Someone Is Using Your Face Online.
Illinois Impersonation Attorney Who Fights Back.

Yes. The on-point crime is false personation under 720 ILCS 5/17-2(a)(2.5): knowingly and falsely representing yourself to be another actual person and doing an act in that assumed character with intent to intimidate, threaten, injure, defraud, or obtain a benefit. It is a Class A misdemeanor, and section 17-2(g) expressly reaches conduct carried out through an Internet website. Illinois also treats identity theft as a criminal offense under 720 ILCS 5/16-30, which applies where the impersonator uses your personal identifying information to fraudulently obtain money, credit, goods, services, or account access. Beyond the criminal statutes, victims can pursue civil claims for defamation, invasion of privacy, Right of Publicity violations, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The specific claims available depend on what the impersonator is doing with your identity. Personally, I wouldn't rely on the cops to clear my own name, I would do it myself.

At Abdilla & Associates, our Identity Threat Assessment starts at $500 flat fee. Legal enforcement packages (takedowns, cease and desist letters) run $1,500. The social media packages for each of these raises the costs, because those companies are taking steps to make it harder to sue them. Nationally, the average online defamation lawsuit costs $14,000 to $16,000. Our flat-fee model gives you clarity on costs before you commit.

We can do this for you easily, but we need to bring in a third party to help. We've partnered with a private investigator to do social media queries. We take all the images off major social media platforms (manually!) and create a database, then run the facial recognition software against the local database. This takes a lot of time, so it's quite expensive.

Facial recognition search tools scan publicly indexed websites for photos matching your face. Unlike a reverse image search (which only finds exact copies of a specific photo), facial recognition identifies your face in any photo, in any context. This means we can find instances of impersonation you didn't even know existed. I found a photo of myself from 20 years ago with my own technology.

Platform reporting is slow, unreliable, and limited. Platforms cannot identify who is behind a fake account. They cannot compensate you for damages. They cannot issue a court order preventing the impersonator from creating new accounts. An attorney can subpoena the platform for account holder information, pursue legal claims for damages, and obtain injunctions that carry the force of law.

For defamation claims, Illinois has a one-year statute of limitations that generally runs from the date the defamatory content was first published, not the date you found it. Illinois recognizes a narrow discovery rule where the publication was hidden, inherently undiscoverable, or inherently unknowable (see Ciolino v. Simon, 2021 IL 126024), but do not plan around it. Other claims (Right of Publicity, IIED, identity theft) may have different timelines. Do not wait. Evidence disappears, accounts get deleted, and your window for legal action shrinks every day.

In most cases, yes. If the fake profile damages your reputation, you may have a defamation claim. If it uses your identity for a commercial purpose, such as selling something or promoting an account, the Illinois Right of Publicity Act applies. If the conduct is extreme enough, IIED may be available. The first step is identifying the person behind the account, which often requires subpoenas to the platform. That is something we do regularly.

Illinois does not have a standalone 'catfishing' statute, but catfishing can absolutely violate existing Illinois law. If someone uses your photos or identity to create a fake profile, that is false personation under 720 ILCS 5/17-2(a)(2.5), a Class A misdemeanor that section 17-2(g) extends to conduct carried out on an Internet website. If the catfisher is soliciting money, it can also be identity theft under 720 ILCS 5/16-30. If your identity is being used for a commercial purpose, meaning sale, advertising, promotion, or fundraising, the Illinois Right of Publicity Act (765 ILCS 1075/1 et seq.) applies, and false statements can support defamation. I have pursued each of these claims on behalf of catfishing victims. The specific legal theory depends on what the catfisher is doing with your identity.

Yes, and this is one of the things I do most often. Illinois has a defined procedure for it: a petition under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 224. In Hadley v. Subscriber Doe, 2015 IL 118000, the Illinois Supreme Court held that a court will order a provider to identify an anonymous poster only where the petitioner pleads a defamation claim that will withstand a section 2-615 motion to dismiss. Platforms will not voluntarily reveal account holder information to individuals, but they will comply with a court-ordered subpoena. I file John Doe lawsuits to unmask anonymous impersonators, then subpoena Meta, Google, or whatever platform is hosting the fake account for IP addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers tied to the account. From there, we identify the person and pursue legal action.

You have several strong legal options under Illinois law. The Right of Publicity Act (765 ILCS 1075/1 et seq.) prohibits use of your identity for a commercial purpose, meaning sale, advertising, promotion, or fundraising, and provides actual damages and the profits from the unauthorized use, or $1,000, whichever is greater, plus injunctive relief. If the unauthorized use damages your reputation, you have a defamation claim. If it involves biometric data like facial geometry, BIPA (740 ILCS 14) may apply. The first step is documenting every instance of unauthorized use. Our Identity Threat Assessment does exactly that, using facial recognition technology to find every place your photos appear online.

Screenshot everything immediately: the fake profile, all posts, the follower or friend list, and any messages. Note the URL of each fake account. Do not contact the impersonator directly, and do not delete any of your own posts or messages about the situation. Evidence disappears fast, and what you preserve in the next 24 hours may be the difference in your case. Then call us or book a free case review so we can start preserving evidence with legal-grade documentation.

It's a 30-minute phone call. You tell me what's happening, I ask a few questions, and I tell you honestly whether you have a viable legal claim. I'll explain which Illinois laws apply, what the realistic outcomes are, and what it would cost to take the next step. There is no obligation. No pressure. If I can't help you, I'll tell you that too.

If you are an Illinois resident, Illinois law protects you regardless of where the impersonator is located. We regularly handle cases where the impersonator is in another state or even unknown. If the impersonator is anonymous, we file John Doe lawsuits in Illinois and subpoena the platform for their identifying information. Once we know who they are, we determine the best jurisdiction and legal strategy.