Thread: Trying to understand the mind of a scamer/imposter (victim here)

Hello, i registered in this website, because i am currently trying to understand what goes in the mind of the person who have been using my contents online
since years...

first of all, i inform in advance, that this story have so much of absurd, that even for me it was hard to believe

i was having a normal a life till saturday, i am a musician, i make electronic music and i do DJ in partys, saturday i was having life normaly till i recognize my self on someones profile photo, its even funny, because that wasnt actualy a photo, after check it in detail i recognized the moment and the origin, and it was a screenshot from a youtube
video that this person was using as his photo/avatar, but this isnt the strange thing....

after i check better his profile on a well known social network for musitians, i started to notice, that all the music /tracks from this person, were actully mine, except a very few,

so, i discovered a person, this person had my image on his profile and was using my music (ilegaly... as long as the photo)

the photo was a minor thing, sometimes it happens, i dont consider my self much good looking either, but i recognize that sometimes being a DJ is for some people cool

but i only started to get really worried about this, when i realize this isnt a singular prank using a webpage or a singular profile on a singular social network

after search more about this user, i turned to realize, that he had basicly followed my steps during years, copied photos, music and videos from youtube, in order to
set a very similar network, this was so far, that he made his fake profile in more all the well known social networks, incluiding, Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, Soundcloud, Reverbnation, Mixcloud...

and he have been doing this judging from the registeration dates, since 2009... i discovered him on last Saturday , and i was simply shocked about it...

not just because of the scam it self, i understand the motive why he is being doing this, i just dont understand the "determination" and why he keep doing this...
because its a long period of time, we are talking about 4 years...

i known that everyone will think what i thought at the beggining, this is a simple scam, tipical imposter, who steals images and contents and setup fake profiles

but, after you realize, and search his behaviour, and you notice that he was monitorizing my life in silence, copying my behavior...

i give you an example: every time i presented a new music in my fan page, this person would next ilegaly download the music (or parcialy the content)
and claim in his fake network of page, the same...

so basicly this person was pretending to be me, but, using his personal name, he uses my photos (part of it) and he basicly catches everything i do and pretends
thats from him...

he is doing this for 4 years now, and i am scared, not that i have afraid of him, i am from a distant country, i am from Europe, he is mexican...
but his behavior is so extraordinary in a sense that is unbelieveble, because i eard about many types of scams, many types of atempts to steal identity
but thouse are relativly quick in period, they try to set a scam and have proffit quickly, this isnt the case... and he is not making any money of it...

he is wasting many time trying to do what he is doing, he is wasting many time watching my steps, emulating my person...

but this isnt a fan, or someone that seem admire me, this person have being trying to sell my music, and use his email adress to be able to caught party promotors
atention his country, but still, i dont understand why he keep using my "life" with is own name, when he isnt geting results...

i know this because i am not my self a very well suceded DJ, i am relativly low profile on that, i have a couple partys, sometimes i play in events, but not much serious
i dont make enough money to be professional, but still

i dont understand the sickness of this person, i never knew this person existed till saturday, i never met this person, i never had problems with anyone in mexico
to be know facing this type of situation

i honestly dont think i have harmed anyone i a matter of giving him reason to behave like this...

i could give you here links to let you people enter more into this story in detail and check the absurd by your selfs, but thats not my point
i am strickly interested in understand the behaviour of this person, i have trying to put down his pages in the last 2 days, i am thinking in presenting a report in the police
because he have comited fraud trying to sell my music wich is protected with copyright...

but at the same time, i am curious and i would like to understand better is behavior, but i am not a shrink or anything like it...

why would anyone do this? it isnt for money... sucess, i dont have much (i think...) i am not a much pretty person, i am a regular guy...

please if anyone understand about human behavior or can give me sugestions about this case i would apreciate...

and by the way, very nice forum, i think i will read a lot of posts here, because i do enjoy this kind of "science" my self

Kind regards

Some people like to play at being someone else when they don't like themselves.

Add a disclaimer to all your stuff, see if you have any legal options and grow a very large wooly mustache.

i give you an example: every time i presented a new music in my fan page, this person would next ilegaly download the music (or parcialy the content)
and claim in his fake network of page, the same...

As long as he/they did not receive any money for using your stuff , then he can do what he wants with what you expose on the web. Or he did not defame you in any way.

Originally Posted by cosmictraveler

i give you an example: every time i presented a new music in my fan page, this person would next ilegaly download the music (or parcialy the content)
and claim in his fake network of page, the same...

As long as he/they did not receive any money for using your stuff , then he can do what he wants with what you expose on the web. Or he did not defame you in any way.

He undoubtedly must be making money.. It depends on the views that this imposer revives via social networks, if he gets even a few thousand he is making money. Youtube offers a service that pays you per view etc.. It is indeed a good plan for him to hijack someones professional upbringings and profit off of them.

Ricardo Gomes Would you post his social networks here on thescienceforum? (His Youtube specifically) I believe I can judge whether or not if he is profiting off of you, from just looking at his profile.

He undoubtedly must be making money..

Unless you can prove it , you can't recover anything. You'll need to get a lawyer if you KNOW FOR CERTAIN that he made money because a lawyer can attain documents from anyone that paid him anything and take him to court to recover that money. Lawyers cost you money so be sure to proceed with due caution because it may not be cheap to do this. Have a consultation with a lawyer first to se if you really are up to do this.

Let's hear what an non-emo Robert Smith has to say:

The only person that can tell you for sure what is going on in his mind is him and then you could only assume he was telling the truth. There could be a billion reasons and you could drive yourself mad guessing or you can do something about it and like the others said maybe take some legal advice. Personally I would assume he was up to no good until I found out for sure otherwise. Good luck with that.

I still say a spiffy mustache will solve the problem. Handlebar type, perhaps.

If someone is stealing your content online. Then you must file a DCMA complaint and if everything goes well that site will be taken down. It does not matter whether the person stealing your content is making any money from it or not. Stealing any type of content whether written, picture, music or video is a violation of copyright laws and surely you can sue this person if you want to for infringing on your copyright. Since he is even using your photo, you can even file complaint of identity theft against him.

I would contact the websites he has profiles on and send them a copy of your photo id proving that the face on his profile belongs to you and link them to your work so they can compare upload dates. If you upload dates are all before his then that proves you posted it first, at the very least. And the id proves who the face belongs to.

more often than not, especially Facebook, they will shut him down. You can also start your own Facebook page outing him as a fraud. then spam his pages, but it would be better to contact the admins of the social networking sites directly. You could even contact people in his friends list and tell them who you are and what he has been doing word of mouth gets around fast, but still I would go through the admins of the sites. They tend to frown on things like this.

It's impossible to tell exactly why until you ask, but that person either dislikes who they are and wishes to be the person they're copying, likes toying with other people, or thinks that he can fly under the radar and avoid detection. Again, you have to learn straight from the source for the exact reason.

I managed to solve part of the copyright infringement, but thats not the point that made me register and ask...
but as some people written, i assume its not easy to analise something without asking the source..

i just still not understand why he could be doing this for so long, and persistently using me, and not pick just somebody else...
or perhaps i fit into the perfect kind of profile he was looking for... for some reason

i was recomended this movie by a friend... (i think its based on a real story)

"Imposter" wich is from last year, based on a real story,


anyways, thank you for the comments, feel free to add more points about his behaviour in case anyone understands him

Such are the perils of the internet but at least you know you have one fan.

I wonder if anyone who committed identity theft ended up going to jail for the murder that the person who's identity they stole actually committed, or any other crime for that matter lol. that would be such poetic justice wouldn't it?

who stole my BEARD!