Had a bit of a reality check today — one of my friends, a young guy I’ve been lucky enough to photograph has had his identity assumed by someone else.

Unlike many such cases this isn’t credit card fraud — but this is equally as bad; this young man’s identity has been stolen and abused publicly — in online forums. The faker took his name and used it to leave abusive comments that would, potentially end up with legal involvement. this wasn’t just someone passing themselves off as him for kicks — this is someone actually damaging his reputation online.

If you search for this guy on google the first result is now post after post on a lads mag site of girls complaining about what a cad he is (I cleaned up their adjectives).

Now this guy works in the caring sector and has a potentially successful sporting career ahead of him — and really doesn’t need this sort of abuse in public.

I’ve now spent the better part of the day looking into things I can do to help him repair his online reputation — or at least to change his Google results. The sort of things I’ve suggested are to create a lot more buzz about himself (lots of social media profiles) and to create a blog or website that he controls.

But the number one thing I’ve suggested is that he makes use of an amazing, powerful and simple tool offered by Google — Alerts. This allows you to be notified when different websites have information posted to them including given phrases. It’s not perfect and won’t be all that useful to John Smith of London; but it is a good tool to ensure you know what new information about you is on the ‘net.

Link: Google Alerts