Posted: Wed 31st May 2023

Vulnerable people are being targeted by scammers on charity Facebook Pages, according to consumer watchdog

News and Info from Deeside, Flintshire, North Wales
This article is old - Published: Wednesday, May 31st, 2023

Romance scammers are increasingly preying on vulnerable individuals on charity Facebook pages, particularly those discussing mental health, bereavement, and ageing, according to a report by consumer watchdog Which?

The investigation uncovered multiple instances of suspicious profiles on pages belonging to charities such as Age UK, Mind, and The Good Grief Trust. The scammers often pose as middle-aged widowed men from the US, attempting to befriend and groom potential victims.

The Good Grief Trust, a bereavement charity with around 55,000 followers on Facebook, is routinely targeted by romance scammers. In April alone, “Which?” found 15 fraudsters commenting on posts.

One scammer even impersonated a US Army general, whose name had been used in other scams to such an extent that the US Army issued a warning on its social media channels.

[Image: Which?]

Sophia Brown (not her real name), 76, was a regular commenter on posts celebrating 100th birthdays on Age UK’s Facebook page until she started receiving suspicious messages from profiles claiming to be based in the US.

After hundreds of messages, she eventually decided to leave the Age UK Facebook page.

The mental health charity Mind is also being targeted by romance fraudsters.

A scammer was found using the same tactic on a post about depression. When “Which?” initiated a conversation with the scammer, they traced a picture they sent of ‘themselves’ back to a famous Venezuelan singer.

Romance scammers start the grooming process by befriending you, before trying to establish a romantic connection.

They often build relationships with their victims by establishing similarities. This works to eliminate the victims’ doubts about the person messaging them being genuine.

The end game is that romance scammers will eventually ask you to send them money for what sounds like a legitimate cause, such as to pay for hospital treatment or to cover debts because they have lost their job.

In the 13 months leading up to May 2022, female victims reported losses of £63m and £32m for male victims. However, the true losses are likely to be much higher.

To protect yourself from romance scammers, you should avoid befriending strangers online or via social media.

If you’re suspicious about an online profile, you can use TinEye to try to trace the source of its profile picture. It’s also worth searching the name used on the profile, as it may have previously been used by a scammer.

“We reported a series of dodgy profiles to Facebook as part of this research.”

“Facebook said that it didn’t remove them as they didn’t go against its community standards,” said “Which?”.

[Image: Which?]

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, responded that it has taken action against the accounts brought to its attention and said it’s against Meta’s rules to impersonate someone else on its platforms.

It added that it blocks millions of fake accounts every day and works closely with law enforcement to support investigations and keep scammers off its platforms.

The report by “Which?” serves as a stark reminder of the dangers lurking on social media platforms, even on seemingly safe spaces like charity pages. It underscores the importance of vigilance and the need for social media platforms to take stronger action against such fraudulent activities.

Which? is campaigning to hold tech giants, including Facebook, to account for not doing enough to protect users.

You can sign their petition to help us demand stronger new laws from the government to protect consumers from online scammers.

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