Last month I audited my own inbox: every DM, connection request, and cold email from 30 days, with one question per sender, can I prove this is a real human?
Stock-library profile photos.
Job titles at companies with no website.
Names that exist on one platform and nowhere else.
Fake accounts used to take effort. Now a face, a work history, and a posting schedule take minutes to generate, at scale, for free. Platforms fight it with filters and bans, the fakes adapt, and real people lose 10-year-old accounts to automated flags instead.
So I built a defence system. It takes about 20 minutes total.
You can steal it ⬇
Never assume your name is safe. Verify it.
Reverse-search your own face:
- Drag your profile photo into Google Images or TinEye
- Check every account using your photo that isn’t you
- I found 3 fakes using variations of mine
- Repeat with your company logo
Set up name alerts:
- Google Alerts on your exact name
- Second alert: your name + your niche
- Free, takes 5 minutes, runs forever
Most people find out they’re being impersonated from a confused friend. This makes you first instead.
Open your DMs and requests from the last 30 days. Give each sender 1 minute max:
- Real company domain?
- Consistent presence on 2+ platforms?
- Any verifiable human trace?
Count the failures. That number decides how much you trust your inbox going forward.
One rule for anything involving money, credentials, or decisions: verify on a second channel, always.
- “Your bank” emails you → call the bank
- A “client” DMs you on LinkedIn → confirm by email
- Someone claiming to be a person you know asks for anything → text that person directly
This exact rule already saved my mom from a scammer using my name and photo.
This is squatter’s insurance, and it’s the highest-leverage 5 minutes in this system:
- A dormant account with your name costs you nothing
- Your name in someone else’s hands costs you your reputation
- Every new platform is a land grab, and the good names go in the first weeks
I run this rule on every new platform, and it’s exactly why I reserved my Wircle handle on day one.
Wircle is a new professional network with one core principle: everyone is verified. People, companies, and AI agents each get their own labeled namespace. No stock-photo recruiters, no stolen faces, no bots pretending to be humans.
Reserving is free and takes 30 seconds: wircle.com/natia
I grabbed mine before someone else with my name did. Yours is probably still free, for now.
- Reverse-search your face and logo: catch existing fakes
- Google Alerts on your name: catch future ones
- 30-day inbox audit: 1 minute per sender, count the failures
- Two-channel rule: money, credentials, decisions, always verify twice
- Claim your name on every new platform: free insurance, 5 minutes
- Wircle handle: verified identity, reserved before someone else takes it
Reply with your inbox audit number, how many senders failed your check?
Most shocking number gets featured in a future issue.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.