Copycat Facebook accounts are causing Kiwis distress - with scammers even targeting people who have died.
Scammers do this so they can contact your friends - pretending to be you - and ask you for donations for fake charities, or try to lure you into other scams.
Yvonne Gemmell told Fair Go that her mum's account was copied in June.
“I opened it up and it was just screenshot after screenshot of these people saying, 'um I think your mum's account has been duplicated'”.
Someone had created a page using her mum’s name and profile photo – and then sent out friend requests to her whānau and friends. Yvonne's mum passed away eight years ago.
“It was actually traumatising,” Yvonne says.
“It just brings everything back like a wave crashing over you with this grief again”.
Account duplication is an enduring problem for social media platforms.
Facebook reported shutting down 1.6 billion fake accounts in the first three months of this year. Just 0.3% of them were reported by users, the rest were found by Facebook.
But Fair Go has had a number of complaints from people having difficulty getting the platform to take down the copycat accounts.
Netsafe says most major platforms use a mix of artificial intelligence and real people to investigate complaints – but some cases get overlooked.
Its chief online safety officer Sean Lyons says if someone has reported a fraudulent account but hasn’t got a satisfactory outcome - “don't accept it, keep pushing” and to call Netsafe if they need extra support.
A spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, told Fair Go its committed to “safeguarding the integrity of our services and work hard to protect our community from fake accounts and other inauthentic behaviour”.
“We are committed to continuing to invest in AI to improve accuracy and strengthen our review and appeal systems."
If you’re getting nowhere reporting a fake profile, try filling out Facebook’s Copyright Report Form.
Let them know you want the whole fake profile taken down - and under Copyright law, Facebook is required to act.
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