Picking
the right outfit and taking the time to look like not just
anybody, but this body. I'm Don Jaine. One Don and one con, but
could you tell the difference if you saw both online? Log on
to Facebook and this is how Don appears to the world. Jim's a
good mate and it's a lovely photograph in in just at the
tennis. Someone else must have thought so too. When about a
month ago his profile was copied. My daughter rang called
me and said dad I think your your Facebook profile's been
ripped off. The copycat started adding his friends. It's a
false site. 13 accepted. The most distressing thing Kaitlin for me
is that there's all these people on on the site that are
all friends of mine have logged on and accepted invitation to
this false site and it's going on and on. He turned to the
only place that could stop it. This is not a new problem for
Facebook. The company says it bans accounts that impersonate
other people or pages, but it wouldn't shut down the fake
Don. We reviewed the profile you reported and found that it
doesn't go against our community standards. He says he
reported the account three times. There's no New Zealand contact
number, so he tried Aus then the States. No response just
absolutely no way you can talk to anybody on it. Even sent a
copy of his passport. I just find it really offensive that
an organisation given demonstrable proof in a clear
breach of my rights, it's was there's not not in any way for you
to do anything about it. So the other Don Jaine lives on for
now. Take it down, pure and simple. Fraudsters are
prepared to pose as anything on social media. They'll try it on
as a celebrity, a business, a charity but they don't stop
there. They'll target the accounts of those who aren't
even alive. Oh, it's scary. Yvonne's mum's account was
copied a few weeks ago. I opened it up and it was just
screenshot after screenshot of these people saying um I think
your mom's account's been duplicated. Each had got a
friend request from a Robyn Needham. Strange thing, I just
got a FB friend request from your mom. Was that you or has
her account been hacked? Hey, hun, so I just got a friend
request from your mum, feeling very special but confused as
well. How long has it been since your mom passed away? Uh
it's been eight years this year eight years since my mom died
and my nana who was also in my mum's profile pictures. A
faceless foe doing real damage. And it was just it was actually
traumatizing. Just brings everything back like just like
a wave crashing over here with this grief again. So Yvonne
applied to Facebook to have Robyn's account memorialised.
It allows friends and whānau to still see a loved one's page, but the
word remembering is added to their name and the profile is
hidden from public spaces. And I thought at least that would
protect her account or make it very clear that it that she's
not here anymore. For that to happen Facebook needed a death
certificate, which Yvonne sent but still her application was
rejected. Unfortunately I can't use the documentation you
provided since it doesn't match the information in your loved
ones account. For them to say that the information didn't
match. It really shocked me. Um the names are the same. Uh I
know the date she died. I know that you know it's burned into my
memory. She told Facebook her mum's account had been cloned
but she never heard back. It broke my heart that that
happened and Facebook needs to understand that there are
actually real people at the end of this. In the first three
months of this year Facebook says it shut down 1.6 billion
fake accounts. Just 0.3% of them were reported by users.
The rest were found by Facebook. So who is making
these decisions at Facebook? Is it Sally? Simon? Is there even
a human behind them? There definitely are and people that
work for these organizations. That's Sean Lyons. He works
for the online safety organization NetSafe. Although,
just to be sure, how do we know it's the real you? I'm sure I
can find people here to vouch for me. Sean says most major
platforms use a mix of artificial intelligence and
real people to investigate complaints but of course, that
hasn't helped the likes of Don and Yvonne. Shouldn't there at least be
a number that people can call on. I think that that the
simple answer is scale. I I think for them using the tools
within the apps themselves is a more efficient process that
allows them to get to the result much quicker. But
when that result amounts to nothing there is another number
worth dialing. Good afternoon this is Sean from NetSafe, how
can we help? NetSafe's. We're more than happy to to work with
New Zealanders to to hold those platforms to account against
their own rules. Some cyber security advice out there is to
make sure photos and friend lists can't be seen by the
public. NetSafe says it's not necessarily the answer. In many
cases where people get their their accounts cloned it's not
about actions that that they've taken. It's not about the fact
that they were blase about their own privacy or or you know
disregarded their own security. Even if a cloned account
doesn't look like they're up to much. But at some point it's
likely that that account is going to be the one that that
says I'm in trouble. I'm stuck overseas. I need some money.
So, it was time to flag Don and Yvonne's cases with Facebook
and after an investigation, a spokesperson told us: We're
committed to safeguarding the integrity of our services and
work hard to protect our community from fake accounts
and other inauthentic behavior. We use a combination of
automated systems and people to help review content flagged by
our community. We are committed to continuing to invest in
artificial intelligence to improve accuracy and strengthen
our review and appeal systems. And now those pages pretending to be
Don are gone. Interesting yeah well done so what happened?
Facebook told us the pages will stay down unless the users can
prove that they're the real Don Jaine. Fantastic well thank you
for that. And if page owners are found to continue breaking
the rules Facebook would block them from using its services.
Thank you very much Kaitlin, it's been fantastic. It just shows you
know persistence does pay off I suppose. It sure does for Yvonne
too with Facebook looking into her case again. Can you check
your mum's account for me? Yeah sure. Oh, look at that. It's
been memorialised! Surprise. Oh, that's amazing. That's
amazing. Um I'm really stoked about that. Thank you so much
for your help with that. And Facebook says it apologises.
That's all I really wanted. It might not be something big to
them but it's it's something massive to someone like me and
so for them to recognize that is I really do appreciate it
so. Yeah. That's amazing. I'm I'm absolutely stoked. It's
made my day.