Go to the fake profile and report it using the platform's impersonation option: on LinkedIn that is "This person is impersonating someone", on Instagram the reason saying the account is pretending to be someone else, and on X the impersonation report in its Help Centre. Instagram and X act on reports from the person being copied or someone authorised to represent them, and Instagram's web form asks for government-issued photo ID. Save the evidence before you press submit. A successful report removes the profile, and with it the material you would need if this goes further.
Save the evidence first
Once an account comes down you can no longer see it, and nor can anyone you later ask for help. Collect:
- the profile's web address and username, copied from a browser rather than the app
- screenshots of the profile, its photos and its recent posts, with the date showing
- any messages it has sent you, and any that contacts have forwarded
- which of your contacts it has approached and what it asked them for
- a link to your own genuine account on the same platform, if you have one
If the account has asked anyone for money, gift cards or bank details, write down who and when while it is fresh.
The report route on each platform
LinkedIn's help page on fake profiles sets out the steps. On the fake profile, click More, then Report / Block, then the option to report the member or the entire account. In the "Report this profile" window, choose "This person is impersonating someone" and submit.
LinkedIn lists duplicate profiles of people you already know among its signs of impersonation, so a colleague who notices a copy of your profile can report it in the same way. The reported member is not told who made the report. LinkedIn says only that it will act if the profile breaks its Professional Community Policies; it publishes no timescale.
In the app, open the fake profile, use the Report option in its menu and choose the impersonation reason (the account pretending to be someone), then say that the person is you. Instagram's help centre says it responds to impersonation reports from the person being impersonated or an authorised representative, such as a parent or legal guardian.
If you have no Instagram account, or the in-app report went nowhere, use the impersonation form, which also covers Threads. It asks for your name, contact email, the impostor's username and a photo of government-issued ID, such as a passport or driving licence.
X
X is the awkward one, because it allows parody, commentary and fan accounts. Since April 2025 those accounts have had to begin their display name with a word such as "parody" or "fake", and they may not use the same profile photo as the person they copy. An account that does neither and presents itself as you in a confusing or deceptive way falls under X's misleading and deceptive identities policy, and X says such accounts may be permanently suspended.
X's help page says you or your authorised representative can file the report through its Help Centre, which has a separate form for impersonation. Link to your real account and to posts that show it passing itself off as you.
If the report is turned down
A refusal is not the end; first decisions are often automated. Two mistakes cause many of them. Choosing a general reason such as spam, when impersonation of you specifically was the option you needed, sends the report into a different queue. And a report from the wrong person may simply not be acted on by Instagram or X. Report again with the impersonation option, from your own account or the form, and attach whatever ID is requested.
If that also fails, Report Harmful Content, part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, takes impersonation cases from anyone aged 13 or over once they have reported to the platform and waited 48 hours. It checks the case against the platform's own rules and can raise it with the platform directly, though it cannot make them remove anything. Send it your screenshots, the links and the platform's reply.
Ofcom is a separate route. It accepts complaints about how a platform's reporting and complaints systems work under the Online Safety Act 2023. It does not take up individual cases or order specific accounts removed, but it says it uses these complaints when deciding whether to act against a service.
When to involve the police
England and Wales have no single offence of pretending to be someone online. What matters is what the account is doing with your name.
If it is asking your contacts for money, pushing investment offers or collecting payment details, that is fraud. Report it to Report Fraud, the national service that took over from Action Fraud in December 2025 for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, fraud is reported to Police Scotland on 101. Anyone who has handed over bank details should contact their bank straight away.
Posts in your name designed to humiliate you, threats, or an account that is one part of a pattern of targeting you may amount to harassment or a communications offence. The Crown Prosecution Service's guidance covers the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and, for messages sent since 31 January 2024, the false communications offence in section 179 of the Online Safety Act 2023: sending a message the sender knows to be false, intending it to cause non-trivial psychological or physical harm to a likely audience. Whether any of these applies depends on the facts. Report to your local force on 101, or 999 if anyone is in danger, and take your screenshots and notes with you.
After the account has gone
A removed profile can still turn up in Google searches for your name, because Google shows its stored copy until it next crawls the page. Once the profile returns an error page, Google's Refresh Outdated Content tool can clear the result; our post on getting Google to update a deleted page explains how, including what to do if the platform's error page still loads as a normal page.
Impersonators often return under a slightly different username. Search each platform for your name every few weeks, and check Google in a clean, signed-out window as described in seeing what others find when they search your name. When a new copy appears, report it and mention the earlier report by date.