Yellowknife man criticizes Facebook after scam that tried to profit from his mother's funeral

A Yellowknife man wants Facebook to do a better job cracking down on scam artists, after an account used his late mother's celebration of life to con people out of their money. 

Jesse Wheeler's mother, Gail Cyr, died on Dec. 3. Shortly after, a Facebook account using Cyr's name and picture sent out friend requests. It directed recipients to a link for a fake livestream for her celebration of life, asking them to pay $20 to watch.

Wheeler said he first heard about the fake account from friends. He found the link, verified that it wasn't legitimate, and posted a warning to others. 

"It's very indicative of what Facebook has become. It's just kind of become a lawless place," he said. "So I wasn't terribly shocked."

Wheeler said the experience was, however, frustrating and disappointing – especially when he and his partner tried to report it. He said his partner got a response from the social media platform saying the account didn't violate any of its codes or community guidelines.

As of Wednesday the account was still listed on Facebook. 

Wheeler said several other family members and friends reported the account and livestream and got the same response. When he reported it himself, he said he didn't even get a response.

Wheeler said Facebook is one of the largest social networks in the world, and this incident shows gaps in how it regulates content. 

"The fact that Facebook won't do anything about it is kind of the shocking part," he said. "It's pretty disconcerting."

Wheeler wants the social media platform to be more responsive and transparent in how it handles these kinds of scams. He said Facebook needs to take reports of fake accounts more seriously and to improve its safeguards. 

'Machines and people make mistakes'

In a statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for Meta – which owns and operates Facebook – said that it doesn't allow content designed to deceive or mislead people. In a follow-up email, the spokesperson said Facebook was an "adversarial space with malicious groups constantly evolving their techniques to evade detection." 

They said that despite ongoing investments, the company will miss things or take things down by mistake.

"Both machines and people make mistakes," the spokesperson said. 

Const. Josh Seaward, a spokesperson for the RCMP in the N.W.T., told CBC News in an email that the "best course of action" when it comes to scams is to avoid them in the first place. 

Though people who have fallen victim to a social media scams can report what happened to police, he said it's often impossible to recover whatever money has been lost, and that frequently the money ends up outside of Canada. 

"It should be kept in mind that funerary costs are paid by the person arranging the funeral. Generally people wouldn't be asked to pay money to stream a funeral," he wrote. 

He said people can learn to better recognize and avoid scams on the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre's website.

An offence to the deceased

Former Yellowknife resident George Lessard was almost scammed by the account. He said Gail Cyr was his friend, and when he saw the link to the livestream, he clicked on it to watch her celebration of life from his home down south.

When Lessard clicked on the link to try to access the livestream he was prompted to pay $20, which was when he realized it was a scam.

"It was basically a complete copy of the original posting for the stream, same graphics, same information, everything else," he said.

"She was such a gift to the community over the time that she was in Yellowknife, and then somebody goes and scams" her grieving family and friends, he said.

"It's an offence against the person who's passed, more than anything else."