Recently, "fake pages" on social media have transformed from a way to connect and entertain into a means for blackmail and fraud. The founders of these pages impersonate celebrities and officials, making statements and actions that tarnish their names, posing a significant threat. In the past period, these "fake pages" have targeted numerous celebrities in the Arab art scene, who became victims of such pages, prompting them to take action to halt them quickly and warn their followers against falling for such scams.
**Targeting Celebrities**
The artist Amy Samir Ghanem has become the latest public figure targeted by this type of page. Actor Hassan El Raddad warned his followers that there is a fake page on Facebook impersonating his wife, artist Amy Samir Ghanem, and advised against engaging with it, announcing that he would take necessary measures.
**Material Extortion**
Amy was not the only one to fall victim to impersonation; director Mohamed Sami was previously surprised to find an unknown person impersonating him on Facebook through fake pages, asking girls wishing to enter the art world for nude photos to blackmail them after they were sent. Additionally, he demanded 50,000 Egyptian pounds from an Egyptian woman residing in Kuwait to help her children enter the acting field.
**Ramiz and Al-Halani**
Media previously reported on an unknown individual impersonating artist Ramiz Jalal on Facebook, who used a fake profile to attack the Zamalek Club and its symbols. Furthermore, Lebanese artist Assi El Helani revealed that his Instagram account was hacked by unknown individuals, bringing up the issue in a tweet to his followers.
**Imprisonment and Fines**
Regarding these "fake pages" and the legal stance on their creators, lawyer Shaaban Said told "Sky News Arabia": "Anyone who impersonates any citizen, whether a private individual or a legal entity, is legally wrong and is subject to imprisonment according to the laws in every country." Said advised those who fell victim to hacking or impersonation to promptly approach the relevant authorities to file a report and take legal action, so that security forces can proceed with either locating and arresting the hacker or shutting down the fake page.
**Security Measures**
Information security expert Mohamed Higazi told "Sky News Arabia" that impersonating individuals or stealing accounts is a legally sanctioned crime, punishable by imprisonment and financial fines. He revealed several steps to protect personal accounts from theft: linking the account to a phone number registered in the person's name, activating "two-factor authentication," which allows sending a code to the phone number to access the account (making it harder to hack), not accepting friend requests from unknown individuals, and avoiding opening links from untrusted people as they may contain hacking viruses.
In terms of distinguishing between authentic pages of artists and fake ones, he stated, "This requires a certain degree of awareness on the part of the individual regarding whether the page is verified or not, as most artists have many followers, which often results in their pages being verified and marked with the blue verification badge, unlike fake pages. Additionally, the number of followers serves as a strong indicator of authenticity; a low number of followers suggests that the page is not genuine."
He explained that anyone with a verified page can contact Facebook's management to take action to recover the page, as the verification process is done with official documents. Regarding the possibility of locating the hacker, the information security expert noted that technical tracking can be performed using certain technical tools by identifying the hacker’s IP address and determining their location.
