Someone impersonating me on Ko-fi

[bubbi]

Hello! I need a help with a very specific issue.
I've been an artist for 5 years now and luckily I have made it my full time job. I managed to make a brand and build a business using my online name. I made a lot of connections, built a community and a lot of people know me by that name. I recently made a Ko-fi account, however my username/business/brand name has been taken by someone. This is a person that has been impersonating me for years and trying to gain from my name. She even went as far as making an account on explicit website using my name, which led to weeks of harassment towards me. I was forced to make my profiles private and contact customer support of this explicit website. They were kind enough to help me get my handle and they took it very seriously.

However I messaged Ko-fi support 4 days ago and still no reply. I emailed them proof my socials, link to my store, harassment messages as well as conversation I had with this explicit website support. Is there anything else I can do and how long do I have to wait?
This person has been harassing me and doing this for years and I'm getting tired.
Thank you

[VibrantFox]

The only other solution I can think of is to maybe try to reach out to them via the official ko-fi discord or exploring other means of contact for the ko-fi team

I'd also try reporting the page of the person impersonating you which the link/button should be at the very bottom of their profile

i'm sorry that you're going through this but i hope you'll be able to get the matter resolved

[bubbi]

Thank you so much for your reply. I appreciate it so much!
Honestly I thought about reporting them too, but do you think reporting them might make that name unavailable for me to claim in case they get banned?

[VibrantFox]

If you explain the situation and it's not an automated conversation I don't think it would bar you from being able to use the name in the future when creating your own page and if all else you can ask in any active support ticket you have with them

I'm not sure how quick their correspondence is or their work days but if it follows the five day model given today is saturday/sunday you may be able to hear back by monday at the earliest

also in regard to support tickets if you havent already submitted one thru their help page it's pretty straightforward to do so here
https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

[RobertBMarks]

Gotta ask: have you contacted the police or a lawyer?

Where I come from, identity theft and harassment is a crime. And this is about as clear-cut an argument for taking out a restraining order as I've ever seen...

(Note, I am not a lawyer, and I cannot give legal advice. I present this as my own observations.)

[bubbi]

Hey! No, I haven't. Sadly where I'm from police can't and won't do anything about it. I do agree that it's very clear case of harassment, however sadly, nothing can be done about it.

[thecrystalrook]

Came here to say this. If you've got any legal documentation proving you own the name - trademarks especially - you should be able to take legal action. They're stealing your brand, and that's just a no-go.

[bubbi]

I don't sadly. Ko-fi support replied today and they refused to help me, despite me sending them proof of my socials, and harassment messages I recieved because of this person. Do you think if I trademarked the username I would be able to claim it?

[river121693]

Im not a lawyer but according to quora, unfortunately, no.

If you trademark a name for a company how do you acquire the Instagram name...

Which makes sense. Even Google had to pay $12000 to buy their domain name from some guy, despite the name being trademarked.

I'm also not surprised that theres nothing Ko-fi can do. If your name isn't trademarked, then it's first come first serve on any social media. Even if it's trademarked, I'm pretty sure it's up to you to deal with the person harassing you. The platform isn't responsible for anything.

[thecrystalrook]

That depends on how the name is being used. Yea, if you just happen to have the same name, trademark law isn't going to help you. But if they're impersonating you or your brand/selling your merch or similar merch, then you likely have a better case. OP should consult a lawyer honestly, none of us can provide legal advice and quora certainly cannot either

"Even Google had to pay $12000 to buy their domain name from some guy, despite the name being trademarked."

This is likely because they had to get the domain back FAST. A legal battle would have been drawn out and that would have cost them billions in the time that they couldnt get ad revenue from their home page. Just the minute that guy had the domain for probably cost them tens of thousands.

[bubbi]

Hey! Thanks so much for these replies.

They are not selling anything, no products, they just have a donation page set up, which is super misleading for my customers, as they think it's me. I got so many messages from my customers about this as they almost gave her money. I also DM'd her and sent her a nice message explaining my situation, and she just ignored me and kept posting stories.

I talked to my lawyer and she said it's possible to trademark my username if it's my brand, in this case my art and my store. So I will be doing that soon. She also told me I should buy a domain name and I just finished doing that. Still no reply to my second message to ko-fi, so I'm assuming they just don't care. As long as they get the money right?

Anyway, thank you everyone who gave me advice and took the time of their day to reply to my post. I appreciate it a lot <3

[darthmongoose]

Can you show us your site and the impersonator's? There's not a lot of context on our end when you only just joined the forum and have no links or anything in your Bio. Are you a creator on Tapas?

[bubbi]

I provided all the info, context, details and I decided to stay anonymous and make a new account as I do not wish for people to send hate to them, despite the situation. I also don't wanna leak their socials since that could end bad and send harassment towards them. I'm sure you have been on the internet long enough to see how issues like this could escalate into something worse.

[darthmongoose]

Okay, that's fair. It's just a little hard to give advice without seeing how far the infringement here goes. Sounds like if you have a lawyer on the case though, they'll know better than a bunch of people on a forum working with limited intel.

[bubbi]

Update: I dm'd her 3 days ago and explained situation to her. She replied finally and told me she can change the username and let me have it. Does anyone know if I will be able to claim the username even after she changes it?

[system]

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.