Impostor

An impostor (also spelled imposter) is a person who pretends to be somebody else, often through means of disguise, deceiving others by knowingly falsifying one or more aspects of their identity. This is in contrast to someone that honestly believes their false identity due to psychosis (break from reality), mistake (e.g. mistakenly switched at birth, or memory problems), or having been lied to about their identity by another (e.g. by a parent, or kidnapper). Reasons for impostureMany impostors try to gain financial or social advantages through social engineering or through means of identity theft, but also often for purposes of espionage or undercoverlaw enforcement. Their objective may be one of sexual gratification, giving a false name, false claim of being single or unwed, and/or false age in order to hide adultery, bigamy, or to catfish (e.g. a pedophile pretending to be a youth online). Those in witness protection, those fleeing abusers or persecution, and criminals evading arrest may also assume a false identity. Economic migrants may pose as tourists (visitor visas) or as international students (international student visas with a ). In some countries, such as Canada, student