DUBAI A Dubai woman has been left shell-shocked after an imposter in the UK stole her identity and photos in a queer case of catfishing to date other men.
‘Catfish’ is a term used to describe people who pretend to be someone they are not online with the intention of having a relationship. Ruth Palmer, 25, who moved to the UAE last August with her husband, says she had no clue someone was using pictures from her social media accounts to have multiple affairs with men. The fake account of Leah Palmer that was using her real identity came to light, when one of Palmer’s friends chanced upon her pictures online earlier this year.
“It was in January when one day after I just got back from work I received a message from a friend in the UK saying she had seen a picture of mine and another friend on Instagram but under a different name. Then she started sending us heaps of images, all under this fake account @leahpalmerfashion. There were ones of just me alone, ones of me and my husband,” says Palmer, from Brighton, who works for the Dubai office of a British MNC. “It’s not the sort of thing you are angry about to begin with as all you are thinking is why did this happen and who on earth is this person?”
Palmer says she found the impersonator had been routinely stalking even celebrities and fashion designers, sometimes posing as Cheryl Cole’s stylist. That was not all, she even made bookings with them and other arrangements, striking up a series of online relationships with various people for over three years using her real pictures and posts.
“She tricked them all into believing she was a British expatriate who recently relocated to Dubai just as I had done,” says Palmer. The deception seemed perfect as the ‘catfish’ even managed to apparently ‘trap’ a semi-pro golfer and a well-known international DJ, says Palmer. Sexually explicit images using other people’s bodies were also exchanged.
More shocking for the couple - married for over a year now – is how Palmer’s husband, Ben Graves was sometimes described by the scammer as either her ‘miserable ex’ or her dead brother. “We were shocked and the nightmare continued as the story unfolded. We we found about relationships and how they depicted me. The more we found out the worse it got, but it made us more determined. We went around trying to find the truth,” says Graves, 26, from Cambridge, who works as a manager at a Dubai gym. “We have upped our privacy settings and have encouraged our friends to do the same but we would never close down our accounts as its important for us to stay close with our friends back in the UK and round the world. This is why we have spread the word about the story so firstly there is more awareness about catfishing and online fraud, but also so people know the real Ruth and Ben,” he says. The fake account has since been removed.
YOUSPEAK: What should one do to protect against identity theft?
