Crypto scammer impersonates Labour MS on Instagram

Emily Price 

A Labour Member of the Senedd has written to Meta raising concerns after she was impersonated on Instagram by a scammer offering advice on cryptocurrency to her constituents.

Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf MS Shav Taj said she received messages over the weekend from friends warning her that a new Instagram account with the username “Dolphin13257191” was using her image.

The fake account’s bio also provided an accurate description of the Labour politician’s role in the Senedd.

The user had followed followers of Taj’s real account and was sending messages encouraging them to sign up to what the Labour MS described as a “really dodgy WhatsApp account” that offered advice on cryptocurrency.

In one of the messages, the scammer said: “I have set up a WhatsApp group for finance enthusiasts to discuss cryptocurrencies, stocks, bonds and funds.

“If you would like to join for free, could you please let me know what topics interest you?”

Taj said there wasn’t anyone on Labour’s side of the Senedd Chamber that was interested in offering advice on crypto.

In an apparent dig at Reform UK, the Labour MS added: “That would be elsewhere – and we all know where that is”.

Taj said that lots of people were targeted by scammers impersonating prominent figures on social media because “they see a name and trust it”.

However, the trade unionist added that as an elected official she wanted to do something about it.

She has written to Instagram’s owner Meta asking what safeguards and tools the platform is deploying to block scammers impersonating politicians.

She urged Meta to proactively contact all 96 Senedd Members using their official Senedd contact details, to verify that the accounts on its platform genuinely belong to the politicians they claim to represent.

It is understood that Meta did not respond to Taj’s concerns.

The Labour MS said: “I know I’m not the first Senedd Member who has been impersonated or misrepresented online and I won’t be the last.

“People have to know they can trust what they see and hear from their elected politicians and know what they are seeing is actually real.

“We wouldn’t tolerate this kind of scam in the street. So why do we tolerate it online?”

Several social media users reported the fake Shav Taj account for impersonation and after 48 hours of it being activate it was removed from Instagram.

During Plenary on Tuesday (September 30),the Labour MS requested a statement from the Welsh Government on tackling disinformation, AI, deepfakes and social media scams.

Speaking in the Chamber, Taj said: “Over the weekend, some of you might have received an Instagram request from an account that looked just like me.

“It had my name, it had my image, and it had a real accurate description of what it is that I do. People had every reason to believe that this account was me.

“I was being sent all kinds of messages in relation to it. It invited them to join a WhatsApp group for ‘finance enthusiasts’ to discuss cryptocurrency and stocks.

“For the record, it had nothing to do with me.”

Trefnydd Heledd Fychan warned that everyone was at risk of online scams and that this risk was acknowledged by the Welsh Government.

She added: “Obviously, a lot of these matters are not devolved, but these are representations that we do make, because it impacts our democracy, it impacts the people that we represent, day in, day out, who are targeted in such a way. It’s not just public figures.

“So, this is something we do take seriously. I would hope the UK Government does far more to protect citizens as well as those elected democratically.

“I saw recently comments from people saying that they would not be standing for council again because of such risks, so there is a risk to our democracy as well as a very real personal impact.”

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