A girlband's social media profiles have allegedly been attacked by hackers.
Radha Patel, who studied pharmacy at University of Huddersfield and is now a member of pop group Office Girls UK, said that social media accounts linked to the band were taken down on the day of the release of their first single, in what she described as a “hate crime”.
Radha, 22, said that police were now investigating the incident, which resulted in the band not being able to regain access to some of its Twitter accounts, including her own and their YouTube one.
Radha, who has just graduated from her three-year course and comes from Bangor, said it came as a “massive blow” to the band, who have released a raunchy cover of Austin Mahone’s Dirty Work as a single.
Known in the band as Miss Mocha, she earned her place in the five-piece line up in June after being selected in by Simon Cowell’s former boss Ellis Rich and partner Marvyn Howell, who were responsible for Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Bananarama.
The Twitter account of fellow band member Kortni Turner, known as Miss Dime Diva, remained hacked for several days until she was able to regain access.
Talking about the hacking, Radha said: “We were devastated.
“We’d been working really hard and had got lots of followers on our Twitter account such as Perez Hilton and Alan Carr but couldn’t let anyone know on September 3, the day it was released.
“Someone put a big ‘We love SeaWorld’ photo on my Twitter account a in response we think to a flash mob show we did where we had a banner saying SeaWorld sucks.
“They put a swastika sign on Miss Dime Diva’s account too and took our video down.”
But Radha said that she and the other band members, which includes Shereece Foster (Miss Vixen), Chelsea Greene (Miss Nova) and Michelle Grimes (Miss Bombshell), have not let the hacking unnerve them.
“We have come fighting back and our accounts are now back together. We’re very proud of each other and will keep speaking out on issues.”
Radha said: “I’d always been interested in singing and acting and this opportunity came up– I was taken aback.
“I was due to do a masters in pharmacy but have put that on hold to see where this goes.
“I’m having so much fun doing it and can’t wait to release more tracks– people have described us as being the new Spice Girls.
“We’re not going to be doing covers. We’ll have original tracks written by our song writing team and by Kortni, who has lots of experience with that.
“We’re planning to do more flash mobs around the country and are just deciding on a place to live together as a band– this could anywhere from London to Leicester, we’ll just have to see.”
