Facebook 'friend' steals TV contestant's identity

The fake pages got Amelia Gough's ethnicity, occupation and sexuality wrong. Photo / The Daily Post

A person Amelia Gough trusted as a Facebook friend ended up stealing her photos and using them to create fake MySpace and Twitter pages in her name.

The New Zealand's Next Top Model hopeful has found out the fake accounts feature photographs of her, her partner and her friends.

Not only were her photographs used on the fake pages of the social networking sites, but Ms Gough said the person responsible also spent a couple of months commenting on strangers and lying about her.

Rotorua police say anyone who has problems with fake social networking sites should contact them because a criminal offence has probably been committed.

Ms Gough auditioned for New Zealand's Next Top Model in Tauranga in June but TV3 is staying tight-lipped about whether she has made it to the final 13. The contestants are not allowed to discuss it with the media until the programme airs.

Ms Gough said the person who set up the fake pages claimed she was bisexual, which she wasn't, and even "chatted up" guys and girls through MySpace. She said the profile had about 200 friends.

She was alerted to the sites just last Tuesday and was shocked, especially because the pages were created in May and the photos used had been taken from her personal Facebook page. Ms Gough said that meant the person responsible would have had to have been one of her Facebook friends because all her personal details and photographs were private.

She suspected the person who started the pages was a girl she went to secondary school with but was "confused" why she would have done it. "I have no idea what I did to her."

She contacted MySpace and Twitter and had to prove she was the real Amelia Gough before the MySpace account was cancelled.

On Friday, Ms Gough threatened the person with legal action, telling her what she was doing was defaming her. Hours later, the Twitter profile had been removed also.

"I find it really bizarre," Ms Gough said.

She has since set up MySpace and Twitter accounts in her own name to make sure no one else can.

Ms Gough said the incident had left her wary of the people she added and accepted on Facebook. She has even changed her Facebook profile settings to allow only some of her friends to see all her details.

Some of the things said about Ms Gough included that she was part Irish - she is actually half Japanese and half European - that she was bisexual, when she isn't, and that she is a teacher, which she no longer is.

She said what was being said wasn't necessarily negative, but "they were just false".

Sergeant John Cassidy of the Rotorua police said they didn't get a lot of people alerting them to imposter profiles, but said "incidents should be reported".

"There will obviously be an offence committed," Mr Cassidy said.

Meanwhile, to find out if Ms Gough made it to Cycle 2 of New Zealand's Next Top Model, people can watch the show when it starts tomorrow at 7.30pm.

A total of 33 hopefuls will be appearing in front of judges Sara Tetro, Chris Sisarich and Colin Mathura-Jeffree.

Thirteen will make it into the Top Model house in the hope of becoming New Zealand's Next Top Model.

- APN