When 22-year old Matthew Camilleri was tagged in an anniversary photo on Facebook with a woman from the Philippines, there was only one problem: the woman claiming to be his wife was a complete stranger.
Jean Camilleri, Matthew’s father, told The Sunday Times of Malta the problems began last week when Matthew received a friend request from a woman using the name Jelly Phostrero.
Although he did not accept the friend request, he saw that her profile contained several images of him, taken from his profile without his permission, some of which had been uploaded as far back as August 2014.
He also saw several comments from a profile using his name and photos, pretending to be him. After several reports to Facebook, the fake profile was deleted.
When Mr Camilleri confronted the woman, however, she first insisted that he was her husband, but later changed her story, writing that he had abandoned her and owed her €10,000. The woman eventually blocked him from messaging her or viewing her profile and Mr Camilleri turned to legal channels to attempt to get the photos removed.
A lawyer and a police officer from the Cyber Crime Unit both advised him that his only hope was to report the matter to Facebook. Yet some 60 reports made to Facebook by Mr Camilleri’s friends and acquaintances were returned with the notice that the profile “does not go against Facebook’s Community Standards”.
At the time of writing, the woman’s profile remains active and at least one of the images in question is still publicly-accessible. A police spokesman said the mere copying of public photos from one profile to another was not a criminal offence, although if the content was being used to extort money, the matter could be considered blackmail.
“However, given that Facebook is managed by an entity located overseas, the local police are not in a position to order the removal of content from Facebook,” the spokesman said.
“The most effective and efficient way to do this would be to have the individual in question bring the matter to the direct attention of Facebook administrators, as this would possibly constitute a violation of Facebook’s own Terms of Service.”
This newspaper also reached out to the owner of the profile for comment, but no response had been received by the time of going to print.