Simply assuming someone's identity online is not sufficient cause for police to begin an official investigation, and the US-based Facebook is not interested in sharing user information with Finnish police. Clearing up cases of social media identity theft can be close to impossible.
Some people have found dozens of Facebook profiles created in their names. Esko Kovero, an actor in the popular Finnish TV drama series Salatut elämät says that it is annoying to have one's name stolen.
"There must be twenty of these profiles and about as many that are similar. And, the bigger point is that they are in the name of Esko Kovero, not in the name of my character. My sense of justice can't take it that my own name is misused and it possible to set up profiles using it," says Kovero.
Mainly a problem for the young
Even more often than public figures, it is the young who are targeted by idenity theft. Fake profiles are used to blatantly bully others, says police sergeant Marko Forss, one of Helsinki's virtual police team.
"It is probably most highly evident among the young. In a bit older age group, dating ads are used for harassment, that is a fake ad is posted in the name of an ex offering sex and other services," Forss explains.
Next step awaited
A working group that examined identity theft filed a report with the Interior Minister in January. However, criminalization of online identity theft is still a long way off. Some of the most extreme fake profiles have given rise to court cases for defamation, but so far not a single conviction has been handed down in Finland.