PEOPLE following Mudgeeraba state MP Ros Bates on Twitter received a personal message Monday about a joke.

But it wasn't Ms Bates who sent the message and she was not laughing over the experience.

The Opposition spokeswoman for information and communication technology said she was a target for hackers and online attacks because of her role in parliament.

"I'm pretty sure this was an attack on me," Ms Bates said.

"I had a fake Facebook page created in my name last year.

"I think I am getting up people's noses.

"This is not going to change the way I communicate with people."

Ms Bates was on Twitter yesterday taking a swipe at the people attacking her online.

"Apologies all if you were spammed by a phishing attack on my account; obviously some people have nothing better to do," she tweeted.

Bond University software systems Professor Paddy Krishnan said phishing attacks on Twitter accounts had been around since 2009.

"Phishing used to be popular on people's emails, but programs are getting more sophisticated," Prof Krishnan said.

"People are using Twitter and Facebook more for attacks because it is more immature.

"The attackers who target well-known people can be doing it to build up notoriety. Depending on how sophisticated the program is, the source can be hard to find."

The attacks might be more common than people think because people targeted don't want to publicise they were caught out.