Impersonator Account

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

An Impersonator Account is an account that was created to impersonate another person. They can cause disruption and are to be dealt with correctly. Some Impersonator Accounts are sockpuppets of existing accounts. On one wiki, they have a false account that they merge Impersonator Accounts into when they are discovered and blocked, as with Spam Accounts. There are 2 types of Impersonator Account:

  • Impersonations of a person who does have an account on that site. They should only be blocked if they violate the policies of the site they are on, as they are most likely pretending to be sockpuppets of that account.
  • Impersonations of a person who does not have an account on that site. For example, a person creates an account in their worst enemy's name and then builds up a bad reputation by causing damage and disruption, which kicks the enemy up the rear end if they join. This is harder to detect, but not so much a problem.