Whitehorse woman says someone scamming others with her Facebook account
She can't stop it from happening despite reporting it to police and asking Facebook for help
A woman who lives in Whitehorse says someone is using her Facebook account to scam people into giving them money, and she can't stop it.
Jasmin Pelayo James said someone got control of her account late last month and she has been unable to regain access despite contacting Facebook about the issue multiple times.
"Honestly, I am truly drained and burned out already, and I can't think of what will be the next steps," she said on Wednesday, adding that she has filed reports with the RCMP and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
Rajveer Kaur, a colleague of Pelayo James, said she received a message from someone using that Facebook account asking for a temporary loan of $300, and she obliged, believing it was legitimate.
"I was thinking that that's just my colleague and she just needs money," she said.
Pelayo James said the person using her account also got access to her email account and deleted every email in it.
Leslie James, her husband, said he received messages from the person using the account asking if he wanted to pay money to get access to it again.
The messages included pictures of the couple's passports, which Pelayo James said were taken from her email account.
The couple shared with CBC News several screenshots of the messages James and Pelayo James's friends were receiving from her account.
"It really feels that not only have you been violated, but it feels like the institutions you put the trust into for help aren't going to help you," James said.
Pelayo James said she's worried about how much of her personal information the person, or people, responsible for the intrusion now has, along with what they might do with it.
CBC made several requests to the RCMP and Facebook for interviews. They declined.