FAKE ACCOUNT USING MY PICTURES
WHAT TO DO NOW

If you have found a fake account using your pictures, save the evidence first, then report it from your own side, not by messaging the account. Before you report, find out whether it is the only copy, because whoever took your face once can use it more than once.

Here is the order that works: capture the profile, search for every other copy, warn the people the account can reach, report each copy, and then keep watching. The report is what removes the account; the search is what tells you how many accounts there are to report. Expect each step to take a little patience rather than one click.

SAVE THE EVIDENCE BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE

Do not block the account yet. Blocking usually hides the profile from you, and you need to see it to report it and to check later that it is gone.

• Copy the profile link and the exact username. Usernames change; the link to the profile is what a platform form will ask for.
• Take full-screen screenshots of the profile, the bio and the photos, with the date visible if your phone shows it.
• If someone forwarded you a message the account sent, screenshot that too, including the sender's name.
• Keep everything in one folder. Every later step, from a platform report to a police report, asks for the same material.

Do not comment, follow or message the account to tell it you know. A warned operator can rename the profile, switch it to private or move to a new one, and your evidence goes with it.

FIND EVERY COPY, NOT JUST THIS ONE

An account made with your photos may be one of several. The same pictures can sit on a dating profile, a second social account and a page that sells something. You want the full list before you start reporting, so you do not report one and miss three.

Use two kinds of search, because they answer different questions:

1. Search the file. Take the exact picture the fake account uses and run it through a reverse image search such as Google Lens. This finds the same image, or close copies of it, wherever it has been published.
2. Search the face. Crop your face from a clear, front-on photo and run a face search on Trace. Trace matches the face rather than the file, so it can find an account that uses a different photo of you, a cropped or mirrored copy, or a picture taken from a friend's post. Each result is a public page with a similarity score from 50 to 100; when the face is yours, the 90+ band is where to look first.

The difference between the two is explained in reverse image search vs face search. Trace only reaches the public web. It cannot look inside dating apps, private profiles or chats, so if friends tell you about a profile on an app, ask them for a screenshot and the profile link.

An empty result is not an all-clear. It means nothing was found on the part of the public web Trace can reach, not that no other copy exists.

WARN THE PEOPLE IT CAN REACH

A fake account built on your face can go after the people who trust that face. Send one short message where your contacts actually are, for example: "There is an account using my photos. It is not me. Please do not reply to it or send it money, and report it if it messages you."

Keep it plain. You do not need to post the fake profile's link publicly, which only sends traffic to it. If the account has already messaged a friend, ask them to screenshot the conversation for your folder before they block it.

REPORT IT FROM YOUR SIDE

Every major platform has a dedicated report for impersonation, separate from a general "fake account" or "spam" report. Use the impersonation route, and say clearly that the account is pretending to be you.

On Instagram, the impersonation report form sets out the rules:

• Instagram can only act on reports from the person being impersonated or their authorised representative, such as a parent or legal guardian. A friend cannot file it for you.
• You are asked for a picture of your ID, and a photo of yourself holding it.
• Instagram says the ID is used only to confirm your identity and is deleted within 30 days.
• The form asks you to report one impersonating account at a time, so each copy you found needs its own report.

The form covers Instagram and Threads accounts that pretend to be you. For Facebook, TikTok, X, dating apps and the rest, use that platform's own impersonation report and check its help centre for what it asks; the requirements differ and change.

IF THE REPORT IS REJECTED OR THE ACCOUNT COMES BACK

A report can fail when it went through the wrong category, for example "spam" instead of impersonation, or when the account uses your photos under a different name and nothing in the report shows the reviewer that the face is yours.

• Resubmit through the impersonation route, from your own side, with your ID and the clearest screenshots side by side with your real profile.
• If you have a real account on the same platform, link it in the report. It is the strongest proof of which account is genuine.
• If the account reappears under a new name, run the face search again and report the new copy as a separate case. Keep the old evidence with it.

Turn on two-factor authentication on your own accounts while you are at it, so the real profile you point reviewers to stays in your hands.

WHEN IT IS MORE THAN A FAKE PROFILE

If the account is asking people for money, selling something in your name, or threatening you, it is no longer only a platform matter. Report it to your local police or national fraud reporting service, and bring your evidence folder. If the account uses intimate or sexual images of you, real or fabricated, report it to the platform and the police straight away; do not negotiate or pay. A lawyer can tell you what your country's law allows beyond that.

If a friend is unsure whether a message really came from you, point them to the scam signs and photo check before they reply to anything that asks for money.

CATCH THE NEXT ONE

Once the copies are down, the risk is the same pictures reappearing. Two habits help:

• Re-run the face search every few months, with your current profile picture and an older one.
• Put your face on watch. Trace Watch costs $12 for twelve months. Trace re-searches the web for your face once a month and reports new pages, and if anyone runs a search on Trace that matches your face near-certainly, you get a Telegram message that a search happened, never who ran it. Nothing renews.

For a wider clean-up of old photos, search engine results and data protection requests, follow where your photos are used online. If you would rather your face is not in Trace's index at all, remove my photos deletes it and blocks it from being re-added, with no account or ID needed.

RESPONSIBLE USE

This guide is about your own face, or a child's photos as their parent or guardian. Trace shows where a face appears on public pages with a similarity score; it is not an identification service, it returns no names or contact details, and a high score between two images is not proof of who runs an account. Use it to protect yourself, not to look up someone who does not want to be found.

FAQ