A Lisnaskea woman has fallen foul of an internet scam that uses the face of Fermanagh businessman Sean Quinn to reel in investors.

The woman, who did not want to be named, lost 250 Euro to the scammers who now have scanned copies of her driver licence and passport, as well as part details to a credit card which she has since cancelled.

Speaking to The Impartial Reporter she related how the convincing scam had her hoping to “make a small bit of money to help pay with up coming bills”.

But now she is worried about what may be being done with her identity.

“I know I won’t get the money back. I fell for a scam and I know that. But what is more worrying is the amount of information they have on me.

“I’m frightened about that. I’m sitting here wondering am I going to get a knock at the door at night because people know where I live or is someone out there going to use my identity and what will they do with it.”

The scam which, of course, has nothing to do with Mr. Quinn, took the form of a Facebook advert from the page “Evoin Tello Buzz” with the headline “Sean Quinn creates more opportunities”.

The advert stated: “Now is your chance to take advantage of some of the amazing opportunities awarded by joining Sean Quinn’s latest business venture. Capitalise on your future using his tried and trusted method. Click here for more details.”

Clicking on the link brought the woman through to what she described as a “really professional website”.

“When I was going through the set up it was almost like they were making out that they wanted to make sure I was legitimate. They needed evidence of where I lived to see if I qualified for it.”

Among the documents that the woman was asked to scan was a utility bill, her passport and her driver licence. After an initial payment of 250 Euro the website asked that she scan her debit or credit card but that she conceal some of the numbers on it.

“It looked legitimate. I could see my balance and it said that you could withdraw at any time,” she explained.

The website even showed an initial modest return for her investment, showing a balance of over 270 Euro after day one. However, it soon became clear that something was not right. Phone calls stated to come from different “brokers” looking for additional investment and then the option to withdraw her money disappeared from the site. She was also contacted to say that the scan of her credit card had not been conclusive and could she rescan it, this time concealing a different part of the card. In effect this would have given the scammers full access to her card details.

“I just knew something was up. I contacted the police who put me on to action fraud, which is a separate department that they have set up, but I haven’t heard anything back yet. They are snowed under with people contacting them I would imagine. I am still getting calls from the company though. I have told them I have reported them to the police and that I want my money back and that ususally stops the calls for a while.

“But they are then back calling me again as if nothing has happened,” said the woman who also contacted the Irish Passport Office and the DVLA about possible identity theft. Now she wants to warn others, telling this newspaper: “I just don’t want people to fall into the same trap as I did.

“As I say, I know my money is gone and hopefully if someone sees this it might stop them from doing what I did. I just wanted to make a small bit of money because I have some big bills coming up and I was scammed.”