A reminder how Social Media can result in major issues

THIS week we were contacted by a few local models who had experienced problems whilst trying to contact the:- 'Miss England Competition' on Facebook. On investigation we found that the official Miss England Facebook Page, , which had counted over 55k followers, had vanished. So we contacted Angie Beasley, Director of Miss England Limited, about issues relating to had been the official page.

Angie Beasley, informed us that was very aware of the issue and had already taken the problems, which we were now contacting her about, to Action Fraud back in February. These problems caused a lot of upset and worry for the organization which prides itself on promoting women and good courses throughout the World. Sadly, this week the issues with Facebook have escalated with the OFFICIAL Miss England page being removed, without Angie Beasley or any of her staff's permission, despite it being a META VERIFIED account, but despite the fact she had repeatedly reported the scam pages, THEY are still left showing on Facebook!

The fake pages are deliberately targeting models who think they are talking to Miss England Limited with the hopes of winning and representing our nation in Miss World. They are requesting information from those who contact them, and other things might be happening that we are unaware of. When someone wrongly claims that the goods, services, or business activities of another person or company are their own, in the UK this type civil matter rather than a criminal matter, but if it escalates there is a potential for action to be taken by the UK's authorities. However, misrepresentation in the UK can result in a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation under the Fraud Act 2006, in conjunction with the Criminal Law Act 1977. It can also be claimed as phishing and could result in charges under the UK's The Computer Misuse Act 1990. But if you are under the illusion a Civil offence like this means a slap on the wrist, if a person or persons are proven to have committed an unauthorized use of a trademark, under the Trade Mark Act 1994 they can get up to 10 years in jail or a fine if convicted within a UK Crown Court. Also, in the UK, if convicted in a Magistrates' Court of copyright infringement you could face 6 months in jail or a fine of up to £50,000! But getting an criminal infringement cases to court is not as easy as you might think. Often it is only when the person on the fake page commits any other crimes that things are picked up by the Police and out of the hands of Lawyers.

Annoyingly, when it first happened, Angie Beasley correctly reported it to both Facebook and Action Fraud. Due to the case being just about:- 'passing off,' and copyright issues, after reporting the issues of the fake pages to Action Fraud they responded by saying:- "I am sorry to hear you have been a victim of crime. Thank you for taking the time to report to Action Fraud. Your report has been sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) for review. Experts at the NFIB examine the information you provide. Where possible, the information is also matched against other available data in order to enrich and corroborate the details of the fraud. The NFIB assess whether there are viable lines of enquiry that would enable a law enforcement body, such as the police service, to investigate. On this occasion, based on the information currently available, it has not been possible to identify a line of enquiry which a law enforcement organisation in the United Kingdom could pursue."

This matter has now taken a twist, as it isn't just a matter of:- 'passing off,' but so it means the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has the power to investigate... .

If you have seen any of the fake Miss England pages or any other fake websites or pages on social media, PLEASE do REPORT them. If on Facebook please try to report it to Facebook and also pass the information onto both Action Fraud and the (NCSC).

• To report a scam website, please visit:- NCSC.Gov.UK/Collection/Phishing-Scams/Report-Scam-Website.
  

• To report a scam Advert please use:- NCSC.Gov.ukUK/Collection/Phishing-Scams.
  

• If you think you may have been the victim of fraud or cybercrime and incurred a financial loss or have been hacked as a result of responding to a phishing message, you should report this to Action Fraud via:- Reporting.ActionFraud.Police.UK.

This issue and a similar issue we have also experienced again highlight the problems with protecting yourselves online in the UK, with an out-of-touch legal framework, especially with social media websites such as Facebook. It yet again highlights the major issues people in the UK have in protecting customers from scams and for customers to identify scams. This is made especially difficult by the fact the vast majority of internet services and websites we use daily are controlled by firms based in the US and within other international territories. The law on:- 'Passing Off' must be changed and updated to react to the growing problem of phishing and the use of AI to post videos showing a representation of a real person, like a celebrity, saying they endorse that service, product or campaign. This means by the time a company or person has the ability to take action under Civil Law, as it costs a huge amount of money, scam artists have used that gap in the law and moved on, meaning the Police and other law enforcement groups in the UK treading water, with the damage already done. Our nation's legal system is too reactive, only turning criminal once a criminal offence has been committed and not proactive, taking action when someone is clearly attempting to commit a crime. Our legal system needs to be rewritten to change passing off from Civil to Criminal, as the likes of Meta appear to be disinterested in protecting UK businesses and the people who use its services when it comes down to protecting them from scams.

When it comes to the likes of Miss England Ltd reports an issue, Facebook should have a duty of care, as those applying to fake pages claiming to be them are often sending private information and even photos over to the scammers. This can then be used for criminal activities and puts young ladies in a very vulnerable situation. It also damages the Miss England and the Miss World brands and undermines all the hard work they do in promoting charities and young ladies. Also, coincidentally damaging British reputations abroad.

We have tried to contact Facebook and Action Fraud for comment and will publish if we get a reply. We are also talking to other relevant parties about this growing issue that is damaging reputations of businesses and people worldwide.

Please note that the official Miss England Website:- MissEngland.Info, is not affected by this issue and should you wish to enter for 2025 or want to find out more, please go to:- MissEngland.Info or download the Miss England App for free at:- MissEngland.Page.Link/App.
Miss England's working Social pages can be located on both:- INSTAGRAM and TIKTOK under @missenglandlimited. You can also find them on:- X and on:- YouTube.

This highlights the ever growing problem for the public to identify authentic versus fraudulent pages and websites. An issue that will increasingly hinder our day to day lives especially with the ever increasing sophistication of the scams and lack of oversight by many multi nationals and governments, especially when the provider, as above, penalises the victim/s not the perpetrator/s.

For disclosure, our Editor, Patrick Trollope, acts as PR for the Miss Liverpool City Region title holders, and we host the Miss Liverpool City Region website, which is a title heat for Miss England.

Let us know your thoughts on this news topic... Email our Newsroom at:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com or send us a message on:- Mastodon, Facebook, or Twitter.

Business leaders invited to help boost growth in City

A new forum for business leaders to help create jobs and investment in the City has been proposed by the Liverpool Lib Dems.

The Leader of the Opposition, Cllr Carl Cashman set out a major plank for his plan for a business friendly City; he wants to form a group called:- "Liverpool FIRST" to build on the successful role of the previous:- "Liverpool Vision."

Former Council Leader Mike Storey established Liverpool Vision when the Lib Dems ran the City. The plan to revive such a body was outlined by the Lib Dems last week in the 1st of a series of events targeted at Liverpool's business community.

Councillor Storey described how local business leaders had previously helped the Lib Dem led Council to:- "turn the City around." He described key projects such as Liverpool ONE, Capital of Culture, and the building of the Arena and Convention Centre.

Councillor Cashman described how Labour made a big mistake in scrapping Liverpool Vision:- "Liverpool City Council has failed to be ambitious under Labour. The City needs cleaning up, its leadership is out of touch on many issues, and it has failed to plan properly for things like parking and transport to Everton's new stadium."

The Lib Dem duo listened in a private gathering to business leaders describing their fears for the City's future unless they were better engaged:- in planning for investment in the City:- "The local Labour leadership often seems invisible, and we hardly heard from it when Astra Zeneca pulled out."

Councillor Cashman pledged that a future Lib Dem administration would listen to business leaders, community leaders, and above all to the people of the City.