{"id":11166,"date":"2016-01-27T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-01-27T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=11166"},"modified":"2017-09-24T08:10:10","modified_gmt":"2017-09-24T12:10:10","slug":"stolen-social-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/stolen-social-identity\/11166\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter Star or Identity Fraud? A scary case of public social photos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While identity theft is something that we all know is scary, people generally are more passive with protecting their digital identity. However recent trends of breaches and stolen personal data has seen more people start to care. Let\u2019s face it: in the digital age we live in, this type of crime isn\u2019t all that rare and recent events only prove this fact.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2016\/01\/06023129\/stolen-social-identity-FB.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11167\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11167\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2016\/01\/06023129\/stolen-social-identity-FB.jpg\" alt=\"Twitter Star or Identity Fraud? A scary case of public social photos\" width=\"1280\" height=\"1280\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Recently <a href=\"http:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/ryanhatesthis\/someone-appears-to-have-stolen-this-womans-photos-and-is-usi%23.yj4k3EOv1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">BuzzFeed examined<\/a> a popular Twitter account of a <em>\u201cproud Christian, singer and mother of three,\u201d<\/em> who called herself \u201cUma Kompton,\u201d and found out, that all of the the photos had been stolen from a young Russian woman. This trend of stolen photos also popped up on \u201cUma\u2019s\u201d Instagram profile as well.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UmaKompton?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">@umakompton<\/a> account appears to be a catfish that's stealing a Russian woman's photos  <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1aPaCN9J34\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/1aPaCN9J34<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CXuWEOS6Yw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/CXuWEOS6Yw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ryan Broderick (@broderick) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/broderick\/status\/691918289711304704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">January 26, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The social media accounts of this \u201cUma girl\u201d are quite provocative and scandalous. They attract and entertain more than 18,000 followers with a quite raunchy and definitely NSFW song dedicated to Donald Trump on Soundcloud.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/UmaKompton\/status\/687753023913758720<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUma\u201d is also a pretty established troll with posts that can be best described as \u201cintensely graphic and sexual\u201d as well as offering \u201cher\u201d unique commentary on cultural and everyday life in America. \u201cUma\u201d has a \u201clover\u201d and regularly posts his photos as well.<\/p>\n<p>Typically, it would be easy to dismiss her account as just another trolling page with memes and off-color humor. However to do so would mean that you would have to utterly dismiss the fact that this account was using stolen photos from a real woman and her no less real husband.<\/p>\n<p>During their research, the editors at BuzzFeed found a photo on \u201cUma\u2019s\u201d account that raised red flags. The photo in question showed a number of signs written in Cyrillic leading them to assume that the photos were taken in the Russian Federation. They then checked Russian social media networks and found a VK.com account of an actual Russian woman, whose photos were used to create the \u201cUma Kompton\u201d accounts.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-pullquote\"><p>Twitter Star or Identity Fraud? A scary case of stolen public social photos. #privacy #security #smm<\/p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fkas.pr%2FC1wD&amp;text=Twitter+Star+or+Identity+Fraud%3F+A+scary+case+of+stolen+public+social+photos.+%23privacy+%23security+%23smm\" class=\"btn btn-twhite\" data-lang=\"en\" data-count=\"0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tweet<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<p>This woman\u2019s name is Natalya Ulyanina, she has a husband, Evgeny Ulyanin, and they both work for a ceiling contractor in the Moscow area. Natalya is not a singer and the couple has never heard of Uma Kompton. It just so happened that someone has decided to steal their photos.<\/p>\n<p>When BuzzFeed editors asked \u201cUma\u201d to comment and explain why she had stolen photos from a VK.com account of another woman, \u201cmrs Kompton\u201d answered that she knows nothing about both Ulyanins family and VK.com social network. After that the impostor posted a tweet asking her followers not to believe any media articles about her.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/UmaKompton\/status\/691912269991657473<\/p>\n<p>While many readers will find this a funny story, it really was not something that brought a smile to Natalya or Evgeny\u2019s faces. At the end of the day, they were the victims of identity theft. With that in mind it is another area for us to remind you of the importance of proper privacy settings.<\/p>\n<p>If your page and family photos are open only for real friends, no \u2018Kompton couple\u2019 will be able to use them without your permission. Here on Kaspersky Daily we have posts, which describe how to protect your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/facebook-privacy-settings-video\/4623\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/keep-instagram-secure\/11045\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/google-privacy\/10572\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Google+<\/a> and even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/vk-privacy\/10743\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">VK.com accounts<\/a>. So, protect your digital identity right now and be safe!<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Check your Facebook privacy settings NOW <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/32ZyKfSVgM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/32ZyKfSVgM<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fvJ4RWVskL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/fvJ4RWVskL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kaspersky (@kaspersky) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaspersky\/status\/658723040008773632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">October 26, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> So your social media photos are public, great. Ever wonder what could happen when they get stolen?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":522,"featured_media":11168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1788],"tags":[80,315,765,43,211,1370],"class_list":{"0":"post-11166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-privacy","9":"tag-fraud","10":"tag-identity-theft","11":"tag-instagram","12":"tag-privacy","13":"tag-social-media","14":"tag-vk"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/stolen-social-identity\/11166\/"},{"hreflang":"en-us","url":"https:\/\/usa.kaspersky.com\/blog\/stolen-social-identity\/6601\/"},{"hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/stolen-social-identity\/6691\/"},{"hreflang":"es-mx","url":"https:\/\/latam.kaspersky.com\/blog\/stolen-social-identity\/6563\/"},{"hreflang":"es","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.es\/blog\/stolen-social-identity\/7570\/"},{"hreflang":"it","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.it\/blog\/stolen-social-identity\/7333\/"},{"hreflang":"ru","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.ru\/blog\/stolen-social-identity\/10659\/"},{"hreflang":"pt-br","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.br\/blog\/stolen-social-identity\/5949\/"},{"hreflang":"de","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.de\/blog\/stolen-social-identity\/6828\/"},{"hreflang":"ja","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.co.jp\/stolen-social-identity\/10190\/"},{"hreflang":"ru-kz","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.kz\/stolen-social-identity\/10659\/"},{"hreflang":"en-au","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/stolen-social-identity\/11166\/"},{"hreflang":"en-za","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/stolen-social-identity\/11166\/"}],"acf":[],"banners":"","maintag":{"url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/tag\/fraud\/","name":"fraud"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/522"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19279,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11166\/revisions\/19279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}