The online message sent from Ann Cousins's Facebook account said the Newfoundland woman had been robbed of all her money at gunpoint while vacationing in London, England, and was desperate for help from her friends.

In fact, Cousins was at work in Port Aux Basques, on Newfoundland's southwest coast, at the time, unaware that her account had been hacked and someone was trying to con her friends and family.

Cousins spoke publicly Wednesday about last week's incident in hopes of urging other people to protect themselves from possible identity theft.

"That's the scary part," she said. "You watch movies on TV about people losing their identity, you know. That's the first thing that popped into my mind."

Cousins said that on Aug. 17, she got a call from her daughter-in-law who said she had just received the message and believed Cousins was playing a practical joke on her since the two live in the same house.

Cousins, immediately suspecting her account had been hacked, tried to sign in to her Facebook account to warn her online friends and family of what had happened, but she couldn't access her account.

"They changed my password," she said. "I couldn't get in. I still can't get in on it."

Then Cousins received a second call, this time from a friend in Western Canada who received the same message about Cousins being robbed. The sender asked her friend to wire $800 to London to pay for a hotel room.

"They told her to send money through Western Union," she said. "She phoned me in a panic. And when she phoned me, she said 'Oh, thank God!'," Cousins said, "She didn't know if I was in London or where I was at."

Cousins said the incident worries her because it suggests that some of her other online transactions could be compromised.

"It's a very scary thought," Cousins said. "You don't know what people could do. Like, I do all my banking online and ... I don't know if I want to do that anymore."

She contacted her internet provider, Bell Aliant, who recommend she protect herself by changing passwords every 60 days.

As for social networking, Cousins said she wants to permanently shut down her Facebook account and said she is in contact with the company to have that done.

"I got no interest in going back on there," she said.