If you've ever watched MTV's Catfish, the fact that social media is full of fake accounts won't exactly be breaking news. But even so, this woman's experience is unbelievable.
It all started with an Instagram account for Leah Palmer, a fashion blogger who appeared to lead a majorly glam life, travelling the world and chilling with friends, gaining thousands of social media followers along the way.
Things then got more serious when 'Leah' struck up a friendship and then a relationship with a man who - choosing to remain anonymous - BuzzFeed refer to as Justin. The pair got gradually closer over 2012 and would tweet, text and call several times a day - but they never video chatted or met in person. It might sound dodgy, but Justin says there was always a valid excuse.
"Given her apparent career in fashion, she was supposedly away a lot with work," Justin told BuzzFeed. "She pulled at the heartstrings a little, claiming the death of her brother, and various other family tragedies, throughout the time we were in contact. So I often gave her the benefit of the doubt when it came to meeting up."
At one point, Justin admits he even left a girl he had started dating in real life to be with Leah, despite still never actually meeting her in person.
Things began to gradually fizzle out though between Justin and Leah during 2014 until, earlier this year, Justin was contacted by a woman called Ruth Palmer who said he needed to give her a call.
Ruth, it turns out, had had over 900 pictures stolen from her Instagram page between 2012 and 2015, which were used to create Leah Palmer accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tinder. She only discovered what was going on when a friend came across the fake account on Instagram and realised the extent to which the impostor was mimicking her life.
25-year-old Ruth, who moved from Brighton to Dubai with her husband, contacted Instagram and asked them to shut down the account. But just weeks later, a new one had been set up.
Eventually, Ruth started contacting the victims of the fake account directly, to break the news that they were talking to someone who wasn't real. "I Skyped him and it was awful," Ruth told BuzzFeed of her conversation with Justin. "This poor guy saw that I was with my husband and it's just a weird situation to be in. He very quickly had to come off the Skype call and said, 'This is a bit weird for me'."
She added in an interview with the Daily Mail: "I have spoken to around five or six different men who have been involved with her. But unfortunately since they are all in the public eye, they want to remain anonymous. I also found the impostor had been making online friendships with other girls pretending to be interested in their lives."
Even now, Ruth doesn't know who 'Leah' really is. The fact that she's always had her social media pages private would suggest it could be someone she knows. "I can't think of anybody who would want to do this - but you never know," Ruth told the BBC.
So, what can you do if it happens to you?
Sadly, not an awful lot, it seems. Ruth contacted the police, but Action Fraud, who deal with fraud and internet crime in the UK, say there has been no criminality.
Instagram says it "takes safety seriously" and adds: "If someone created an Instagram account pretending to be you, please report it to us." Twitter also have a similar reporting procedure. But, as Ruth found out, once the pictures are out there, all an impostor needs to do is set up a new account.
Prof Alan Woodward, a security expert from rom Surrey University, told the BBC: "Personally I don't think you should put anything on the web that you wouldn't be happy about being published in a local newspaper. Privacy settings change, search terms change… images only need to be available for a couple of minutes to be copied on to somebody else's machine."
RELATED: 15 FACEBOOK HACKS TO MAKE YOUR LIFE SO MUCH EASIER
RELATED: STALKER ARRESTED AFTER FOLLOWING VICTIM TO POLICE STATION
