I might be misinterpreting your translation, but I think it's something like "Do you know Tom?" - "I know him", or I'm missing something.

In English the person who answers the question states he doesn't know Tom personally, but kind of aware of his existence (heard of him).

deniko, know of > know

My Turkish is really bad and I must admit I try to make sense of your sentences as part of my learning, so pardon me bugging you about them now and then.

I still don't understand it.

tanımak - I think it means to know someone personally, as to meet him at some point. Or does it mean "to know about him"? Like you never met him, but you know he exists? Or does it mean both?

But I can't make sense of Turkish sentence anyway. In English, there is a question which I'll paraphrase:

"Do you know Tom personally?"

The answer is basically "No, I don't. But I've heard about him".

In Turkish, it looks like the answer is "yes".

Depending on the meaning of tanımak, it's either:

"Do you know Tom exists?" - "Yes, I know" (well, something like that)
or
"Do you know Tom?" - "Yes, I know him"

Sorry again, I hope that makes sense.

deniko, http://tureng.com/tr/turkce-ingilizce/know

@duran

Burada ''know'' değil ''know of'' olarak bakacaksın. ''Tanımıyorum ama duymuştum '' gibi.