Anguish over fake Facebook profile

Shadi Salehpour. Photo / Sarah Ivey

A Facebook user has warned others about social network privacy after personal information and photos were taken from her page and used in a derogatory fake profile.

Shadi Salehpour was told by a family friend on Sunday about the profile, which included sexual references in her "interests" and quotations.

The profile was removed yesterday but the 34-year-old is still upset that someone stole her identity and created the page without her knowledge.

"It's just so childish, it makes me want to scream at somebody ... I can't take it off, there's obviously nothing I can do about it," Ms Salehpour, a mother of two, said.

When she learned of the fake profile page, Ms Salehpour tried to contact Facebook, without success.

She also got the majority of her 471 friends on the site to report the profile.

Even though it has been taken down, she has no idea who made it.

"It's just so annoying that I can't do anything about it ... they could go and put other stuff up there.

"I just think it's so out of my control and there isn't somebody I could call who can actually stop this sort of thing from happening.

Coming from a Muslim background, Ms Salehpour, a self-employed property manager, is worried about how the fake profile could have affected her family, personal and professional life.

"I have two sons, aged 6 and 7, and I don't want them growing up and googling me and finding all this stuff because once it's online, it's there forever."