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February 7, 2008

Moroccan Man Jailed For Fake Facebook Profile

Michael Arrington

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According to CNN, 26 year old Fouad Mourtada of Morocco has been arrested for pretending to be the Moroccan king’s younger brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, on Facebook. The specific charge? “Villainous practices” (I like the sound of that).

In a photo caption (copied to right), CNN says the prince has allegedly been the victim of “identity fraud,” which seems like quite a stretch, unless Mourtada was trying to run the government from the fake Facebook site, or somehow ruining the prince’s credit score. I guess the moral of the story is that if you are going to pretend to be royalty to meet girls on Facebook, you should do it from somewhere other than where the royalty being impersonated has legal jurisdiction.

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Comments

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  1. other

    February 7th, 2008 at 9:34 am

    omg, what if a real prince was running that african prince scam? delicious!

  2. flippinzooter

    February 7th, 2008 at 9:35 am

    This is weird shit. Ppl can’t have a little fun anymore?

  3. other

    February 7th, 2008 at 9:35 am

    also “I guess the morale of the story” -> moral.

  4. anon-guy

    February 7th, 2008 at 9:39 am

    Arrington is quoted saying, “”identity fraud,” which seems like quite a stretch”. Michael, do you not understand the definition of fraud?

  5. Michael Arrington

    February 7th, 2008 at 9:41 am

    anon-guy - I do. And I also understand that this is not the type of “fraud” that should land you in jail.

  6. Michael Arrington

    February 7th, 2008 at 9:44 am

    …unless, that is, there is a lot more to the story.

  7. other

    February 7th, 2008 at 9:46 am

    viva la fruit!

  8. CanCar

    February 7th, 2008 at 9:51 am

    Then, they will condemn him with life imprisonment, or they will punish him in a public place? My God…..this is something common in our days

  9. Steel

    February 7th, 2008 at 10:06 am

    While it may seen trite to some, anytime you pretend to be someone you’re not, it IS FRAUD. Whether one commits a crime doing so does not change the fact that he impersonated someone he isn’t. Most U.S. state laws on the books call this ” criminal impersonation” The fact is was done on line doesn’t change anything.

  10. Michael Arrington

    February 7th, 2008 at 10:07 am

    Steel - good point. Let’s execute him. And everyone else that has ever pretended to be someone they weren’t on the Internet.

  11. snyggast

    February 7th, 2008 at 10:27 am

    Guilty of “Villainous practices!”

    Let’s start the stoning!

  12. MikeT

    February 7th, 2008 at 10:31 am

    Give the guy a Darwin award!

  13. MikeT

    February 7th, 2008 at 10:31 am

    Wait! Let them kill him first…

  14. snyggast

    February 7th, 2008 at 10:34 am

    @ 9 are you the man of Steel or just pretending to be?

  15. Surfnturf

    February 7th, 2008 at 10:34 am

    This is actually a bigger problem than one might think. Megan Meier was a teenage girl who hung herself because a cute boy named Josh befriended her, dropped her and then spammed her everywhere saying she was a fat slut. Josh turned out to be the mother of a neighborhood girl. I know first hand of this happening in other communities and it will likely only get worse. I wonder what the legal reprecussions in this country will be?

    Will the Fake Steve Jobs remain all about fun? Or as we become a more collabrative society will a competitor of yours use your profile to perform a character assasination?

  16. Robert Seidman

    February 7th, 2008 at 10:35 am

    “Arrington Says: KILL ALL THE FAKES!”

    I’m sure it’s not practical, but if you were running for election on that platform it would probably be enough to get my vote.

  17. Ontario Emperor

    February 7th, 2008 at 10:36 am

    For the record, I the Ontario Emperor claim no jurisdiction over Morocco. (Not that Facebook would want me, anyway.)

    Without seeing the Facebook profile in question, I can’t really judge whether or not the villainous practices amounted to fraud.

    Is Fake Steve Jobs guilty of “villainous practices”? Should Elvis impersonators be executed? The mind reels.

  18. Roy

    February 7th, 2008 at 10:43 am

    @17
    no, but Fake Steve Ballmer should

  19. MikeT

    February 7th, 2008 at 10:44 am

    Hey, Fake Steve Jobs is… FAKE - he admits it in his name. Elvis impersonators are not taken seriously because the King is dead. Megan’s case is a tragedy that must’ve been investigated and the guilty woman - imprisoned (I did not research what happened there).

    But the moral of this article is that in a country like Morocco you don’t do horribly stupid things like confronting a policeman, an army officer, an official and I am not even mentioning how important is to not touch the royals.

    If a mature guy (age = 26) did something like that - he fully understood what he was doing, so he fully deserves the consequences of his deeds.

    I haven’t been in Morocco, but from what I know about this country - the guy is in big-big trouble.

  20. a.k

    February 7th, 2008 at 11:08 am

    MikeT I am from morocco an I can tell you that although he is in trouble he is likely to be put in jail for a short period and then released, freedom of speech has come a long way there and this is more about setting an example. The guy is 26 and knew very well that the monarchy is to be treated with respect.

  21. Startup News

    February 7th, 2008 at 11:11 am

    Well ..U See ..America is one of the most liberal countrys in the world so most people that live in the U.S dont know what kind of freedom they enjoy .

    By the way ..you should watch THE KITE RUNNER . Its and Afghan movie

  22. @20

    February 7th, 2008 at 11:33 am

    I bet THE KITE RUNNER most likely win 2-6 accademy award next year 2009. The two boys grew up in kite and taliban wars. That’s good story…

  23. Free speech or no free speech

    February 7th, 2008 at 11:38 am

    Did you know Iran, Turkey, Finland, Malaysia, etc… would do anything to arrest Michael Arrington’s free blogging press or confidential leaks?

    They think you are spy or something.

    For example, Davos…
    Google Jet kicked out Mike for sneaking or checking confidential papers.

  24. @all

    February 7th, 2008 at 11:40 am

    This just in… Fake Steve Jobs and Bill Gates arrested for “Villainous practices” and “Bad Journalism”.

  25. Steel

    February 7th, 2008 at 11:47 am

    Michael

    Did I say prosecute him? Nooooo……LOL Just making a point for those ill informed. A young lady( 23) in Springfield Mass was prosecuted for pretending to be someone she wasn’t. A school teacher. I am just thinking the wild ride on the web can come back to bite some people on their proverbial asses.

  26. Ghaus

    February 7th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    @14

    LOL

  27. MBoy

    February 7th, 2008 at 2:16 pm

    Hi, I was born in Morocco.
    It’s not a country that particularly oppresses people. There is some respectable amount of freedom of speech. However, people there know very well that you should never insult and disrespect in anyways the royal family. It’s the way it works there.
    I hope for this guy he will get released soon without any bad treatments. Hopefully for him, the actual king is much more tolerant than his father :)

  28. Merci Beaucoup

    February 7th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    It is fraud. It is defamatory. And in this case it is probably also treason.

    It has nothing to do with free speech.

    I think the key point is the intention of the person who made the fake.

    The sooner the world moves to IPv6 and/or Microsoft’s InfoCard, or the like, the better.

  29. rubu

    February 7th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

    But the moral of this article is that in a country like Morocco you don’t do horribly stupid things like confronting a policeman, an army officer, an official and I am not even mentioning how important is to not touch the royals.

  30. Dan

    February 7th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

    This should make its way into an Arlo Guthrie song:

    …and they all moved away from me on the bench, until I added, and villainous practices, and then we all had a good old time…

  31. MikeT

    February 7th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

    What’s your point, rubu?
    You quoted me but why?

  32. SEO tips

    February 8th, 2008 at 8:13 am

    If that is the case, thousands are there on Facebook!! And i agree with
    “Merci Beaucoup”

  33. Abhishek

    February 10th, 2008 at 11:56 am

    There are Millions of people not only in facebook but lot of portals who claim they are someone but they are not… It may be recalled in INDIA… a person was kidnapped & later was killed also through means of orkut… due to this identity misappropriation only….

  34. Live Footy

    February 11th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

    I cant understand it why people can do things like this,internet doesnt mean nobody can find you!

  35. laggeri

    February 12th, 2008 at 6:11 am

    just for fun, check out all the fake george bushes, vladimir putins, etc. profiles that exist on FB…

  36. afoulous ɲ dadès

    February 14th, 2008 at 11:36 am

    Welcome to Morocco!

    This is not the only case, please take a look at http://tinyurl.com/2ajv7m

  37. Lydia Beyoud

    February 14th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    Michael, I loved your post. I’m a Global Voices author for the Moroccan blogosphere and we’re covering this story.
    I agree with Mike T - though it is unfortunate how seriously the Moroccan justice/security forces are taking this occurence, the man is certainly an adult and he was raised in a culture fully aware that the Royal Family is essentially “untouchable”. There are often stories in the news about how such and such a media source criticized the king or a minister or a distant relative of the RF and was forced to pay an exorbitant fine. He had to be aware that he was risking retaliation against himself and possibly his family.
    I do hope they’ll find a way to at least lessen his jail sentence, although I don’t expect him to receive much clemency from the regime there.
    Furthermore, there is a HUGE generational gap in Morocco concerning the understanding of technology, the internet and even more so sites such as Facebook. See my blog post, in which I quoted you, for more info. http://lallalydia.blogspot.com.....ud-or.html

  38. jawad

    February 14th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

    HELPFOUAD.com

  39. helpfouad.com

    February 14th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

    Official statement of the Committee of Support for Fouad Mourtada, after a first visit at Oukacha jail.

    One week after his disappearance and imprisonment by the Moroccan police force Tuesday February 05, it was finally possible for the family of Fouad to visit him this Tuesday February 12 afternoon at Oukacha jail in Casablanca, Morocco.

    Fouad, distraught after one week of detention, stated the following facts:

    “I was arrested on the morning of Tuesday by two individuals who embarked me on a vehicle then blindfolded my eyes with a black band. After about fifteen minutes, they changed vehicle, then took me along to some building to undergo an interrogation there. There I was persecuted, beaten up, slapped, spat on and insulted. I was also slammed for hours with a tool on the head and the legs. This calvary lasted such a long time that I lost consciousness several times and also lost the notion of time. I was completely surprised to learn, when I was taken again to another location, that it was Wednesday “.

    Concerning the Facebook account, incriminated Fouad indicated:

    “I actually created this account on January 15, 2008. It remained on line a few days before somebody closed it. There are so many profiles of celebrities on Facebook. I never thought that by creating a profile of his highness prince Moulay Rachid I am harming him in any way. I, as a matter of fact, did not send any message from that account to anyone. It was just a joke, a gag. I regret my gesture and beg my forgiveness from my whole family for the harm that I have caused them. I am not an evil doer; my ambition in the life was simply to have a stable job and a normal life “.

    Fouad Mourtada awaits the starting of his trial, Friday February 15. He could be facing 5 years of prison, to have done what thousands of people throughout the world do everyday: create a profile of a celebrity or a star on Facebook.

    We call for a general mobilization in favour of Fouad Mourtada.

    Committee of support for Fouad Mourtada *

  40. Slobodan Millosevic

    February 15th, 2008 at 1:40 am

    What Mourtada has done is really stupid in a country where there no freedom of speech, a monarchy, and where the policemen love to entertain themselves by beating up people whenever they can.

    In morocco one gets pulled over for going through green lights and disobeying non-existent signs. Policemen need money and abuse their powers thousands of times a day throughout the country for cash.

    Moroccan law does not allow Moroccans to change religion, they are Muslim, period. Women do not have the same rights as men, during inheritance, a boy is worth two girls and if there is no direct boy descendant, a distant male cousin can claim 50% or more of the estate.

    Recently two gays were imprisoned for openly marrying.

    On may 1st there were a number of arrests against people peacefully demonstrating for better access to jobs and better labor law in a country where 30% or more of the youth are unemployed.

    Human rights are abused everyday there, so Mourtada is in serious shit. Good luck to him and those trying to get the clemency of fake justice.

  41. Kikoo

    February 19th, 2008 at 6:13 pm

    @Millosevic

    I totally agree with your comment. You know, Fouad’s reason was that he wanted to seduce girls… But I think he did not make a great choice for that. If I would be him, I would make Brad Pitt’s profile ;).

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