NORTH SNP MSP Gail Ross contacted police after finding herself a victim of online identity theft at the weekend.<\/p>\n
A fake Facebook Messenger account, shut down on Sunday after being reported, had been communicating with Mrs Ross' constituents and followers and had been pretending to be her.<\/p>\n
The cloned account had the same profile image used on the Gail Ross MSP page on Facebook and fooled many into communicating confidential details in the online chat box.<\/p>\n
Mrs Ross said on Monday afternoon: The fact that someone has taken the time to set up a fake Messenger account in my name is bad enough, that they have actually been contacting people and pretending to be me is appalling.<\/p>\n
\"Being an elected member carries a huge amount of trust and I deal with lots of confidential information on a daily basis.\"<\/p>\n
She said that some of the messages that people had received from the fraudster had made her \"very worried\".<\/p>\n
\"The thought of this person pretending to be me makes me feel sick and very angry.\"<\/p>\n
On Monday morning, Mrs Ross contacted the Scottish Parliament security office along with Police Scotland who, she claims, are taking the matter \"very seriously\".<\/p>\n
\"Hopefully they can work with Facebook to find the person behind this.<\/p>\n
\"No one should have to endure this but to target vulnerable people in this way is sickening and I am horrified that there are people out there that may think this is me.<\/p>\n
Mrs Ross received numerous supportive comments on her public profile account on Facebook on Sunday.<\/p>\n
One \"particularly vulnerable person\" related to the MSP how they had given their private phone number to the scammer.<\/p>\n
Mrs Ross said she is very concerned at what information may have been given out by her followers before the fake account was suspended.<\/p>\n
\"This wasn't random, the person was actively pretending to be me and sending messages to the followers of my MSP account.\"<\/p>\n
Facebook account cloning is a simple scam but it can be easy to be fooled by it.<\/p>\n
A cloned account is a copy that uses your profile photo and other public information to trick your friends into giving up their information.<\/p>\n
It may seemlike a harmless prank, but these clones can cause real damage.<\/p>\n
A cloned account may convince your friends to send them money, collect passwords or other information or dupe them into other scams.<\/p>\n
If anyone has received a message from the fake account could they please take a screenshot and email it to Mrs Ross at: Gail.ross.msp@parliament.scot<\/a><\/p>\n Click here for more news<\/p>\n In these testing times, your support is more important than ever. Thank you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Visit link:<\/p>\n MSP Gail Ross victim of online identify theft - Northern Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NORTH SNP MSP Gail Ross contacted police after finding herself a victim of online identity theft at the weekend. A fake Facebook Messenger account, shut down on Sunday after being reported, had been communicating with Mrs Ross' constituents and followers and had been pretending to be her Continue reading