MANILA, Philippines -- Senator Loren Legarda has asked the Senate to investigate the construction of what she described as a “bogus” website and email address named after her and which is apparently being used in e-mail fraud.

Legarda said she recently discovered that a website using the domain name lorenlegarda.com is registered to and maintained by a certain J.S. Lim, who claims to be a resident of Singapore.

The website was registered through a hosting party named “bluerazor,” an Internet hosting company based in Arizona, USA, the senator said.

Aside from this website, Legarda said, emails suffixed with “@lorenlegarda.com” are also registered for use on the Internet.

She said she decided to speak on the matter because “there seems to be an apparent intention on the part of some unscrupulous personalities to deceive the public into believing false advocacies and information.”

“I strongly issue a disclaimer on these bogus websites that tend to mislead my constituents into believing [in] principles and policies which I don’t adhere [to],” she said when she took the floor on Monday.

“What is worse is the fact that we discovered that if one attempts to send an email to the bogus address suffixed @lorenlegarda.com, the sender receives an automatic reply that conveys the message where I purportedly signed a letter of solicitation for funds , thus discrediting my person and integrity,” Legarda said.

“Again, I repeat, for the benefit of the public, I have not authorized the construction and maintenance of the bogus/fake website that carries the domain name lorelegarda.com and emails that have the suffix @lorenlegarda.com,” she said.

The senator said she had already alerted law enforcement agencies about the matter, which is now being investigated.

“I despise the perpetrators of these acts,” the senator said. “The dastardly practice makes our respective Senate offices vulnerable to being discredited by people through deceit and fraud.”