Metro Vancouver parent warns of Facebook group opportunists

Mark Jarder tries to give people the benefit of the doubt when they say they’re in need, but he says some people have been creating multiple profiles and posting in his Young Families of Metro Vancouver Facebook group, taking advantage of the community’s desire to help.

With two young children, he and his wife started the group because they didn’t have any family support in Vancouver. In 2019, it began with about 30 members. Now it’s grown to around 3,500.

“Our mission? To foster community for families with kids ages 12 and under, to help parents in need, and who struggle with isolation — specifically loneliness,” he explains.

“We assume that if they ask for help, they do need help. That’s our default.”

But he says when the pandemic hit, the number of families who needed help with groceries or extra cash for essentials spiked. That meant the group needed to figure out a way to sort through the incoming requests.

“That is the biggest struggle for us,” Jarder says.

“Because it’s a community-led effort, we rely on community. So this is the reason why we work with other Facebook groups, to share information.”

Six different accounts, same address

Recently, Jarder and other moderators who manage similar Facebook groups have been fielding messages from suspicious accounts, all posing as parents in need of a Christmas hamper.

“One of our group members noticed this account, because in another group where she is actually one of the mods – she’s an administrator – she realized this is the same account that also applied for their hamper. So she messaged me, we got a conversation going, we compared notes – and realized, it’s the same address — for six other accounts on her end,” he says.

“When you have six different Facebook accounts? Going to the same address? Come on? We’re not stupid.”

Jarder says it makes him angry that there seem to be people who are taking advantage of members’ generosity.

“They are essentially stealing resources from other parents that are actually in need.”

However, he says he eventually comes around to compassion.

“For somebody to go down that low in terms of doing stuff like this, they must be struggling with something really bad at the end of the day, right?”

Group administrator hopes speaking out will help others spot red flags 

Still, he wants people who run these groups to know what to look out for. When someone isn’t willing to provide contact information or meet in person but instead ask to have donations dropped off outside of a building — that’s a red flag, according to Jarder. Those who seem unwilling to follow the rules or processes outlined by the group and ask for help by reaching out to moderators directly are also potentially suspect. When it comes to just how often this happens, Jarder estimates that five out of every 100 requests are flagged and rejected by administrators.

He also says reporting the accounts to Facebook hasn’t worked.

“There’s nothing that changes. They don’t close those accounts, even if it’s very blatant that it’s a fake account, or even if it spams our groups.”

It’s not really a police matter either, according to Jarder, since the donations are willingly given, even if under false pretenses.

While he wants people to be aware this is happening, he says it hasn’t made him cynical or impacted the group’s willingness to help.

“At the end of the day, there’s no way for us to 100 per cent verify if somebody is actually legitimate. There’s an element of trust. They took this step, the vulnerability to ask for help from the general community, we should lean more towards compassion. We’re actually going to help you and flood you with resources because you’re in need right now and a lot of us are not.”

CityNews has reached out to Facebook and the Vancouver Police Department for comment.