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Updated 23 days ago, 12/05/2024

User Stats

310
Posts
188
Votes
Patricia Andriolo-Bull
188
Votes |
310
Posts

Blocked on Facebook

Posted

Looking for advice.  I belong to a few local Facebook vacation rental groups.  Yesterday, a woman commented on a couple of my responses as "Scammer" and disliked my posts.  I called her out on it, informing her I was not a scammer and she sent me a private message.  I looked into her and see that she takes it upon herself to be judge and jury on "scammers" (everything she posts on the local groups is to tell people of scam posts...many actually are).  

Interestingly, I live in my community (Marco Island) with my short term rentals and have for years.  She DOES NOT! She lives in MA.  I only find this interesting because she spends her days commenting on Marco Island posts.

She proceeds to send me a long private message saying that she found me on a "scammer website".  She finally sends me a screenshot of this and it appears to be a Naples FL rental group that I belonged to.  They have a photo of me and my page warning people that I am a scammer and am banned and blocked.  And it says, "This one was bold and provided me with address."  I hadn't realized I was banned from this group.  I go back to see what I sent them and I had fat fingered an address (389 instead of 380).  They didn't verify anything but apparently are telling people I am a scammer which helps me understand why I am no longer getting any traction on Facebook.

Further, the person private messaging me spent (literally all night long) researching me and sending me messages insisting I am a scammer. I own no properties in my personal name. My primary residence is in a trust. My properties are in LLC. She is insistent on my providing her all of my information so she can verify my information, of which I decline to do but tell her that FL is pretty transparent (unless I have a land trust which I do not) and if she decides to be judge and jury to everyone she should figure out how to actually research appropriately.

Hours later, she is screenshotting my name (in every variation possible) showing no ownership.  After some time, she finds my personal address in trust and continues to insist I don't own my properties (she is not entering the correct address - there are several towers in my rental and she is assuming one and I own in the other).  

I am beside myself. Theoretically, I could make this go away by providing my information (ownership of the units and my stake in the LLC) but do not feel that is the right thing to do. She is literally a crazy person and I think she is going to try to ban me from other groups. I have already reached out to Facebook reporting her for harassment and to the original group she called me a scammer on (I did give the admin my addresses to validate since there are group rules about scamming). I am also trying to get back to the first group that banned me but I can no longer message or see the group or the admin. I am completely blocked. I had my husband request membership to see if he can message the admin the correct information in that group. BTW, I have a 2 decade long Facebook profile and hundreds of "friends" something you don't usually see with scammers (new profiles created with very few friends).

Other thoughts?  What would you do?  I am about to run Facebook ads but I have no idea how far this "scammer" information goes.  

What should I do if falsely accused of being a scammer on Facebook groups?

Consider taking legal action for defamation and report the harassment to Facebook.
Sources: Dan,Michael

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