Aguon posted the following note on his Facebook page after receiving reports from his friends about the fake e-mail: “My account has been hacked and for all who received the unpleasant messages about video, I apologize, I’m sure you know me better, we are in the process of fixing my site, hope you all understand.”
According to Gina Tabonares, the senator’s media relations officer, the e-mail message is actually a virus that requires the recipient to click on a video link. The process is called “phishing.”
“If you click on the link, it will allow the hacker to access your account and send messages to your friends on the list,” she explained.
Tabonares said the phisher has apparently sent messages to a lot of the senator’s Facebook “friends.” He has 792 “friends.”
Messages include “Is that you on the video?” or “I saw you on a video.”
“Almost 20 people received it and called the senator’s attention to it,” Tabonares said.
She said the matter has prompted Aguon to change his account’s password.
Anyone who receives such a message, be sure to delete it and report it to the management of Facebook.
Aguon isn’t the first senator to fall victim to hackers. Sens. Adolpho Palacios and Tina Rose Muna-Barnes have had their e-mail accounts hacked.
In the case of Palacios, the hacker had sent messages to people on his e-mail list informing them that he was stranded in London, had lost his wallet and money and was in need of emergency funds to help him get back to Guam. The hacker asked for 5,500 pounds to pay for hotel bills and make arrangements to return home.
Muna-Barnes said that the person who hacked her e-mail account sent request for contribution messages to individuals on her e-mail list from Asia to as far as Washington, D.C.
