Nobody is safe from online threats–not even IT professionals. I was recently subjected to being impersonated online which, while unpleasant, was also educational.

Online impersonation isn’t the same thing as having your social media account hacked and commandeered; it involves a malicious individual setting up a wholly different account similar to your name and with your existing profile picture.

Why would someone do that? The goal is routinely negative: Either someone is trying to con your social media contacts into doing something that benefits the attacker (e.g., giving them money), or the person wants to harm your reputation in a revenge/cyberbullying ploy.

After my personal experience, I came up with 10 tips for handling these types of situations. Check them out in this free TechRepublic PDF download.

From the download:

1. Vet your friend/contact list

It is very important to ensure that you are connected via social media to only people you know, are friends with, or can at least trust. In my case, I had some Facebook associates who I didn’t know in person (friends of friends), and it was conceivable that these individuals were responsible for the Instagram attack. Scammers often send people friend requests in order to obtain details about their lives, which they can then utilize maliciously against them.