Damien O'Connor has been impersonated on Facebook. Photo / File
Damien O'Connor has been impersonated on Facebook. Photo / File
An imposter made a fake 'Damien O'Connor MP' page on Facebook yesterday.
Filled with genuine photos of the veteran West Coast-Tasman MP, there were a few hints the page was not the official one.
His occupation was given as, 'works at Crabby Joe's Deck and Grill'.
Posts included the fakeMP asking friends 'how u doing' and 'where u at'. The imposter also wrote that he was in a new relationship with someone from high school.
The real Mr O'Connor took to Facebook yesterday to fight fire with fire: "Please ignore any dodgy looking friend requests, they are not from me. Will be back to normal soon."
Mr O'Connor said he was made aware of the fake page yesterday afternoon and his office had been given a name.
Friend requests had been sent by the fake page to people he knew. He was unsure if someone was trying to annoy him, or scam his followers.
He was attempting to get Facebook to close down the imposter's page.
Mr O'Connor is not the first West Coast politician to suffer an online attack.
In 2011 the personal email account of former Green Party MP Kevin Hague was hacked and a scammer purporting to be him emailed everyone on his account contact list, claiming he was in financial difficulty and seeking funds.
The fraudster claimed Mr Hague had misplaced his bag in Spain, and desperately needed US$2000 to cover his hotel bill and flight home.
