US woman mistaken for News International chief

Being associated with News International chief Rebekah Brooks is not going to do you many favours at the moment – and sharing the same name is no excuse.

This was particularly true for US-based freelance writer Rebekah Brooks, who unwittingly became the target of an online uproar over the British phone hacking scandal happening on an entirely different continent.

The self-described “pretty shy” woman who lives in New Hampshire with her husband saw a spike in popularity on her Twitter account @rebekah_brooks from Tuesday, as dozens of new followers expressed outrage at the British executive of the same name.

“You and murdoch are exactly the same disgusting sic minded people and I really hope you get arrested,” one person tweeted.

Even after Brooks declared she wasn’t in fact one and the same as the embattled news chief, some users were not convinced, with one writing: “Ah, but you’ve got long curly ginger hair, are you sure you’re not really an unscrupulous former newspaper editor?”

To her credit, (the other) Brooks saw the humorous side of the situation, conceding that her ginger curly hair does bear some resemblance to her “evil twin”.

“Thanks! I'm getting such a kick out of all this. It's so funny,” she posted.

“Thank you everyone for all the supportive tweets & kind words! I love the UK & hate corrupt journalists, so I am on your side!”

Brooks is not the first Twitter user to be mistaken for another high profile account.

Another woman, Ashley Kerekes of Westfield, Mass, went by the Twitter username @theashes and gained hundreds of new followers during The Ashes cricket tournament in Australia.

Exasperated at the bombardment of messages, Kerekes finally tweeted: “I AM NOT A FREAKING CRICKET MATCH!!!”

Kerekes and Brooks have had a collective chuckle at the events though, and the pair are now following each other on Twitter.