ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – A New Mexico senator says someone impersonated him online and posted dozens of racy pictures. Albuquerque Senator William Payne says the person put pornographic photos on a social media site with his name on it.
“This year I had a house staffer come to me and say, ‘Gee, your Facebook page has been hacked,” said Albuquerque Republican Senator William Payne.
Payne doesn’t have a Facebook account. He quickly realized someone was pretending to be him online.
“He gets calls and mail and everything from people who think they’re writing to me and for years he has posted this stuff on the internet,” said Payne.
“It definitely creates a blemished image of him,” said Sonia Trillo.
Payne spoke out about the impostor for the first time at a senate committee meeting Thursday.
“It’s something that happened to me this session,” said Payne.
The crowd chuckled at first. Then, Payne continued on about how important online safety is.
“Essentially you are out there and you’re inviting anyone to come to your Facebook page,” he said.
People KRQE News 13 spoke with on Friday said they were shocked someone would deliberately pose as a state official and post racy pictures for them.
“It definitely changes the way people can see him and it’s not necessarily his fault,” said Trillo.
“It’s sad. It’s unfortunate,” said Kris Johnson.
An Albuquerque man who messaged the William Payne Facebook account to find out if it was the senator’s told KRQE News 13 that he got a message back filled with porn and invitation to meet.
Payne says Facebook has taken down the page with his name on it.
It’s still unclear if the person behind the Facebook account is just out to get Payne or if he also happens to be named William Payne.
KRQE News 13 reached out to police and the FBI Friday to find out if they’re looking into this. They told us this was the first time they had heard about it.
