Mum discovers sickening use of daughter's photo after her death
A heartbroken Sydney mum whose baby daughter died last year was shocked to discover pictures of the infant being used in an international online scam.
Rachael Casella’s baby Mackenzie died last October after being diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy at just 10 weeks old.
Since her death, the mother has discovered Russian Instagram accounts using photos of her and the baby to scam money out of people.
Ms Casella is warning people about the fake profiles through her own Instagram account and has slammed the social media platform for refusing to do anything about it.
“For the past three weeks I have been dedicating my time to shutting down Russian Instagram accounts that are impersonating my beautiful deceased daughter in order to scam people out of money,” she wrote.
“They have taken photos and images of me, my husband, my parents and most importantly, our beautiful baby girl Mackenzie.”
Ms Casella said she had used Instagram to document her life since Mackenzie was diagnosed as a form of therapy.
She was aware there were “awful people” in the world who would use the family’s story to taunt and troll them, but never did she believe a fake Instagram account would be set up.
Ms Casella posted a screenshot of one of the accounts called “help_tsekova”. The account says it wants to raise $28,000 and has so far raised about $4000.
The fake account posted a photo of Mackenzie hooked up to a machine in hospital with a comment pleading for money.
The post says if the ventilator is pulled from the baby medical costs would be reduced but there was still more money that needed to be raised.
Below the comment were bank details for unsuspecting victims to transfer money to.
The fake account posted another photo of Ms Casella sleeping with baby Mackenzie.
The caption on that photo again pleads for financial support.
The post claims Ms Casella is a chemistry teacher and her husband worked in a firm that closed down six months ago.
“We really need your help. I never asked anyone for myself, but now it’s not about my needs, but about the life of my girl,” the post says.
“Even for 10 Rubles I will be immensely grateful.”
Ms Casella said the account called her daughter, Sophie, and said many had lost money believing they were doing something kind.
She claims to have reported the abuse of the image to Instagram more than 50 times, but nothing has been done.
“In most cases Instagram has not responded. In some cases they have deleted the accounts, however, the very next day they are reactivated or had a name change,” she said.
Ms Casella has been frustrated she has not been able to talk to somebody at Instagram and can only report the pages by submitting a form.
“This is a common issue and is happening to other families,” Ms Casella said.
“I am so disgusted that Instagram has not taken this seriously. They have a responsibility to protect their users, to protect innocent children and to protect people from being scammed but they are not taking this seriously.”
Ms Casella said she wanted to sort the issue out quietly but the lack of response had “hurt her heart”.
Yahoo7 has contacted Instagram for comment.
