A Fake Instagram Account in My Name in the UAE: How to Report It and What the Law Says

Take the steps in this order. Recording comes first because a reported account can disappear, and with it the evidence a complaint needs.

Article 11 has three tiers. Creating the fake account, website or email and attributing it falsely to a person or a company is the basic offence. Using it, or enabling others to use it, in a way offensive to the person affected carries imprisonment of at least two years. Where the account is falsely attributed to a government entity, the penalty rises to imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of AED 200,000 to AED 2,000,000.

Other offences can travel with a fake account, and the table sets out those in the current texts. Article 17 covers anyone who manages, creates or uses an account with intent to commit or facilitate a crime, which can reach a fake profile set up to ask your contacts for money. Article 68 allows an amicable settlement with the victim for the basic Article 11 offence, among others, until the judgment becomes final. For the wider rules on what may be posted, see the guide to social media laws in the UAE.

On Instagram, open the fake profile, open its menu, choose Report and select the option for an account that is pretending to be someone, then say whether it is pretending to be you, someone you know or a business. If you have no Instagram account, Instagram's help centre has an impersonation form for the person being impersonated, which may ask for a photo of a government-issued ID. For a fake business page, report it as the business, with proof that the name or logo is yours; where you own the brand, Instagram also accepts intellectual-property reports from the rights holder.

Facebook, X, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn and YouTube each have an equivalent impersonation report, and Telegram accepts reports from inside the app. Report every copy separately, keep the confirmation emails and reference numbers, and note the date of each report. If a report is refused, report again with better evidence, such as a clear side-by-side comparison of the fake profile and your real one.

A fake profile can also surface in Google results. Google's removal policies cover personally identifiable information and doxxing content, so a search result that exposes your phone number or address can be reported to Google. Removal from Search is not removal from the web, though: as Google itself says, content removed from Search may still be on the internet, and it is the platform's decision that takes the account offline.

RepuLex prepares and submits these platform reports, follows them up, monitors for the account returning under a new name, and keeps the dated, hashed evidence record that a UAE lawyer or the police can use. That platform work covers Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, TikTok, Telegram and Reddit, and is described for clients in the Emirates on online reputation management in Dubai.

Fake business pages take several forms: a copy of the company's page that takes orders or payments, a fake customer-service account that replies to real customers, or an account that advertises jobs or offers in the company's name. Each is falsely attributed to a legal person, which is the Article 11 offence, and one run to deceive customers into paying can also fall under Article 17.

Report the fake page as the business, from the business's genuine accounts where possible, with proof that the name and logo are yours. Tell customers on your official channels which accounts are genuine and how you do and do not take payment. Keep a record of customers who were contacted or who paid, because their accounts of what happened are evidence. In Dubai, the Dubai Police e-crime service lists the business sector among its beneficiaries, alongside individuals and government entities. Where you suspect someone you know, take advice before acting, and do not name them publicly.

In Dubai, the Dubai Police e-crime service takes complaints about electronic fraud and cybercrimes, free of charge, through the Dubai Police app, the Dubai Police website and Smart Police Stations; the call centre number is 901. In Abu Dhabi, the Aman service takes cases at aman.adpolice.gov.ae, and the Abu Dhabi Police homepage shows the numbers 8002626 and 2828 for it. Across the UAE, the Ministry of Interior eCrimes platform, in the MOI UAE app or on the Ministry's website, takes cybercrime reports, and the nearest police station can take one too. The guide on how to report cyber crime in the UAE sets out each channel.

If the account is being used to blackmail you, go to the police first, before any payment or reply, and keep everything; the steps are in the guide to online blackmail in the UAE. Anything involving someone under 18 goes straight to the police, and RepuLex does not handle it as a reputation matter.

You can make the complaint yourself, or through a UAE-licensed lawyer whose name is on the Roll of Practicing Lawyers (Article 6(2) of Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2022 on the legal profession); Article 10 of that law closes criminal proceedings to licensed non-national lawyers. RepuLex does not file or appear in the UAE, but its evidence record is built for the police and your lawyer to use. If the account is also used to insult or defame you, take advice within three months of learning of the post and who made it: Article 11 of the Criminal Procedures Law sets that limit for complaints of insult and slander of people, although it is not settled whether that complaint rule and its limit also govern the online offence in Article 43 of the Cybercrime Decree-Law.

Platforms and the police both need to see what the account did, and a reported account can vanish overnight. Collect this first, and store copies somewhere other than your phone.

These are natural reactions, but each one makes the problem harder to fix.

Article 69 of the Cybercrime Decree-Law applies it to offences committed outside the UAE where, among other cases, the crime harms any UAE national or resident, or the offender is later found in the UAE and has not been extradited. Platform reports work the same way wherever the operator is, because they go to the platform rather than to the person. A UAE access-blocking order, by contrast, is defined in the Decree-Law as disabling users' access in the UAE, so for an account run from abroad the platform's decision is the more complete remedy.

For the large Indian community in the UAE, impersonation sometimes appears on Indian platforms or spreads through Indian outlets. Content on Indian platforms is handled under Indian law through RepuLex's partner law firm, Unified Chambers And Associates in Delhi. That firm cannot act in the UAE: anything that is a UAE legal act stays with you or with UAE counsel you instruct. For how RepuLex works across the Emirates, see online reputation management in the UAE.

There is no statutory clock in the UAE that gives platforms a fixed number of hours. The Cybercrime Decree-Law works through orders: the competent authorities can issue notices to correct, remove or delete illegal content within the period stated in the notice, and under Article 53 a person who uses a website or account to publish illegal content and fails to remove it within the period specified in an order faces a fine of AED 300,000 to AED 1,000,000. Those orders come from the authorities, the Attorney General or a court; there is no route for a private party to issue one.

On the platform side, a complete report with proof of identity and a clear comparison with your real account gives the platform what it needs to decide. No one can promise a removal date: the platform, the police or a court decides.