Exasperated by fraudulent advertisements on Facebook that usurp her name, host Marie-Claude Barrette is now suing the social network on behalf of public figures who suffered the same fate, as well as for those who were scammed.
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“I would never have done it just for myself, it’s also to give a voice to the victims,” said the host in an interview with The newspaperfollowing the filing of a request for class action at the Montreal courthouse.
It was only last fall that Mr.me Barrette found herself, despite herself, in advertisements on Facebook indicating, for example, that she had “confessed” in an interview, while inviting people to click on a link.
“The fraudsters then guide the curious Internet user towards a completely invented story featuring a media star intended to convince […] that she enriched herself through automatic investments in the cryptocurrency market,” the court document states.
- Listen to the segment Learn everything in 24 minutes with Alexandre Moranville and Mario Dumont on QUB:
Fake identity, real victims
The Internet user being given confidence, he is promised earnings of up to $2,100 per day… on condition of making a payment that he will never see again. And this is exactly what happened to a retiree from Beauce who lost $3,500, is given as an example in the request for collective action, led by Mr.e Gérard Samet.
“At first, I didn’t understand the scale,” explains M.me Barrette. But people wrote to me, I told them it was a scam. Then people who were cheated asked me to reimburse them…”
Several Internet users wrote directly to host Marie-Claude Barrette to check if she was really involved in advertisements on Facebook which usurp her identity in order to defraud users of the social network. Photo provided by the Fraud Training and Prevention Academy www.afpf.ca
Photo provided by AFPF
- Listen to the interview with Sylvain Paquette, expert in financial fraud on Benoit Dutrizac’s show via QUB :
Mme Barrette quickly contacted Meta, the parent company of Facebook. But even if the misleading advertisements illegally use its image or logos of real press companies, the digital giant washes its hands of it.
“[L’entreprise] considered that the advertisement did not violate its advertising standards,” we can read in the court document.
The host, who found that this response made “no sense”, first went to the police. And at the same time, she contributed to an expert report from the Fraud Training and Prevention Academy on the subject.
“She was the victim of a very well-organized fraud scheme by a network of fraudsters,” indicates this report prepared by Sylvain Paquette and Claudia Aubry.
False advertisements on Facebook impersonate Marie-Claude Barrette and push users who click on the link to invest in cryptocurrency. This leads to a site like this. This is in reality fraud and this pushed the host to take class action against Meta, who refuses to act. Photo provided by the Fraud Prevention and Training Academy www.afpf.ca
Photo provided by AFPF
Not the only one
Now, Mme Barrette is not the only public figure whose identity is stolen by fraudsters on Facebook. The former mayor of Quebec, Régis Labeaume, suffered similar treatment, while Normand Brathwaite had to come out publicly last week to say that he was alive and well and that he was not investing in cryptocurrency.
By bringing together the people who have been defrauded, Me Samet estimates that more than a thousand people would be affected by its request, more than enough to justify taking collective action and force the American company to change its ways of doing things.
- Normand Brathwaite, also a victim of false advertising, spoke with Sophie Durocher, at QUB:
The process could take years before the deal is concluded, but that doesn’t scare Mme Barrette.
“It’s the only way to have hope that something will happen,” she concluded, recalling that these advertisements are designed to make people fall for it, so no victim should to be ashamed of having been fooled.