A ‘spoofing’ of Douglas Council leader Claire Wells’ email is being investigated by a government IT team.

The Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance (OCSIA) is a body made by the government to keep the Isle of Man’s data and ‘online presence’ safe.

Cllr Wells’ account appeared to send out an email saying that there was to be an emergency meeting in which a vote of no confidence would be called against her.

A statement released by the council said: ‘Douglas Borough Council can confirm that its council leader did not send e-mails to island media outlets about a suggested emergency meeting, nor has a vulnerability been detected in the local authority’s IT system.’

An investigation later found that Cllr Wells had been the victim of an email ‘spoofing’.

This is a technique used in spam and phishing attacks to trick users into thinking a message came from a person or entity they either know or can trust.

The council has now reported the incident to OSCIA, who will look into the case further.

Emails apparently sent from Cllr Wells were received by Manx Radio and Richard Butt, the editor of Media Isle of Man, which publishes the island’s three newspapers, iomtoday.co.im and gef.im