Home

impersonations

Impersonation is the act of imitating another person or representing oneself as that person, often to deceive or to evoke the person's identity. It can be benign, such as entertainment, satire, or performance, or malicious, such as fraud or identity theft. Legal and ethical considerations depend on context and jurisdiction.

In person, impersonation may involve mimicry of voice, mannerisms, clothing, or behavior to resemble a target.

Forms include social engineering, phishing, and spoofed communications that attempt to trick victims into revealing information

Entertainment and performance are common benign domains with impressionists and impersonators in comedy and theatre; notable

Prevention and detection involve verification through independent channels, authentication measures, and media-forensics. Technical mitigations include telephony

Online
and
in
media,
digital
impersonation
uses
fake
accounts,
voice
synthesis,
or
altered
images
and
videos
to
masquerade
as
someone
else.
or
granting
access.
The
rise
of
deepfakes
and
other
media
manipulations
has
increased
concerns
about
authenticity
in
public
discourse.
practitioners
include
Rich
Little
and
Dana
Carvey.
authentication
(STIR/SHAKEN),
email
authentication
(DKIM/SPF/DMARC),
and
evolving
deepfake-detection
tools.