Sudbury MPP tightens social media security after phishing scam on Facebook

Someone pretending to be Sudbury MPP Jamie West over the weekend, messaginghis friendsaskingthem to click on a link.

That link led to a page where they were asked to input a lot of personal information.

However many questioned who they were dealing with, and thenmessaged the real Jamie West.

West says he's fortunate that people were suspicious and notified him that his account had been hi-jacked,in what is known as a phishing scam.

"I had a bunch of people sending me messages [saying]'someone's sending me messages pretending to be you,'" he says.

"At first they thought my account would have been hacked, but really what happened was someone took my profile picture, made an account using my name and began messaging people in town. They would just say 'Hello',and then they would tell them I just got this $100,000 grant, you should apply for it."

West says the link led to a form where people were asked for personalinformation.

He posted on his Facebook site that if anyone was approached this way that it was not genuine and they should notfall for it.

West says some of his friends reported the incident to Facebook which investigatedand de-activated the fake account after a few hours.

He says heisn't aware of anyone being compromised by the scheme, but he is taking steps to tighten security on his social media.

As for his daily business as a politician, Westreassures hisconstituentsthat he does not offer services on social media.

"Even though the internet makes it easier for people to contact us, we don't want to do business over the internet just because it's so easy to pretend you're somebody else," he says.

While a politician relies heavily on reputation and credibility, West says he doesn't think his has been compromised by this online attackbecause it was caught early.

He also doesn't feel he was singled out because he is a trusted figure in the community, rather that his profile was selectedat random.