14 DAY TRIAL // Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble revealed that criminals created fake Facebook profiles in his name to try and obtain confidential information on fugitives.
According to AFP, the announcement was made during his keynote speech at the Interpol Information Security Conference in Hong Kong on Friday.
The conference, which was the first of its kind organized for police officers, saw the presence of over 300 of the world's high ranking law enforcement officials.
Trying to make a point about the seriousness of cyber threats Mr. Noble said: "Just recently Interpol's Information Security Incident Response Team discovered two Facebook profiles attempting to assume my identity as Interpol's secretary general."
He went on to reveal that one of the profiles was being used to try and obtain information about fugitives targeted in a recent major operation coordinated by the Interpol.
Operation Infra-Red took place between May and July 2010. It saw the participation of officers from 29 countries and aimed the localization and arrest of serious criminals wanted in 450 cases.
"Cybercrime is emerging as a very concrete threat. Considering the anonymity of cyberspace, it may in fact be one of the most dangerous criminal threats we will ever face," Mr. Noble, concluded.
Of course, the Interpol chief is not the first high profile identity theft victim. Earlier this year we reported that scammers impersonated Gen. Ray Odierno, the senior commander of US troops in Iraq, in order to trick the families of soldiers into sending them money.
"I’ve had several scam artists on Facebook use my Facebook page and then go out asking people for all kinds of money: ‘If you pay $200,000, your son can get sent home early,’" the general announced at the time.
Last year, FBI Director Robert Mueller, who has been impersonated by advance-fee scammers numerous times, revealed that once he almost fell for a phishing trick.