Journalist's photo stolen for dating profiles: how to fight back

Have you ever had anything stolen from you? A smartphone, money, jewelry? Or perhaps you’ve fallen for fraudsters’ tricks? And what would you do if you found out that your face was literally stolen?

This is correspondent Ilgiz from 116.RU, and my personal photo was stolen and used to impersonate me. A complete stranger set my photo as their avatar in a messenger app and supposedly was dating girls.

Using my professional position, and since this situation still outrages me, I decided to publicize my story. And also—I found out from a lawyer and a digital expert if anything can be done about it.

«Delete the photo, are you from the village or what?»

On March 16, at half past one in the morning, a stranger writes to me: sends a link to a Telegram account and asks if it belongs to me. The photo is mine, but the link doesn’t match, and the username is different. I’m completely baffled. Who could just take my photo and set it as their avatar like that?

I write to my pseudo-twin brother almost at the same time, but I don’t get an answer to my questions. Well, since I didn’t want extra hassle, I let it slide. And only six months later, I remember this incident. The ‘twin’ wrote to me himself on October 22 with one word: ‘What?’ Believe me, I was asking myself the same question.

I decided to question the person who used my photo. But in response, I only got rudeness and mockery. I only managed to find out that it’s a guy and that he’s not from our country. And the photo, according to him, he used to date girls.

— «Dude, I just found photos online and was sitting in (a dating app—ed.). Your photos are publicly available on VKontakte. Go delete them so no one can download them. Are you from the village or what?»—that’s how my opponent justified the photo theft.

To be fair: now the ‘twin’ no longer has my photo as their avatar. Instead, it’s just some image. We didn’t reach any compromise, but since my face is no longer ‘being used,’ I decided to stop there.

«People are more likely to fall for personal brands»

Nevertheless, it became interesting whether it’s even legal to take others’ selfies and why others might need it. In a conversation with 116.RU correspondent, Artem Karakov, director of the digital agency Setkateam, explains that such a situation can happen to anyone. And in general, others’ photos can be used because they are publicly available.

— «Photos can be used by scam projects, casinos, various bets, crypto, and everything else, because people are more likely to fall for personal brands. Therefore, you can just take a random person and ‘redirect’ (redirect users to the desired internet resource—ed.). Given that the basis of such projects is either scams or just random things, you can immediately take and find clients for your info-services with a small advertising budget,»—says Karakov.

At the same time, our interlocutor confirms that photos can be used for projects that operate in other countries.

As it turns out, according to Karakov, messengers are unlikely to do anything when your photos are stolen. Unless, of course, it’s about blackmail. Only in that case might they respond to your complaint.

What does the law say?

Well, if you suddenly encounter the same situation as I did, the law can be on your side, and the perpetrator can even be held accountable. According to Kazan lawyer Timur Tabakchi, a person’s image is protected by law, specifically Article 152.1 of the Civil Code.

— «Using your photo without your consent is prohibited, unless it was taken in public places or for remuneration. If we’re talking about ordinary use of the photo by another person—for example, they set your photo in their profile without consent—then that in itself is not yet a criminal or administrative offense,»—explains the lawyer.

But if a person uses your photo, the lawyer says, to mislead other people by creating a clone account, then depending on the intent, such actions can constitute various offenses.

— «Starting from defamation, if the account is created to discredit you in the eyes of others, and violation of privacy, if the account is created to spread your personal or family secrets. Ending with extortion: ‘If you don’t pay me—I won’t delete the account and will write to someone in your name’ and fraud, if they write to acquaintances from your face to extort money,»—shares Tabakchi.

What can you do if your photo has been used? According to the lawyer, you can demand through the court that the image be deleted. But for that, you need to know the identity of the person who stole your photo.

— «If you know exactly the identity of the violator and you want them to bear some responsibility for this, I advise you to proceed as follows. File a report with the police at the violator’s place of residence stating that they improperly used your image. The police conduct an inspection, and you need to ensure that this person is interviewed. During the interview, they will most likely confirm the fact of posting the image. A decision will be made to refuse to initiate a criminal case, but the materials of the pre-investigation check will be reliable evidence later in court,»—says the lawyer.

But if you don’t know the identity of the perpetrator, it will be more difficult to achieve the deletion of the photo. Unless you contact the social network administration with a request to remove false information and your personal photo.