Cape Town – A profile supposedly belonging to Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille has been reported to Facebook as a fake, her office has confirmed.
The private profile, which has only one photo, is apparently being used by an opportunist to scam people, she said in a statement.
“This person is communicating to ‘friends’ that they have added on Facebook and offering jobs which do not exist,” De Lille said.
The account appears to have been created on June 15. The only public information is the profile photo loaded that day. The photo is among the first results when typing the mayor’s name in an internet search.
“I do not have a personal Facebook profile, but rather an official Facebook page which is used to communicate the work in my office and the City of Cape Town to social media audiences,” De Lille said.
The profile lists her primary and high schools, birthday and job – information readily available on the internet.
A Yahoo email address, Dpatriciadelille@yahoo.com, had also been linked to the account.
“My office has reported this email address to Yahoo and has reported the Facebook page as a false account to the administrators. The matter will also be reported to the police,” she said.
“I will be looking into the matter further to establish who is responsible for using my name to mislead and lie to people.”
Tammy Petersen, News24
