The Law-Impersonation
Online Impersonation
It’s not actually against the law
With the exception of the specific offence of impersonating a police officer, it is not against the law to impersonate someone, but actions someone impersonating you then takes could be against the law.
Impersonation is becoming more of an issue, especially on Social Media. Most sites have anti-impersonation policies and will remove fake pages/profiles if you fill in their forms.
Identity Theft
Identity theft is when someone uses another person’s identity, such as their name, bank account details or credit card number, to commit fraud or other crimes.
For more information, click HERE to check out the Department of Internal Affair’s information about Identity theft (they also have some great checklists if this has happened to you).
If this has happened to you, you can report it to the police or get support from Netsafe.
ID care can also provide support and is is Australia and New Zealand’s national identity & cyber support service.
Defamation
In a nutshell, Defamation is when someone publishes something about someone which damages that person’s reputation.
If someone is impersonating you then false information and statements are automatically made.
If some of those statements are defamatory – i.e. an ordinary person would think less of you, then a claim of defamation could be made.
