Someone impersonating me using my old name

Basically someone in this game (whose name I won\\'t mention due to it being an ongoing issue) has had a problem with me and my other half ever since this person left my FC.
This morning I come online to find one of my mebers had a friend request from a conjurer with my old name, made by this person as a malicious attempt to impersonate me.
I reported this to Square who only said that I\\'d given up my old name for anyone to use basically so it wasn\\'t impersonation when clearly it is in this case at least.
Is there anything I can do?

Unless they are harassing you or other members, there's nothing you can really do since you have technically given up your name and therefore anyone can freely take it.

If they harass you or another player then you can report them for a "legitimate" reason, although I know it must be really annoying and frustrating. Hope everything gets sorted :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by WinterLuna

Unless they are harassing you or other members, there's nothing you can really do since you have technically given up your name and therefore anyone can freely take it.

---

I believe they are free to take it but I am also 100% sure they just can't act like her and steal her personality. :)
If they act like her and actually do stuff in her name they should be either banned or forced to rename (which is a thing, people with offensive nicks are teleported into gaol and forced to rename for free) so they cannot impersonate her anymore.

So yeah, unless OP has a proof of them acting like her, it isn't reportable, if yes, then there should be definitely some action taken from SE.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by WinterLuna

Unless they are harassing you or other members, there's nothing you can really do since you have technically given up your name and therefore anyone can freely take it.

If they harass you or another player then you can report them for a "legitimate" reason, although I know it must be really annoying and frustrating. Hope everything gets sorted :)

---

They have previously harassed me as their main account and they spent most of last night following one of my members around. They also use shout whenever I'm around - not using my name but I know it'd addressed to me because he used a particular insult he used upon sending me a PSN message during which I was referred to by said insult and also told he hoped I'd "cop cancer".
This however having occurred on PSN and not in game means I have little evidence barring the shouts to report him for.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by StrejdaTom

I believe they are free to take it but I am also 100% sure they just can't act like her and steal her personality. :)
If they act like her and actually do stuff in her name they should be either banned or forced to rename (which is a thing, people with offensive nicks are teleported into gaol and forced to rename for free) so they cannot impersonate her anymore.

---

She didn't actually state that they were acting like her but that her friend had a friend request from this person, if that's the case then yes, you should be able to report them. If so, send in another report and explain in detail of what is happening including times and dates so the GM's can do something. :)

Edit: This would be very difficult then as they are dodging any way of you being able to report them. SE are very specific with their reports and need quite a lot of information to do anything about it. I once had a person saying very horrible things about me to other people (and even had screenshots) but because he wasn't addressing me personally, SE couldn't (wouldnt) do anything about it.

I'd document anything he says with the date and time. Again, SE need every little piece of information to be able to take action. Good luck :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by StrejdaTom

I believe they are free to take it but I am also 100% sure they just can't act like her and steal her personality. :)
If they act like her and actually do stuff in her name they should be either banned or forced to rename (which is a thing, people with offensive nicks are teleported into gaol and forced to rename for free) so they cannot impersonate her anymore.

So yeah, unless OP has a proof of them acting like her, it isn't reportable, if yes, then there should be definitely some action taken from SE.

---

Exactly, I think that taking the name that has been given up is not a problem, as long as the person doesn't use that maliciously. As soon a malicious action is taken that makes use of the name to mislead anyone into believing it's you, I think you'd have a case to report. But simply using the name doesn't seem like it would be sufficient reason to file a report; it's legitimate to use any name you want as long as it is not already taken and doesn't break the T&C.

Honestly, if I were to change my in-game name (which I won't), I'd create a new Alt immediately on the server with the name I was giving up to prevent anyone from impersonating me - especially if I knew there was already one or more players with an ax to grind.

And this is why you create an alt with your old name and keep it there forever :p

At least that's what I did.

At this point, I'm afraid I can't think of anything immediate that you could do, as the GM was correct that since you've given the name up, anyone has the right to use it. Thing is though... If they took the name specifically to harass you by impersonation, then I doubt they'd leave it at just using a name. I'd say keep an eye on them and report them for anything malicious that they might do both on that character and on their main (if the character isn't their main already). Unfortunately, having a list of things this person has done to harass you will work more in your favor than just reporting a name change.

Also, if the name you were using before was a very common name, like a character name from a tv show or book, then it could be a completely different player just looking to make friends. (Though not so much if the name is original enough that you know it most likely points back to this person, but that would have still probably been the gm's assumption.)

I'll be sure to make note of any harassment from either character.
The name itself is quite unique as only myself and one other ever had the name and the other is a resident of a server I have never stepped foot on and is a male to boot.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Remilia_Nightfall

And this is why you create an alt with your old name and keep it there forever :p

At least that's what I did.

---

I originally planned to but I never got round to it. I guess I figured no one would be malicious enough to pretend to be me and that the name was unique enough not to be copied easily.

Crazies like this want attention because they're sad and have nothing better to do with their life. If you and your friends starve him of attention, he'll get mad at first and struggle really hard to get it then eventually give up. I don't have personal experience, but I've read a decent amount of crazy interweb stalker stories.

When he's desperate for attention you might get something to ban him with, otherwise again I suggest completely ignoring him.

The thing is that so.eone got a grudge on you and your partner. In a way, you got to have in consideration that they could have done that to you. Don't forget to talk with your FC members and ask them for their help by SS anything that could be suspicious or they could be doing to them.

Not much you can do really, you gave up the name which was stated earlier.

However if this person keeps harrasing you or members of your FC it is reportable. Best you can do right now is probably blacklist and hope person gets bored.

I don't know, the friend request does seem shady. Though keeping a name you've abandon tied up is just as shady in my book.

I remember back when the game first released and RMT sellers would do this too.

Unless they break the ToS, GMs can't do anything.

One has to wonder what you did to warrant this level of animosity, though.

When you give up a name, its no longer your name to own lol. What someone does with your name is pure speculation on your part unless they are going around admitting to do it just to hurt you. So, sucks to be you I suppose if you care that much about the issue.

However, if they go around posting any personal information (phone numbers, addresses, etc) via search etc, you can report them. Keep that in mind.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SnugglesD

One has to wonder what you did to warrant this level of animosity, though.

---

No. Don't even go there. You don't have to wonder. No one should be asking this. No one deserves this sort of harassment no matter what. Period.

basically all you can do about this, OP, is to inform your friends that there's no relation between you and the other person. And treat them as such. If they start trying to be abusive specifically to make it look like you did it, you have a simple response to that. And that's to just tell someone that it isn't you.

I am kinda lost how this affects your friends, I mean I would assume they all know your new name don't they? Your old name is long gone and anyone trying to use it obviously will be seen as a fake or someone who picked up the same name. Yeah they may be trying to do harm but a quick glance at the friend list will show you havn't changed your name back thus they just look crazy.

as you said this person has harassed and insulted you over psn. sony will do something about harassment. assuming this player also plays on psn, their account will no longer be able to be used if tied in with their psn account should sony find grounds to ban them. this creates no access to the game, unable to log in said character, problem solved. unless of course they register a pc version, in which that would cost them money and if a person is willing to go that far i think you have bigger issues

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SnugglesD

One has to wonder what you did to warrant this level of animosity, though.

---

One really shouldn't need to wonder. The kind of people who would go around acting this way don't really have to have any good reason outside of crazy.

I once had an uncomfortable situation (that didn't get nearly this bad thankfully) that happened for no other reason than that person was very jealous when it came to relationships and I happened to be their SO's preferred gender. Not something I could help.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dotsusama

No. Don't even go there. You don't have to wonder. No one should be asking this. No one deserves this sort of harassment no matter what. Period.

---

I'm going to have to disagree with you. Before I get to my point, I'll preface it with saying I'm not pointing fingers at the OP, nor am I condoning the specific actions of the harasser.

That said, there are always two sides to every single story. To issue a blanket statement condemning any sort of negative reaction to the actions of an individual, no matter how heinous, speaks of a naïveté most people usually lose when the venture out into the real world. It'd be nice to think that all sane people are good and only crazy people harass anyone, but the world is not black and white.

You DO, unfortunately, have to ask that question.

My previous fc owner was the same as the OP's stalker. After our fc lost 1st place in server he totally lost it. He began harassing certain fc members and after we first transferred to a side fc and eventually bought an fc with our own gil he kept filing false reports to the gm's about our masters. It even earned him a ban.
The only motivation he had as far as we where able to find out is that he is just malicious.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dotsusama

No. Don't even go there. You don't have to wonder. No one should be asking this. No one deserves this sort of harassment no matter what. Period.

---

Agreed. I would normally say that there are two sides to every story as well, but not in this case. This sort of harassment is completely over the top and uncalled for. Sorry for your issues, OP, and I hope this gets resolved.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dotsusama

No. Don't even go there. You don't have to wonder. No one should be asking this. No one deserves this sort of harassment no matter what. Period.

---

Agreed.

She might have done something terrible to piss off this person... but that's irrelevant now.

Stalking is NOT OK... or how normal (READ: mentally stable) people react to getting upset. Someone has be disturbed and/or really attention starved to do that.

Every argument has two sides, but going to the extent of impersonating another player and then harassing them (especially with what the OP said they were saying) is NEVER acceptable and is only an immature and actually quite a pathetic way to respond to conflict.

Whatever the OP may have said or done to this person doesn't matter when if she/he was causing him trouble, he could have done the smart thing and reported her instead of impersonating her character and saying vile things.

I had this problem also..but I made mules with my old names, so no one can take them =x

More original names, problem solved.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 16bitBounty

More original names, problem solved.

---

Names of any kind can be used, including old ones you given up. Problem not solved.

Ignore them and continue about your day as normal. Feeding into drama leads to more drama.

It shouldn't matter if it's known that you don't go by that name anymore.

Iam with CGMidlander. If you gave up your name and such then that person is NOT impersonating you, since you dont *own that name anymore*.

What you could do, in my opinion, is to collect proves tangible proves, of what you consider an impersonification. Like messages to your friends showing that he is trying to make them believe is your former you, recording that he is following you around, try to catch him at fault and so forth. At worst, it could fall into the *harrassement* category,w hich is also something you might need to prove with tangible and solid proves.

If you think your reputation is at stake, make sure you get ahold of those that were contacted by that person trying to bring them to believe that you are bad did bad things or that you are back Under yoru old name.

Otherwise you will just have to to bare it and move forward. Some people are not Worth the time.

ON a side note though, to impersonate someone you need to know that someone pretty well, so I assume you either know well that person already and if so, you can confront him or her directly, or if you dont know, I wouldnt look further then your direct immediate circle of those that you see regularly or used to see regularly.

Just me though

This reminds me of a case of this happening to me on ff11

This story is complete true, it happen in 7 myths after treasurers was launched.

I was running around the city that was added in the expax, at around 30 min I got a tell from someone asking if I wanted to kick a guy in the nut. Then if I had, and if I would if I got paid. I don't reply and block them

1 hr later a new name comes up sends the same tells, I block another new name sends the tells which I again block. I get annoyed bad log off, i log on after an hr or so again tells asking me that with added, what gender I am. At this point I call a gm. And tell them, they look into it. Long story short for 3 months straight every time I log in said person would make a new name just to ask me said questions and I would block everyone of them. It go to the point where I was making daily gm reports, my block list getting full, and this guy mot stopping.

He also started to get more hostile saying if I didn't reply he could ban me cuz he was friends with a gm. He also made threats to gm if I didn't tell him my gender, or confess I was a dude, saying I have to be a dude, and I was gonna be banned fir not admitting it.


After that injust straight up deleted my character and started on another server.

Thing is I never met this person, never saw them in game, never partied with them. I'm not a jerk to ppl intentionally and only if I feel backed into a corner do I lash out getting defensive. But ya, it made ff11 unpleasant

Also had to suffer a cyber stalking ex boyfriend who dumped me... kept trying to start fights with me over psn and no matter how often I block one of his accounts he would make a new one' ended up having to get a new se account, psn account and rebuy. Ff14. Sucks cuz o had the se account since ff11...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrTherm

Ignore them and continue about your day as normal. Feeding into drama leads to more drama.

---

This isn't so easy when someone is constantly harassing you on a game you're trying to enjoy. The person should be reported and banned so the OP CAN continue about their day. Harassment isn't something to take lightly even when it's on a game.