radar existence and like to keep it that way. Which is why my heart was pumping to the fact that I may have finally succumb to some kind of cybercriminal and that we were chatting live, ellipses to ellipses. It felt too close for comfort.
They say that people network and meet each other sometimes over social media but it’s experiences like this and all the other stuff out there that make it hard to make online relationships. I guess I’m a twice bitten extra shy kind of gal now.
My biggest regret is how fast I replied though without checking out the profile, history and followers/following information. Hoping to remind myself and others to always make secure passwords and change them regularly. I am close to leaning towards deleting them altogether. Due to the current situation of the world though, it seems we will need these outlets a bit longer.
I think you are saying right I agree with you