- Protecting Elderly Women from Online Scams: How One Woman Fights Back against Fraudsters

2023-12-30 05:00:00

A woman from the Laurentians spends two to three hours every day sending profiles of fraudsters to Meta, the parent company of Facebook, in order to protect elderly women who are being scammed out of thousands of dollars.

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“It is a disaster! There are so many, it makes no sense. I have reached 4000 deleted accounts. All accounts verified and sent to Meta. I have two other women who work with me. I work on it every day,” says Candide, who prefers to keep her last name anonymous.

Provided by Candide

“It really angers me, I find it disgusting that older women are being ripped off like that,” she said.

It was after her friend was scammed out of almost $100,000, according to her, that Candide, who lives in Saint-Sauveur, decided to make it a personal matter.

“She lost her entire pension fund. He set up a love story for her that would never end and he said he didn’t have the money to go join her, so she paid for the plane tickets. Then he had an “accident” on the way to the airport and his car was totaled. After that he went to the hospital, so she paid all the expenses… In total, it came to $100,000,” says the 70-year-old woman.

Eight to ten women per day

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center (CAFC), romantic fraud is the second type of fraud that causes the greatest financial losses for Canadians, after investment fraud.

Eight to ten women a day write to Candide to tell him that they were caught or that they did not know that they were dealing with fake accounts.

“The fraudsters say they live in France, but in reality they come from Ivory Coast, Benin and Ghana. Several have become millionaires in Ivory Coast,” she underlines.

These “grazers”, as Candide calls them, solicit elderly women in need of affection. Women who do not protect their Facebook account and who accept any friend request, instead of reserving this privilege for friends or family members.

“Even men get caught! Scammers steal photos and steal Facebook posts and pose as women. I also have photo comparison software. I’m doing some research on this. These are always photos stolen from publications of people who do not protect their Facebook accounts,” explains Candide.

Meta cleans up

When Candide uncovers a fake account, she sends it to Meta. They will lead the investigation. If Meta rarely responds, the accounts still systematically disappear.

But the task is not so easy for Facebook, because messages from these accounts generally remain polite and do not contravene their standards. This is why Candide encourages people to be vigilant.

“Those who get caught don’t even do the first check, which is to look at the number of friends and publications. I say: protect your accounts, and then only accept people from your family or close friends.”