Impersonator faked city mayor’s account
User sent sexually explicit texts to council colleague
GARDAÍ are investigating a WhatsApp account which impersonated the Mayor of Galway City and sent sexually explicit messages.
The user reportedly sent the lewd messages to a f emale Dublin councillor as well as a colleague of the mayor on Galway City Council.
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail yesterday, Mayor Mike Cubbard, an Independent councillor, said the issue first came up about five or six weeks ago when he got a text from a colleague asking if he had set up a new number. The colleague said he had received a text on WhatsApp, which included a picture of Mr Cubbard, telling him the mayor had changed his number. ‘He’d received a text on his WhatsApp; it looked legit to the naked eye,’ said Mr Cubbard. ‘It said, “Hey it is Mike here, my phone has gone to get repaired and this is my new number”, and the colleague replied, “Okay thanks”.
‘A group was f ormed on WhatsApp, a number of councillors, 12 of the 18, were added to this group. A message, which was supposedly me, said, “Hey guys just looking to put a group together so we can keep in contact as a group”.
‘One of my colleagues caught on to that and he rang me and said, “Look, there is a number here setting up different groups”, so I just texted all those councillors to block that number, it is not legit.
‘I’ve had in the last couple of years people set up fake Instagram and Facebook [accounts].
I thought this was similar enough, all a bit of a nuisance.’
But two weeks ago things got a little more serious when the number started texting a female councillor in Dublin whom Mr Cubbard had never met.
She first started receiving a few texts from the person impersonating Mr Cubbard, asking to connect. She didn’t respond.
‘She got this text one evening, more or less saying why don’t you respond, we’ll keep it amongst ourselves, and made a reference to a number of sexual acts that we could partake in together... stuff like that,’ said Mr Cubbard, adding that the councillor had eventually reached out to him via Twitter.
The mayor said the whole experience has been upsetting for his wife and children as well as his parents.
‘I’m thick-skinned but I don’t think it should be part of the job to accept it,’ he said.