Imposters assume someone else’s identity for fraudulent or legal reasons, with varying levels of skill. Full-time imposters may pose as royals or use body doubles for security. They may impersonate legal representatives or ordinary people to commit fraud or crimes. Imposters can be used in law enforcement or as a security technique. Impersonators may rely on tactics such as avoiding close associates and using personal items to aid their imitation.
An imposter is an individual who takes on the persona of someone else, pretending to be that person. Usually the reasons for pretending to be someone else are fraudulent in nature, although there are times when people assume deceptive identities for perfectly legal reasons, such as law enforcement stings or instances where having a body double is used to provide security. The level of skill on the part of imposters varies, as does the underlying reason for assuming someone else’s identity.
Some people live as full-time imposters, devoting their entire lives to pretending an identity they weren’t born to. These imposters can live under tremendous stress, as they may fear getting caught at any moment. Full-time imposters may pose as someone to gain access to wealth or power; most famously, historically people have pretended to be members of royal families, sometimes assuming someone’s identity and in other cases creating a new identity as a previously unknown relative. An imposter may also live part-time in the assumed identity, just long enough to achieve desired goals.
Impersonators can impersonate legal representatives such as lawyers to trick people into admitting information, signing documents, or engaging in trust tricks. When they pretend to be ordinary people, they may fraudulently impersonate bank customers to empty their accounts, and may engage in other activities such as doing business in someone else’s name or committing crimes under a false identity. The imposter may use a variety of techniques including assuming the identity of someone who looks similar and forging identification documents to exploit the resemblance, as well as wearing makeup and prosthetics or even undergoing surgery to look like someone else. An imposter may also pretend to have been at the site of a famous event such as a battle or historical incident, assuming a false identity without assuming someone else’s.
In the law enforcement community, imposters can be used in criminal investigations to gather information. By taking the imposter as someone else, people let their guard down and can make deals or revealing admissions that wouldn’t happen in the presence of a stranger or member of law enforcement. This can also be a security technique, with doubles being used to impersonate someone who is under threat to make that person more difficult to attack. Sometimes, people call their doubles to make public appearances for them when they don’t have the time, inclination, or energy to do so.
Impersonators may know their subjects very well and may rely on tactics such as avoiding their victims’ close associates, using dimly lit and crowded environments to make it more difficult for people to inspect them closely, and using personal items known as rings to aid their imitation. People aren’t always very careful, especially with people they don’t know well, and some imposters can be successful despite not bearing a strong resemblance to the victim.
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