The season of major cultural events attracts not only crowds, but also counterfeiters on the Internet. Latest victims: the Festival international de jazz de Montréal (FIJM) and the Festival d’été de Québec, whose programming and identity are replicated by numerous misleading Facebook pages.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
CRi, The Roots, Woodkid… Almost all the major concerts of the Montreal jazz event have been duplicated to make bogus online events. The subterfuge works: thousands of festival-goers, including fellow journalists and employees of the FIJM, have announced their presence or their interest on these pages which have nothing to do with the official organization.
The phenomenon of fake online concerts, which flourished amid the pandemic, is making a comeback. What give headaches to the communication teams of the festivals.
The Jazz alone is the subject of more than a hundred misleading pages. Malicious Internet users generally post links there that lead to streaming fortune, where a credit card number may be required.
Among other examples, at least seven dubious events were created for the – very real – passage of hip-hop collective The Roots. Most use the date of July 9 at 9:30 p.m., when the Philadelphia headliners will take to the main stage in the Place des Festivals.
The creators of these parallel events always present themselves under more or less credible false identities: “The Roots Festival International de Jazz de Montréal”, “Stromae-Multitude Tour Center Bell” or even “Mad Boy”.
“We report several of these fake events and fake Facebook accounts every day, but the fake events use several names, create new pages, explains Christine Montreuil, media relations manager at evenko, promoter of the FIJM. It’s a job to start over every day for our teams. »
Viral imitations
Malicious pages for The Roots concert alone sparked interest from over 10,000 netizens; they have publicly confirmed their presence there or mentioned their interest. This is more than the 7,300 Facebook users who showed up on the legitimate event page created by the FIJM on the social network.
PHOTO TAKEN FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF THE EVENT
The malicious pages for The Roots’ concert alone sparked the interest of more than 10,000 netizens.
“It’s important to mention that people should always check the official source, the event organizer, before clicking,” says evenko’s branding and social media team.
Fake accounts often use our logos, branding and other information. Beware of imitations!
The evenko branding and social media team
Some concerts are invented from scratch. An acquaintance of the author of these lines was surprised, for example, by the presence of Jack Johnson at the Jazz next Thursday. No need for a babysitter, since the viral event created by the “Jazz Festival” page will not take place in Montreal, but on the Plains of Abraham as part of the Festival d’été de Québec. At the time of writing these lines, some 4,000 people had however slid their mouse cursor to “present” or “interested”.
Facebook’s algorithm obliges, each interaction on a fraudulent page risks contaminating its contacts, in an exponential crescendo.
No transmission from FIJM
“Most of the time, fake events indicate that they are online events, notes evenko. This year, the Montreal International Jazz Festival is not broadcasting the concerts live. »
This is without taking into account the activity of counterfeiters on official accounts. “Several fake webcast links are circulating in the comments of our publications, deplores the promoter. These comments are generated by fake Facebook accounts. Please report and block. »
Different dates and places, fictitious concerts, duplication of legitimate pages: in addition to the risk of bank fraud, misleading events create confusion among festival-goers. The public should always consult the official program and, in the case of paid concerts, use the legitimate ticket offices – Ticketmaster, Place des Arts, etc. –, emphasizes evenko.
Facebook had not responded to our requests for information at the time of this writing.
What to do with counterfeiters, according to evenko
- Report the event;
- Validate the event creator’s page. Reporting a fraudulent page allows you to erase all the false events it has created;
- Block all fraudulent accounts and events, to prevent them from spreading through the algorithm of your contacts.