The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) has opened an investigation for identity fraud following the use of the image of Ariane Moffatt in advertisements for supposedly miraculous slimming products published on social networks , has learned The Press.
Posted at 12:00 a.m.
According to a court document obtained by The Pressthe investigation began on 1er last February, a few days after a new Keto Advanced 1500 branded slimming product ad appeared on social media.
According to the document, after the appearance of this new advertisement, Ariane Moffatt received a “multitude of complaints” from people who had purchased the product online on the Internet.
“People were supposed to pay $40, but they were billed for $200. Mme Moffatt gets a lot of complaints from cheated people. She had to create an automatic message on her Facebook account to notify that she was the victim of identity theft fraud,” an investigator wrote in a sworn statement in support of a search warrant.
By this warrant, a presiding justice of the peace ordered Facebook Inc., whose offices are located on Yonge Street, in Toronto, to communicate numerous data to the SPVM investigator.
Among these are the identification of the Facebook profile on which the slimming products were advertised, the email addresses, the names behind personalized domains or nicknames, the telephone numbers linked to this profile, the IP address from from which the Facebook profile was created, the transmission logs regarding the alleged offense and the IP activity logs between 1er July 2021, the date around which the false advertisements would have started, and last February 4.
The current status of the investigation, which is being conducted by the economic crimes section of the SPVM, with the collaboration of the cyber investigation team, is unknown. At the SPVM, we were simply told that it is continuing.
Removed from Facebook
Ever since ads for allegedly miraculous Keto 1500 and Keto Advanced 1500 weight loss products using her name and likeness began in July 2021, Ariane Moffatt has gone public on social media to speak out against this impersonation.
The singer, who describes herself as an exponent of body diversity and who assured her admirers that she would never participate in such advertisements, announced that she was withdrawing from the Facebook social network on February 3, two days after the start. of the police investigation.
“It’s been more than a year that my image has been fraudulently usurped to distort it, that I have been made to say atrocities totally opposite to my values about weight loss and health, that I receive messages from thousands of people asking me if my miracle pills work. We live in an increasingly sick world and it is high time that we take care of it, ”wrote the singer who also denounced the inaction of Facebook.
In recent months, several other public figures have complained of having been victims of similar identity theft, including comedian Michel Charette, host Véronique Cloutier and former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre.
It is unclear whether police investigations are also underway in the case of these public figures.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.