Multinational Crisis Part 4: Who Cares?

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!” Facebook. Silent. TikTok. Silent Instagram, Threads, Lemon8, and every other social media, are not concerned with what is happening to you, women and men, on their platforms. They care only, for the mighty dollar and statistics.

The Celebrities, actors, musicians, reality TV stars, and other famous entities don’t seem to care either, as long as you like their posts and follow them, so their image stays plastered to your screens. I have reached out to several, and have yet to hear word one on any solutions, or if they are doing anything to protect you, us. I even reached out to influencers like Jim Curtis, when one of the imposters used him, to try his luck with me. What I got was crickets chirping. Not a sound or word one on their awareness or actions to curtail this activity.

That in itself shows me the priorities of these two entities. To be fair, I didn’t think I get much of a result from celebrities, to being with. They care only for themselves and if they can stay relevant to the public. Relevance, their money maker.

Social media however, should be able to do more than sit back, field complaints from victims, only to give lame blanket statements. I reported so many of these hustlers, and the feedback I got back every single time was, “There has been no violation of community standards.” Really?! So community standards must allow people impersonating other people, coaxing them to give away their hard earned dollars, to those who have not earned it, and ruining reputations of famous people. Nice.

Facebook, has managed some lame pop up when someone tries to message you, of friend you, but that is not good enough. All it does is cover their asses, against lawsuits, and I am not sure it would really hold up in a court of law.

So, the scamming continues, the celebs get their free air time, and social media suffers no ill effects. This is so wrong! I am still getting women on social media asking me how they can tell if a celeb is real. It’s simple. NONE of them are real. NOT ONE. The problem lies in the impersonation of the regular people, or people that are not quite Hollywood famous. There is no safeguard and no protections for you.

I was contacted once by a man impersonating Michael Andrew. For those who don’t follow sports, or specifically swimming, he is an olympian gold medal winner in men’s relay. A person confidently tried to tell me he was Michael, even though I told him right off the bat that I knew he wasn’t. His profile pic was not even Michael’s. It was of an Asia young man, no doubt taken from the internet. I told him I knew for sure, because I know Michael, personally. He didn’t buy it and kept on. I asked him questions and he answered them, each time popping in and out to google search the answers, to argue his point. Then I did something sneaky. I asked if he remembered the weekend he and his family spent at our home. He didn’t flinch and replied he did. So, I asked if he remembered my dog, Wilson, playing with his dog. He said he did and that it was fun. My dog’s name was Copper. I then told him I forgot his dog’s name and asked what it was and waited. He gave me “his dog’s" name and that was wrong too. I pounced telling him he was lying about his identity, and he double downed. So, I asked him to hang on, that I would be right back. He waited.

That’s when I called Michael’s mom and told him what was happening, and if she was aware, scammers were using her son now too. I gave her details of the interactions, told her I had screen shots, because I was not going to neglect that, and asked her if she had someone she wanted me to send the information to. She asked me to send it to facebook and report him immediately. I did so, as soon as I hung up the call. I went back, thinking the impersonator would be gone, but he was not.

I restated that I knew he was fake, and again he argued with me. I asked where he was then, if he was the swimmer, and he gave me a country. His mother had caught me up with what was happening in their lives, and I knew exactly, where her son was. The con artist did not know and I had him, again. He asked me how I was getting all this misinformation, and I had had enough. I told him that not only did we know him, but that I was on the phone with his mother at the same time I was texting him. And then, there was no further comment. I clicked on his profile to block it, and the profile had been deleted. Just like that.

I reported it to Facebook, and that was the last I heard of it. Not one thing from the social media giant.

Over the year, I reported each and every one to Facebook, and nothing was done. I had file after file on each conversation with the profile picture they used and the pages screen shot as well. I saw no action.

One day, the oh so cute, verified badges began popping up on profiles. This was designed to give us all a sense of security. It is not. It means nothing. It is a paid for service, to give credibility to the profile. But here is the thing, the scammers began paying for them and showing up with verified accounts as well. I don’t know how they do that, but I will tell you that on one occasion, a Michele Morrone fraud, sent me a photo of his Italian driver’s license, to prove to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was the real person. I analyzed it carefully, and noted the strange difference from the facial picture and license. It was a forgery. Nothing they provide you, should be taken as proof. I’ll repeat this again. They famous, do not engage on social media.

These examples are only a couple, on one platform. I reported tens of them to TikTok, and the others, and the same stock answer was given to me, “has not violated community standards.’How about criminal standards? There are violations there for sure. But who cares, right?

Meanwhile socials are hyper alert to every thing we post. They have no problem blocking my drawings or pulling reposts when the bot’s butt gets hurt.

All of this is very simple and has simple solution. If media bots can detect a boob in an artistic rendering, and pull it just as quickly, then a bot should be able to notice more than one profile with the same exact name and likeness. But they don’t do it.

Celebrity and non celebrity agents, managers, or individuals themselves, do nothing either. Celebrities have people running their social media posts, and they do and say nothing. It is a simple matter, of having a post pop up every day to inform anyone that makes a comment or views their content, pages, reels, that the artist does not chat, text, email, call or otherwise, engage with their public personally. It should also state that their, managers, staff, PR people, secretaries, nannies, or pedicurists, also do not contact individuals, promising to connect them to the celebrity (this happens and it is another tactic the scammer uses. I personally have experienced it several times,). Public service announcements should be splashed on their profiles, verified or otherwise. It should pop up each time you access any of these. THAT would prove, they are not just aware, but proactive, in protecting you, their so called, “beloved fans.” I would, then have some respect for them, as a whole. But I have nothing.

The fact is, that since this started, I have become repulsed by the celebrities that were used to try to swindle me. I can’t stand even seeing their names on the screen. The lack of care or empathy for the fan is stunning. Maybe, if enough fans, stopped clicking, and enough people jumped off of social media because of it, they would notice and find a solution. Then I would respect their concern for people.

Know that you have to police everything you do, say, hear, and see online. And please whatever, you do, do not let that blue star, lure you into false security. It should not.

So you want action? Do you need action because you are tired of being followed by these scammers, of having to doubt everyone and thing? The squeaky wheel gets the oil, people! Get mad, stay mad.

Complain, file reports, screenshot everything on every platform. Then, stop visiting, clicking and commenting on profiles, reels, and posts of these celebrities. That is the open door. The gateway for the scammer to notice you and come for you. If you do report these activities and see no steps taken to protect you, allowing you to be victimized, stop using the media. Go somewhere else.

I don’s spend much time on ant social media anymore, I post and run. My art, articles, and the occasional meme, all get uploaded and I am out. I use writing platforms for my interactions, and others for my art. The ones I use now, verified my identity. They verify using your legal documents of identification. This means the people I interact with there are real people too, Search for those sights.

For the celebrities and their entourages, and the social media outlets, I say this, “Shame on you!” Your living is on and off the backs of these everyday people, who spend time on you or your products. You should want to keep them, us, safe.

For you, and others, I want to reiterate, that you need to be pessimistic and to question everything. Do not believe anything or anyone you don’t know personally, online. Stop making it easy, to be victimized. Talk. You have nothing to be ashamed of, unless you say nothing and do nothing, to help others avoid being scammed or mislead. So have courage, be bold, be unashamed. Share it with other women, men, friends or even strangers. Tell everyone. Some will act like you are dumb for falling for these scams, but I promise you, it is they, who do not know what they are talking about. You are the hero, if you save one person from this grief. Even just one.

I’ll recap and sum up in part 5, The Takeaways.