Of Stealing And Smiling

With how everything is fast-paced and accessible especially online, one can have the power to be who they want to be. Sadly I am one of the victims of an identity theft, well not exactly that but something similar. I’ve learned that someone is using all my photos and pretends to be me but uses a different name. I was alerted a few times by different people some are acquaintances, some people I’ve worked with and even some are my blog readers (super thank you for caring 😀 ). At first it didn’t really bother me because I know that people who know me would know the real me (yes ang daming KNOW in a sentence LOL) but then again there was one incident where someone actually thought I was somebody else.

I was at a mall and a guy approached me asking if I was Francine S******. I thought he was just trying to start a conversation and so I politely smiled and said no. Persistent that he is, he again approached me and said he was sure that I am who he’s referring to. He insisted it was me because apparently, I added him daw on Friendster (yes, this was years ago) and that I even agreed to be on a date with him NKKLK. Seeing how weirded out I was, he assumed I  am a victim of an identity theft. I’ve seen a few incidents on the news about these kinds of things and they were all scary! Knowing that some people might recognize you as a totally different person because of the relationship they’ve built with your faux self online. Some were scammed, some were heart broken and some were even physically hurt. 🙁

So after I got home, I searched for  the theft’s name and there it is, my photos were used on her profile. I immediately fixed my Friendster’s & Multiply’s privacy settings to make sure that everything’s private only to people that I know. Fast forward to today, I had to remove my “subscribe” option on my personal Facebook account so to maintain my privacy now that I have a family of my own. But then again, I have my blog which I openly share to the netizens of the world wherein anyone can read and interact with me. What I’m saying is, I love sharing my thoughts, ideas and even personal stories mainly to inspire and of course find inspiration from other people as well but if someone were to use my photos and anything of my property that I post online without my permission or consent then it’s a battle I’m not gonna let go easily. Reputation and trust are two things that are earned and some people find it easy to earn these by using someone else’s property or identity, it’s just sad.

photo source

I just have to say that please be a responsible netizen. As much fun it is to Like, Tweet and post photos, one should be careful when doing these online and using other people’s photos to take advantage of them (also no to cyber bullying please). May this serve as a warning that it is beyond our control that somebody somewhere can and is doing such things for whatever reason. If you have seen his or her profile with my photos please kindly report it via the administration of that social media site (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or even a blog). Remember that these things can happen to you or to anyone you know so please remind your loved ones and also be careful.

Now that I’m really an active blogger, it is inevitable naman not to post photos of myself and my family. As much as I want to discreetly keep them away from the public eye (naks, feeling celebrity?!) eh I couldn’t. Of course my main goal nga when I started blogging was to share my story so that others can relate (I like it when I can relate to others so I know others feel the same way). Plus, I cannot hide under a pseudo name and image since my blog exudes who I really am. Obvious naman based on my blog name di ba? heehee. Anyway, I believe in karma. That’s why I find it hard to accept when people are just being bad to others for no reason or because of hatred, jealousy and the like. We can hate, we can get jealous but not to the point using someone else’s identity or photos. Why not just be happy and use it as an inspiration to become a better person? Well at least that’s what I do. And if I can’t be truly happy for someone then I just pray. I pray that I may have the strength to be happy for that person someday. I pray that instead of jealousy, I find inspiration. It isn’t easy believe me but I’ve learned that my energy is wasted on hating and being jealous so I just smile and pray. Nothing is impossible when we pray. Right? Tama! heehee

I just think parang mas madali yatang maging celebrity noh? Kasi when someone uses your photos eh alam agad pag poser or fake yung account coz you can easily tweet to your thousand followers & easily disseminate information alerting the madlang people. But then again, hindi naman ako showbiz so never mind! haha :p Oh well, I couldn’t even put a #donyaproblem hashtag to this bilang isa lang itong #ordinarycitizensproblem 🙂

Anyway, I am ending this post with a quote from the movie Gladiator which I hope will inspire us all.

“Whatever you do in life, echoes thru eternity.” – Maximus.

*bow*

Happy Weekend!