AN SNP MSP has become the victim of an "appalling" case of identity theft, as someone imitating them online has been talking to their constituents in their stead.

Gail Ross, the Holyrood representative for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, said that she was "very worried" about the sensitive nature of some of the messages which have been sent to the fake Facebook account. 

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"Being an elected member carries a huge amount of trust and I deal with lots of confidential information on a daily basis. Some of the messages I have seen make me very worried indeed.

"The thought of this person pretending to be me makes me feel sick and very angry," Ross said. 

The National:

The imposter account (shown above) has taken an old photo of the politician from her official Facebook page, and is using it to send and answer messages through the website.

“The fact that someone has taken the time to set up a fake messenger account in my name is bad enough, that they have actually been contacting people and pretending to be me is appalling!" Ross said. 

"No-one should have to endure this but to target vulnerable people in this way is sickening and I am horrified that there are people out there that may think this is me.”

On a Facebook post the MSP wrote that the person has actively been pretending to be her for over a week now.

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Ross added that she has contacted both the Scottish Parliament security office and Police Scotland who are said to be taking the matter "very seriously".

"Hopefully they can work with Facebook to find the person behind this," she said.

The MSP has also asked anyone who has received a message from the fake account, or that they suspect may not be from her, to take a screenshot and email it to: Gail.ross.msp@parliament.scot