"it was possible for someone to use the name of another mudcatter"
Who'd bother??? And to what end?!?!?!

Well as far as I'd heard someone did bother although I don't know to what end.

Other than that I can tell you, folkchat started in June 2004 and it's open access was a known issue then. It didn't become a problem until Jan 2006 so noone really bothered for a good while.