An Australian fashion editor — and former Mamamia employee — had her photos stolen and used as a catfishing lure for two years.
Jasmine Garnsworthy, who worked as Mamamia’s shopping editor in 2012, has described the bizarre encounter in an article published on Friday. And while imitation may be the highest form of flattery, this incident sounds downright creepy.
The strange sequence of events began after a young woman from Melbourne added Jasmine as a Facebook friend.
The woman — a university student in Melbourne with whom Jasmine had mutual friends– then created a fake account using Jasmine’s photos under the name “Hannah.”
But her actions didn’t stop there: Bizzarely, the identity thief also created fake accounts for Jasmine’s family, friends and even pomeranian dog.
“Not only did this person seem to have access to all of my photos… but she (or he) had used the bullet points from my life to design their own digital fantasy world,” Garnsworthy wrote in the News Corp post.
“She even recreated a personal website I used to secure freelance work, claiming my credentials and experience, recreating my exact branding, and publishing it under her faux name.”
Brisbane-born Stylecaster editor Jasmine, who now lives in New York City, reported the incident to police but wasn’t taken seriously.
She finally tracked the impersonator down when “Hannah” had checked in at her home – an address in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, where she lives with her parents.
Jasmine was able to make contact with the thief, who immediately “caved” and admitted she’d used Jasmine’s identity to engage in a number of online relationships with men.
“Tearfully, she told me about her strict family and her desire to ‘get attention from men’ with her pretend profile,” Jasmine recalled.
It transpired that “Hannah” had even spoken to these men in late-night phone calls and made a number of dates, which she’d cancelled at the last minute.
“As far as these men were concerned, she’d been a very real part of their lives for the past two years,” Jasmine writes.
Jasmine isn’t revealing the identity thief’s identity, but says the student has handed over the logins to the fake accounts — and it seems she’s stopped the catfishing behaviour for now.
And while Jasmine has written the incident off as the act of “an insecure, 20-something-year-old woman, and not someone more sinister,” we think the whole thing’s totally and utterly unsettling.
Remind us to think twice next time an unfamiliar face pops up in our “friend request” tab…
Feature photo: Instagram/@JasmineGarnsworthy