17 March 2015
| Last updated on 18 March 2015
How One Expat Fell Victim to Catfishing
At the age of 25, Ruth Palmer worried and fussed over all the right things; her recent move to expat-land with her husband and setting up her career and life in Dubai, UAE. But she soon learnt, after only eight months of being an expat, that between “flat finding, setting-up bills, scoping out [a] new area [and] new transport” and the other “long list of to-do’s” there was another aspect of her life she never thought she’d have to worry over.
Terrifyingly, Ruth had fallen victim to an Internet phenomenon called ‘catfishing’, whereby someone assumes a false identity on the Internet using various platforms and social media. A catfish uses someone else’s pictures and false biographical information to pretend to be someone other than themselves. This time, the catfish had used Ruth’s personal images to create false accounts and identities, and it wasn’t a new thing for the impersonator – with some accounts that were over 3 years old.
“After relocating you do spend some time trying to organise the most crucial aspects of setting yourself up overseas… So for the first few months, my feet never really touched the floor and my communication with back home was few and far between.
“I didn’t have a local smart phone for a while and just simply didn’t have the time as I’m sure most expat’s understand.I only felt really settled in Dubai after around 6 months, when I then started speaking more with friends and family back home. Unfortunately, this is when all this mess then came to light.”
If you’re anything like some of the EW team members, you might be familiar with MTV’s original 2010 documentary titled Catfish, in which a filmmaker discovers that the woman with whom he’d been carrying an online relationship had not been honest in describing herself.
Thus, another behaviour trait applicable to a catfish is the intention to trick an unsuspecting person or persons into falling in love with them, and forging relationships with their false identity. And as Ruth quickly came to understand, her impersonator had done such a thing.
“This imposter had been using these profiles to meet men and women online for either friendship or for more. She also had two mobile phones that she used pretending to be me, using WhatsApp and Viber images of me and my friends, just to use them to help her lies seem more realistic.
“I was fortunate enough to be able to Skype and speak to some of the men and women who had told me that they had either spoke to this girl on the phone every day, had been messaging constantly or had been in relationships with her.
“Some men and women had been in friendships or relationships with this online imposter for a long, long time – including well-known celebrity types – and she had even been sending them birthday, Christmas and occasion cards to their home address.
“She also made dinner reservations to which she would always have a reason to have to cancel last minute.”
Ruth’s story is of course, an incredible dose of reality as to how true our safety actually is online and when we all use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on. And for any expat, it can be somewhat more horrifying to realise that this is something that has happened, even when Ruth has moved across continents. The catfish persisted.
Thanks to her friends and family, the impersonating accounts were found albeit with 1000s of images of Ruth.
“I initially found out at the end of January as an old university friend had spotted herself and I in a picture on the Instagram explore page. Naturally, she clicked on the picture of us and was shocked to see that the image belonged to [another] profile. After flicking through, she immediately contacted me and explained that she had found a fake account of me, my images, my life and personal details.
“Initially I was shocked, but when she started sending 100’s of screen grabs of myself, my husband, my friends and that the account had over 800 images of me, I naturally went into a bit of a panic, not really being able to think straight.
“[We] tried to access the account to report and block her, but whoever it is had pre-empted this, as she had blocked us all, meaning that we couldn’t find her page. So I then used my social media accounts to inform my entire social network and asked them to help me by blocking and reporting her, for which I got immense support.
“After a few hours, one by one, my friends and family then started to send me more fake accounts of me on Tinder, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter that they had found. Then I was shown more fake accounts that had been set up as my mum and friend, and seemingly there were having conversations across all social media sites with one another.”
SEE ALSO: Common scams that you can fall victim to in Dubai
For Ruth, her life here in Dubai thus far has been a roller coaster. After undergoing the stress of a relocation, to have such a thing happen to you as an expat is certainly terrifying, and would leave anyone vulnerable and alone.
“Your immediate support network are [over] there, they are miles away and on a different time zone so it becomes almost impossible.
“You are trying to essentially create a new life for yourself overseas, so trying to explain the depth of this situation to new people I had met was a bit difficult, but luckily everyone I know or have met in Dubai have been really great and supportive. It’s been a huge help having my husband here with me who has been amazing and 100% with me through this.”
While Ruth's impersonator is not based in the UAE, expats in Dubai and the rest of the UAE should be mindful of the heavy penalties that can be implemented if anyone attempts to impersonate both you, another person or an official such as a police officer. This is also the case no matter what country you live in. Anyone who is suspect of such behaviour should notify their local police force immediately - for Dubai Police, this number is 999.
