“I’m afraid to leave my house”: a fraudster uses his account to multiply shenanigans on Marketplace

A Saint-Hyacinthe resident waited more than two months before reporting to the police that her Facebook page had passed into the hands of a scammer who has since used it to do little shenanigans in Marketplace.

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“Given the scale it has taken, I should have done that sooner,” sighs Martine Daigle.

Last February, the mother of three said she realized she had lost access to her Facebook account. “I immediately made a report on Facebook,” she says.

An automatic message from the web giant was then displayed on his browser. He promised to examine the situation quickly and act accordingly.

This is not what happened. The scammer using the virtual identity of Martine Daigle continued to operate, multiplying victims in the Facebook flea market.

Her modus operandi was always the same: once “customers” showed interest in an item for sale, the “fake” Martine Daigle asked for a deposit to ward off other potential buyers, then she gave a random address.

THE Newspaper also told on Saturday the story of a woman from Quebec who received visits from eight victims of this individual in the space of a weekend. Since the publication of this report, the account in question no longer displays items for sale on Marketplace but is still active.

“I started getting messages from people telling me I had defrauded them. I explained to them as best as possible that it’s not me, that my account was stolen,” maintains Martine Daigle, swearing sternly that she is not behind the account in question.

These messages were more and more frequent, and things gradually became out of control, says the Saint-Hyacinthe resident, to the point that she even says she fears leaving her house.

“I keep the curtains closed and the doors locked, even in broad daylight. If people are able to find me on Facebook, they are probably able to find my address somewhere,” worries Ms. Daigle.

She therefore went to the police station on Monday to make a statement. “They told me there wasn’t much they could do. When the investigation comes back to me, they will come and see me. Afterwards, maybe things will change…,” she said.

“In the meantime, the fraudster is still active on the internet, he still has access to all my Facebook content. It’s my face, it’s the photos of my children, it’s my whole life. They could find documents that I have already shared in my messages, that worries me,” she concludes.

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