MPs issue alerts on fake accounts masquerading as them in social media

Cheryl Chan, MP for Fengshan, and Tin Pei Ling, MP for Macpherson SMC, have both posted alerts on their Facebook saying page saying that their friends have been receiving friend requests on their behalf from fake Facebook account.

Ms Cheryl wrote on her post on Wednesday (15 March) asking people to ignore the requests and report the illegitimate account to Facebook as she stressed that she did not send any request from her official account.

“This page remains as my official Facebook page,” the MP wrote.

Ms Tin also posted the alert, saying that the fake account had the exact same profile picture and banner, except that it’s not a page and did not have a blue tick.

She also wrote that the fake account has been sending out friend requests to many of her contacts, as well as sending out bail messages in an attempt to get FB users to click on links purporting to give out goodies.

The MP then noted that the fake account has been removed. However, she wrote that there is no guarantee that such account will not pop again in the future. Therefore, she asked people to only follow the official page with “blue tick”.

Ms Tin also posted a screen capture of the conversation sent from the fake account.

The person was seen to be pretending to be Ms Tin and wrote,”How are you doing? Thanks a lot for the likes on my page. I really appreciate everyone and will continue to serve you in taking this great Singapore to the greatest place we ever desire.”

The person then went on by writing something which seems like a phishing message. The person wrote,”Well I added you personally to ask you if you ever heard or got win from the FB reward bonus. I got mine and you was on my list and as a follower on my page I think I need to notify you I have the direct link to the claim. Let me know if you need it, so you can get yours.”

Ms Tin then stressed that the messages do not sound like her and sound like phishing message.

Ms Tin then posted the picture of the fake account, pointing to the fact that it was fake as it did not have the “blue tick” and it was an account not a page.