Fraudsters Attempt To Steal Interpol Chief's Identity Via Facebook

If you're going to be an identity thief, think big. Like stealing the identity of the head of one of the world's best-known law enforcement agencies.

That's what happened not once, but twice, to Ronald Noble, secretary general of Interpol, who revealed the attacks in a speech at the First Interpol Information Security Conference last week in Hong Kong.

"Just recently INTERPOL's Information Security Incident Response Team discovered two Facebook profiles attempting to assume my identity as INTERPOL's Secretary General," Noble said in his speech (PDF).

"One of the impersonators was using this profile to obtain information on fugitives targeted during our recent Operation Infra Red," Noble said. "This Operation was bringing investigators from 29 member countries at the Interpol General Secretariat to exchange information on international fugitives and lead to more than 130 arrests in 32 countries.

"This is why we constantly need to share our experience," Noble commented. He did not say whether the impersonators had been caught or what charges they might face.

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