Behind the wanted notices posted on social networks sometimes hides a malicious purpose. A warning message published on March 17, 2023 caused a lot of reaction, not for the disappearance that it signaled, but for the new dangerous drift that it brought to light.
On Twitter, a certain Camille Martin was worried about the disappearance of her best friend, Violette, after a nightclub outing, reports Le Parisien. Alarmist, the tweet was shared by several users. Camille Martin wrote: “My best friend disappeared […]. She was dancing with a rather tall, dark guy…”. The tweet was relayed by Internet users but also by feminist groups fearing that the young “disappeared” woman was in danger.
Some Twitter users have asked for details about Violette, including photos. But Camille Martin never answered. It then became obvious to many that this young woman did not exist and that her warning message was a fake.
“It’s most likely a guy who is hiding behind and who wants to find this woman, do not help him,” warned Lixi, a Twitter user, reports Le Parisien. To support this deduction, the account @CamilleMar25467, alias Camille Martin, has been deleted.
However, the identity and purpose of “Camille Martin” is not difficult to imagine. More and more fake wanted notices are being shared on social networks by malicious people who are trying to find a “disappeared” woman. But the real purpose of alert publications is to locate the person, to track them down. These malicious people rely on people’s empathy, the ease of interaction and the anonymity of social networks to track down women who are actually trying to escape them.
Le Parisien reports a similar testimony from a young woman who left her abusive partner. “He constantly harassed me trying to find out where and with whom I was, when I didn’t answer quickly enough it was endless shouting matches… I ended up putting a stop to all this psychological violence in moving, without telling him, but leaving him a letter”.
Although blocked by the young woman on all her social networks, “he was creating fake accounts to be able to track me. So I didn’t post anything more to avoid giving him indications of where I live, as well as places I hang out with. My friends have taken the same precautions when I’m with them.”
A month after their separation, someone alerts her: a photo of her is circulating on Twitter with a wanted poster. “When I received the screenshot, I went to the police to file a handrail. He just gave my first name, the date of my departure from the apartment corresponded to my so-called disappearance and said that I was psychologically fragile pretending to be a distraught family member.”
Since then, the man has not come forward, but “I became paranoid”, she concludes. How do you know when it’s a fake wanted poster? What can be done to protect people who, like this young woman, are wanted by malicious people?
Jean-Jacques Latour, director of cybersecurity expertise for Cybermalveillance.gouv recommends being wary when messages come from recently created social network accounts. It is also necessary to verify that the user’s profile photo is on the internet and that it is not generated by an artificial intelligence.
Fake wanted notice messages are often incomplete and lack information: no last name or photos of the wanted person. You should also be wary if there is no telephone number for a police station or if the contact number is that of the malicious person himself. “Also be wary of posts that don’t have hashtags like
Do not interact with the tweet so as not to relay it and stir up more users. “And obviously do not give indications of the type: I saw Violette, she lives next to me, rue so and so.”
