Lake Hawea musician Anna van Riel is re-evaluating her use of social media after an online scammer stole a photo of her family to promote a purported get-rich-quick scheme.
Ms van Riel was alerted to the misuse of her photograph - featuring her, husband Locky Urquhart and their daughter Matilda next to Lake Hawea - by one of her music fans.
''I don't even know who he is or where he is but he emailed me and he said 'I'm guessing you're not aware of it but your photo's on this website, your family photo'.''
The website, www.fbnewsdaily.com, claims to promote a just-released Facebook ''Work From Home'' programme through which New Zealand residents can earn $329.77 a day.
A story quoting Mr Urquhart (35) as ''Wellington local, Oliver Smith ... a 37-year-old father who lost his job in July 2014'', sits alongside the photo of Ms van Riel's family.
Mr Smith was ''lucky enough'' to be invited to test the programme in August, it says.
''They asked me to post links, share stories, review sites and some other simple tasks,'' the fictitious Mr Smith is quoted as saying.
''I got to choose my weekly hours and work a schedule that fits my lifestyle as a father ... Giving this a try was the best decision I ever made.''
While the website appears to have originated from Facebook, various hoax alert websites have warned otherwise.
One, www.hoax-slayer.com, says Facebook has no connection to the ''bogus'' scheme, which charges $4.95 for a ''dodgy 'Facebook Millionaire' kit'', while fine print on the sign-up form indicates a person's credit card will be charged $94 a month for continued access.
Ms van Riel initially ''cracked up laughing'' when she saw the photo alongside the fabricated story and thought ''it's nice to know we look like a successful, happy family''.
However, her amusement quickly turned to anger.
''It's really disgusting ... I just felt inappropriately touched; I felt like 'Ew, gross'.
''It doesn't hurt us but it's just the fact that they haven't asked our permission ... They stole it [our photo] off the web and pretend that we're people that we're not to lie to other people.''
Ms van Riel believes the two-year-old photo was probably taken from her Facebook profile, which she uses to promote her music.
''It's a conundrum for me because ... I get so much work through social media it's ridiculous ... It's a necessary evil ... In a way you're kind of exploiting yourself without realising it.
''It made me think that I don't want to post shots of my family ... [and] are my children being used on websites that I haven't consented to?''Mr Urquhart accepted it was a risk people took with social media sites.
''Facebook has the right to all your photos ... When I first saw that [website] I thought it's just the way it is, but it's good to be aware of that ... [when] putting your kids on there.''
There are no contact details for those behind the website and all links on the page lead to the same ''Facebook Fortunes'' sign-up form requesting personal details, which Ms van Riel unsurprisingly chose not to give.
''I just immediately got in touch with friends who are web savvy and asked for their help because I'm not very web savvy and that's why it's easy for people to get caught in these traps.''
One friend was working on identifying the web host, while another was preparing a legal letter instructing the website to remove the image.
Department of Internal Affairs communications adviser Sharon Stephenson understood the website had been reported to an organisation known as PhishTank and blacklisted as being malicious.
She said because many social media sites had terms and conditions stating photos published by users of their services could become the property of the site, it was possible a photo used by a malicious party was ''to a degree obtained legitimately''.
However, copyright laws and terms and conditions might apply to the photos depending on where they were published and in which country the offending website was operated, she said.
