Who is Alice Cadwell?

If you clicked the website on Alice Cadwell’s Facebook profile, you landed here. The address never led to Alice, because there is no Alice. Here is what the profile is made of.

The badge

Alice has Meta’s blue check. Hover over it and Meta explains that verified accounts “can be Meta Verified subscribers or notable persons or brands.” Meta Verified is a paid monthly subscription.

The badge says someone paid or qualified. It does not say a woman named Alice Cadwell exists.

The face

Alice’s profile photo is a published 2022 photograph of Joan MacDonald, the Canadian fitness creator who started training at 70 and now runs Train With Joan. Same photo, cropped tighter.

The life

On September 6, Alice posted about finally settling into a new home after 25 years in the old one.

The room belongs to Bobbi Brown, the makeup artist and founder. She posted it on Instagram on June 29, 2022 with nearly the same words. Alice’s version keeps the shelves, the frames, the floor and the chair, and puts an AI-generated woman who resembles Joan in Bobbi’s seat.

“We’re finally settling in to our new home after moving from our previous house of 25 years!” — Alice, 2026

“My husband and I are finally getting settled into our new home after leaving our previous home of 25 years.” — Bobbi Brown, 2022

The food

Alice’s cover photo of meal-prep containers belongs to Trifecta Nutrition. The image file on Alice’s profile still carries Trifecta’s copyright tag in its metadata, and the same photo heads Trifecta’s 14-day keto meal plan article.

The job

So what does Alice do? She comments on Facebook ads for an AI SEO tool. She leaves the same review, nearly word for word, on ad after ad:

“This is my favorite SEO tool. I’ve been using it on a friends lifestyle site and she’s seeing a lot more traffic…”

The advertiser’s own account replies to thank her for the “great review” and the “kind feedback.”

The tool sells for a $99 “lifetime deal.” We’re leaving its name out, because this page is about Alice.

This website

The profile lists alicecadwell.com as Alice’s website. On October 19, 2026, nobody had registered it, so we did. The Internet Archive has one visit to the address, in 2023, with no page saved. Public records don’t show whether anyone held it before.

Spotting the next Alice

None of this took special tools. Alice came apart with free websites and a few minutes of curiosity, and you can do the same the next time a glowing comment under an ad feels a little too perfect.

• Search the photo. Save or screenshot the profile picture, then upload it to Google Lens or TinEye. Both show where else that image appears online. If it belongs to someone with a different name, that’s your answer.
• Visit the website. Real businesses usually have one that works. If the link on a profile goes nowhere, or to someone else, be curious about why.
• Read the other comments. If the same person leaves the same review under several ads, it’s worth a second look.
• Tap the badge. A blue check means a paid subscription or a notable account. It isn’t a background check.

If you find a profile like Alice, you can report it to Facebook from the three-dot menu on the profile.

Don’t be fooled

A made-up customer in an ad’s comments is cheap to create and hard to spot. This one borrowed two real women’s lives to sell a $99 subscription. The same method sells supplements, investments and opinions.

We found no sign that Joan MacDonald or Bobbi Brown is connected to this account. Their photos and words were used without them.

Why now

In Canada, the Competition Bureau treats fake reviews made to look like independent opinions as a deceptive marketing practice, and the Competition Act limits how testimonials can be used in advertising.

We’re Trust Report Canada, a collective of Canadian ethical hackers. We document profiles like this one and bring what we find to law enforcement, regulators and the platforms that host them, so they have what they need to act.

As part of Maple Disruption 2026, the RCMP is asking Canadians to share suspicious texts, calls, emails and websites, so the tools behind them can be taken offline. The RCMP calls this “fraud disruption.” The first Maple Disruption, in December 2025, brought the RCMP and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre together with more than 25 partners. We’ve stepped up our own work in response to this year’s call.

Alice is the first we’re publishing. She is not the last.

What we checked