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I<\/span>n April of this year, Daisy Yelichek was scrolling TikTok when something unusual appeared in her feed: a video of her 84-year-old father, George Tsaftarides, who runs an account sharing sewing videos from his small tailoring business in Ohio. But the video Yelichek was seeing was not from Tsaftarides\u2019 actual page, which has nearly 41,000 followers \u2013 but instead originated from a profile of someone claiming to be a \u201csad old man\u201d whose cat sanctuary was at risk of shutting down.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease stay 8 seconds so I don\u2019t have to shut down my cat shelter I poured my love into,\u201d the text on the video said, adding that the sanctuary would be selling slippers to raise additional funds. The bid for sympathy worked on many viewers, garnering millions of views and tens of thousands of users leaving concerned comments. \u201cJust ordered two! Sending love to these kittens,\u201d wrote one. Another commenter said: \u201cthank you for all you do for these babies.\u201d Others even asked if there was a GoFundMe link to donate directly to the cat shelter.<\/p>\n Yelichek and her father were shocked. Tsaftarides does not run a shelter. The account posting the plea for funds appears to be a front for a scheme seeking to sell mass-produced slippers. Several of Tsaftarides\u2019 followers who actually ordered slippers complained that the fuzzy footwear came with \u201cmade in China\u201d tags and did not, in fact, appear to be handmade by an elderly man with a struggling cat sanctuary.<\/p>\n \u201cThese people are using my identity to make money and I don\u2019t understand why,\u201d Tsaftarides said. \u201cIt\u2019s thieving, it\u2019s stealing, and it\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n Tsaftarides is not the only TikTok user who has had his likeness hijacked by such accounts. Charles Ray, an 85-year-old retiree based in Michigan, has also been targeted by accounts using doctored videos of his likeness. He started his actual TikTok account in January and uses it to share jokes with his followers.<\/p>\n \u201cEarlier this year, my pastor told me a joke about a frog, and I thought, \u2018that ought to make people smile,\u2019 so I figured out how to make an account and told the joke, and it took off from there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ray\u2019s videos all follow a similar template: filmed in selfie mode, he tells a short joke. He was frustrated to learn his content, which he makes only to \u201cshare joy\u201d and not to earn money, was being lifted and edited to scam people. In one video, Ray is rubbing his eye, and the repost seems to imply he is crying. Another video uses a clip from a woman crying on TikTok about an unrelated issue, and another includes a user in a hospital bed.<\/p>\n Since she first discovered the proliferation and manipulation of her father\u2019s face, Yelichek has identified more than 100 accounts splicing his videos with other, unrelated users to sell mass-produced goods including slippers, headphone cases and blankets \u2013 all under the guise of independent sellers that need help. Some two dozen Instagram accounts and YouTube as well as a handful were pulling the same trick, according to a list compiled by Yelichek and a review of the accounts by the Guardian.<\/p>\n At one point, Yelichek even made contact with the account manipulating her father\u2019s likeness over direct message and pleaded with its owner to stop. The person behind the account claimed to be a poor 17-year-old boy based in Greece trying to make money for his family.<\/p>\n \u201cI totally understand your situation but I also want you to understand mine,\u201d he said, proceeding to post more stolen videos.<\/p>\n The con replicates a recurring genre of video on TikTok that has boosted sales for some small businesses: user makes a heartfelt post about a local store or restaurant that is struggling, and online followers are moved to support it. One typical post mimicking a local plea for help reads: \u201cPlease just stay 15 seconds to save my pawpaw\u2019s slipper small business.\u201d<\/p>\n In the case of videos Yelichek is seeing, many commenters who are moved by the fake story try to boost it by commenting names of celebrities and creating other engagement they believe TikTok prioritizes. \u201cFun fact,\u201d a comment on one video of the type reads, this one using the same formula but claiming to be a struggling cow sanctuary. \u201cLiking and replying to comments boosts more! Referencing popular things like Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift puts this video on the [for you page] of more people.\u201d The video pulled in 1.4m likes and 26,000 comments before being taken down. Yelichek says these accounts lift videos from other TikTok users as well and recontextualize them to create a false narrative.<\/p>\n Tsaftarides said his content being used to sell mass-produced goods is particularly frustrating, as he started his account to promote small businesses, including his own, and to encourage people to shop locally.<\/p>\n \u201cAll we want to do is show people our store and teach them about sewing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t make money off of our TikTok account.\u201d<\/p>\n Yelichek said she and her father filed a police report to Jackson township police in Ohio, where their store is based, for identity theft and have made great efforts to get social networks to take the stolen content down \u2013 often to no avail. Yelichek said that while Instagram has removed a few of the profiles she reported, TikTok \u2013 the platform where the issue is more widespread \u2013 has been less responsive.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cIf we comment on [these videos] saying they\u2019re spam, our comments often get deleted right away, with TikTok saying it\u2019s against their community guidelines,\u201d Yelichek said, sharing screenshots of the messages. \u201cThey\u2019ve actually put strikes on my dad\u2019s account for me commenting on these videos to say that they are spam and scamming people.\u201d<\/p>\n TikTok users who have gotten wise to the scheme have commented on videos calling out the scam. Like Yelichek, some comments say that TikTok responds to their reports of a video by saying it does not violate its community guidelines.<\/p>\n TikTok said in a statement that its community guidelines do, in fact, prohibit impersonation accounts and content that violates others\u2019 intellectual property rights. Reports of copyright infringement concerns may require proof of ownership, including links to the original content and links to infringing content. Meta similarly stated its Instagram terms of use do not allow posting content that violates someone else\u2019s intellectual property rights, including copyright and trademarks, and that violations can be reported on Instagram\u2019s help page.<\/p>\n Ray, the 85-year-old jokester, said he tried reporting the videos to TikTok but got responses that the content he had flagged did not violate TikTok\u2019s community standards. Like Yelichek, he said his comments on the videos alerting followers to the scam were frequently removed, and that he gets \u201cno help from TikTok\u201d and does not know how to further communicate with the company.<\/p>\n TikTok said in a statement that it continuously takes action against such copyright violations. It added that 94% of all content removed for violating community guidelines on fake engagement in the fourth quarter of last year was removed proactively rather than in response to reports.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, some users are catching on to this particular kind of sadness bait \u2013 with recent videos going viral alerting people to the fact that the posts begging for help with failing cat shelters, cow farms and other heart-wrenching fictions are not real.<\/p>\n Though awareness may spread, the impersonating videos remain available. In lieu of takedowns, Ray said he has decided to continue to make his videos because many of his 13,000 followers have told him they look forward to his posts each day.<\/p>\n \u201cWith everything that\u2019s going on nowadays, people need to smile,\u201d he said. \u201cIf my followers smile, even for a minute, they\u2019ve forgotten their troubles for a minute. So that\u2019s all I try to do \u2013 to make people smile. This is not going to stop me.\u201d<\/p>\n