News of the impending arrival of a Vancouver-based fab magazine is false — “utterly so,” says fab’s associate editor Matt Thomas.
A Facebook site claiming to launch fab Vancouver was set up by someone allegedly named Brock Winston who referred to himself as the magazine’s editor.
“I just moved to Vancouver. I’m creating a splash with a team,” he posted. “We’re about to publish Vancouver’s hottest gay magazine! Stay tuned!”
Thomas says he filed both an intellectual property complaint and a fraud complaint with Facebook about the site, which was brought to his attention Jun 8.
“I contacted Facebook and immediately requested that they take the group down,” says Thomas, adding that upon investigation he found out that the profile was “obviously” a fake. The site has since been removed.
Thomas says he posted his own comment on the Facebook site, prior to it being taken down, warning people that its claims were fictitious.
“Just letting everyone know that this is a fraud and the appropriate actions are being taken to ensure that it does not continue,” Thomas’ statement reads. “Please tell your friends and colleagues not to engage in any business arrangement with anyone stating they are from fab Vancouver, as this is a fraudulent statement. There is no publication or current plans for a publication of this kind,” it concludes.
Fab’s publisher and editor-in-chief Brandon Matheson calls the situation “unfortunate,” and says the main priority is to ensure readers, advertisers and community members know the claims were false.
“It’s unfortunate these people decided to use us and attach our names to it to create this misinformation,” he says, “but hopefully [we] nip it in the bud so that it just doesn’t become more widespread that this is happening when in fact it’s not.”
Matheson is also the publisher of Xtra West which, like fab, is published by Pink Triangle Press.
Why you can trust Xtra
