Oroville >> An unknown person posed as Butte County Treasurer-Tax Collector Peggy Moak on Facebook in an apparent scam.

Moak said Facebook pulled down the fake profile within minutes of her reporting it Friday. She learned about the profile when an acquaintance contacted her about the fake user enticing others to send $2,000 in order to receive part of a large, fictitious grant.

“I was horrified that my name would be associated with any type of scam and that the people that trust me were taken advantage of,” Moak said.

Moak said the person posted a fake Facebook profile in her name early Thursday and attracted about 24 online friends by the time the profile was deactivated. The profile copied her profile photo and several recent posts and reportedly claimed that a computer virus had forced Moak to set up a new account.

Based on her conversation with the acquaintance and others, the scam artist began private conversations with the profile’s new friends. The conversations began with basic pleasantries, but the chat soon shifted to questions about what to do with the proceeds from a $200,000 grant that the impostor and the friend supposedly received.

When users asked if the grant was real, the scammer would respond that she and her husband, identified by name, had received their share of the money and put it in the bank.

Some people realized that it was a scam, but at least one person was told to put $2,000 in a bank account in Nashville, Tennessee in order to get the money.

“I was completely shocked that this had morphed into a money scheme,” Moak said.

One woman, who is disabled and with little money, went to borrow the $2,000, but tried to contact Moak to verify the claims and ultimately reached her at work Friday morning.

“I would’ve felt so responsible had anyone actually lost money over that,” Moak said.

She reported the profile to Facebook. The acquaintance reported the profile before Moak did, but it was still active by the time Moak learned about it.

Moak also contacted the Butte County Sheriff’s Office and a deputy responded Friday. The status of investigation was unknown Monday.

She also took steps to let people know what happened, including contacting this publication and posting on a Facebook community page for Concow and Yankee Hill. Moak recommended being cautious about anything sent via email or social networks, like Facebook.

“If it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” she said.

An old scam

Facebook has a security team that deals with spamming and accounts impersonating others.

“Unfortunately, these types of ‘send money’ scams are as old as the Internet, but they do violate our Community Standards and we take them seriously,” a Facebook spokeswoman wrote in an email.

Users can report suspicious profiles to Facebook. The service notes that it doesn’t allow accounts that pretend to be another person and use another person’s photos.

Facebook also refers users to the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC has a webpage about money transfer scams at tinyurl.com/FTCscaminfo.

The federal agency notes that there are no protections for people wiring money to another party and there’s often no way to reverse a transaction or trace the money. Many of the scams involve the victim sending real money in exchange for a check or lottery winnings that is later proven to be false.

The FTC advises that people don’t wire money to strangers in the United States or abroad, or to a person claiming that a money transfer is the only acceptable form of payment.

If someone wires money to a scam artist, the FTC advises reporting the fraud, asking to reverse the transfer and then filing a complaint with the commission.

Moak said she was grateful that no one associated with her was victimized by last week’s scam. While such scams are common, she said people may get complacent because it happens rarely to specific people.

“It’s another warning that they’re out there all the time,” Moak said.

Reach reporter Ryan Olson at facebook.com/NorCalJustice and 896-7763.