There is still no resolution in an investigation into a forged email, which looked as though it had been sent by Douglas Council leader Claire Wells.

The email was sent to a number of media newsrooms in the island on December 29, 2022.

In it, Cllr Wells appeared to call for a vote of confidence in herself for fellow council members. But when contacted, she said she hadn’t sent it.

We cooperated with the inquiry by sending the spoof email to investigators.

Spoofing 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.

Douglas Council said that its IT systems were not compromised by the attack.

On January 30, we reported that it was referred to the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance, the government’s IT watchdog.

The Manx Independent approached OCSIA for an update, however, a spokesperson stated that it could not comment on any individual cases.

We also approached Cllr Wells for an update however she was unable to provide one.

At the time of the incident, 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.’

A statement from Douglas Council on January 5 said: ‘Following an investigation, the actual origination of the fake e-mails has been identified and Douglas Borough Council is receiving advice with a view to taking action.

‘These spoofed emails have, unfortunately, managed to deceive one of the targeted news providers into believing that a fake email may have actually been genuine or that the council’s system had been allegedly “hacked”.’