Brits falling prey to ‘digital impersonators’
- Added:
- Jun 02, 2008
A new breed of ‘digital impersonator’ is emerging as Brits take advantage of the anonymity of the web to mislead, fib and cheat their way to popularity, a recent study has revealed.
According to online identity firm Garlik, 5.8 million Brits* have encountered a ‘digital impersonator’– someone making false claims about who they are, what they do and how they look on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
Garlik’s findings reveal that more than half of online Brits (56 percent) social network or use online chat while 90 percent of 18-24 year olds do the same.
Among the biggest deceits facing social networkers online are people providing false names (21 per cent), inaccurate ages (23 per cent) and misleading physical descriptions (19 per cent).
And such deceit is taking its toll on the nation’s anxiety levels with more than a third (39 per cent) of social networkers worried about levels of digital impersonation.
Tom Ilube, CEO of Garlik, said: “The online world is changing our national culture as millions of Brits systematically deceive one another online and, in the process, push the boundaries of what society considers acceptable behaviour. This emerging trend of digital deception also presents one of the biggest challenges to the next stage of the web which, if left unchecked, could seriously impact the ways we use the internet and see many of us walking away from social networking sites altogether.”
The research also reveals that it’s online daters who are most at risk. Of the 1.3 million Brits online who turn to the net for love, three-quarters (74 per cent) have had potential suitors trick them, with more than half (54 per cent) experiencing someone lying about their appearance.
And female daters, it seems, may be more likely to provide false contact information including email address and phone number (19 per cent of male online daters have experienced this vs. 3 per cent of females) or lie about their age (experienced by 54 per cent of males vs. 45 per cent of females).
The research was conducted online by YouGov between 24th-29th April 2008. YouGov interviewed a sample of 2247 adults. Results were weighted to be representative of the known profile of the GB adult population from the 2001 census. YouGov is a member of the British polling Council.