The father of a recovering Humboldt Broncos player says a fake Twitter account using his son’s name has been shut down.
On Monday, someone pretending to be Ryan Straschnitzki set up an account to seek money for a separate GoFundMe campaign.
The 19-year-old was paralyzed from the chest down in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash on April 6.
Tom Straschnitzki told 650 CKOM Tuesday his son is happy the ordeal is over.
“He was really upset yesterday, but I think he understands that this can happen,” Tom said.
Even though he’s shared daily updates on Ryan’s progress through his own Twitter account, Tom said he isn’t savvy on social media.
That’s why he chose to call on his online community to deal with whoever is behind the scam.
“With the support Ryan has, as soon as I tweeted that out, I just let the followers take care of that,” he said.
By Tuesday morning, the account was closed. There are still no details on who set up the scam.
Tom said his son has only one Twitter account and hopes people will keep an eye out for anything that seems off.
The advice would be, just kind of scroll through and you can tell if it’s really him or not.”
Ryan continues to undergo treatment and rehabilitation.
The Humboldt Broncos bus crash that killed 16 people and injured 13 others is still being investigated.
RCMP have only said a transport truck was in the intersection of Highways 35 and 335, north of Tisdale, when the crash happened.
— With files from The Canadian Press.