How to tell the difference between me and my evil twin

That is to say, how can you tell if the person you're talking to is actually me or someone pretending to be me... Well the solution is to set up a security measure in advance.

A system that can proof the authenticity of identity. For this, a text encryption protocol named PGP, which stands for Pretty Good Privacy, can be used. The protocol creates a public-private keypair based on a passphrase (which is used as hash seed).

The first key is the private key that only the real me (creator of the keypair) has and which I will never share anywhere or to anyone. It's stored in a safe place only I can access. The other key of the pair is the public key. This one I make public to anyone who wishes to verify my identity. Go find it at a legitimate source like my website http://multiverse.industries/public.

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: BCPG C# v1.6.1.0
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=W02e
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Should you be in contact with someone who claims to be me, ask my evil twin to decrypt a message for you. If he has no idea what you are talking about... it's not me! Should my evil twin be more competent encrypt a random message. Say for example that message is:

"This is an identity authentication test ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

With an online too you can encrypt that message with my public key. The result looks like this:

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: BCPG C# v1.6.1.0

hQEMA71UuWrjn+DLAQf/aHGIpBxry605CBL/RMlcsR7XgXgPj9vD0L6B0u9o0je5
+KhZJiBgMkbTTjSCd1F+Ecx549nvZ9ZL08a6GrzhlJob7tcue7SaUE+kK2ZYtAy9
ryioO/DsQPtnpSCHkVRl92uDSFp8qxfzT2A/8Ss269ys/Ar1intf35XvZsWxF5H0
EZPp7GepcUp0yiKsQXZDsM0tr0r36A6X6i2nIrB7IjcXSG85kAYS9dwu659Bl8RD
Z6uw4Fc5c5Iibr9yijoxF0V9Un3nTql9zIiQ6p1sC9v2Swmyd+LQ05B2xnwvVHss
MHhuWABThAzuwYFRVchi4/x3XsB/Gy2b6++RO8ifgclMssWgzSeeNp0KEDxuxIuH
xlgXX8Jq95nlTnhKSI7Kb9C2q3T4p9fiQdmjg7dSlg2Cj8Fc52VK82+HrQVed4PM
jwTHgUE2WHKmxC9IZg==
=92bM
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

That is what you send to my evil twin. The only way he can find out what the original message was, is to have the private key! And he won't, unless it is actually me. So either he says he can't decrypt or makes up excuses and you know he's a fraud. Or he says: "Your message was This is an identity authentication test ¯_(ツ)_/¯". In that case you know it is actually me, identify confirmed. Though you just wasted my time, I'm glad that you're being careful. Well done!

Peace,
PBoy

A good free to use PGP tool I found online here https://sela.io/pgp
You can encrypt and decrypt messages, but also create your own keypair!