Sasha Devis was 16 years old when she saw her identity being used by a stranger, who for years pretended to be her on social media. The suspect was Elha-Mai Weston and it took four years to discover her.
Young man discovers his identity was stolen after being approached by men
Sasha Devis was 16 years old when she saw her identity being used by a stranger, who for years pretended to be her on social media. The suspect was Elha-Mai Weston and it took four years to discover her. The woman, like...
The woman, like Sasha, resides in Glamorgan, Wales, and is said to have thousands of followers on Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook and Tinder. However, he used several fake profiles.
In one of these, he used Sasha's photo and pretended to be called Sophie. The victim only discovered what was happening after several men approached her on the street, claiming to know her and claiming to be boyfriends.
Sasha immediately informed the authorities about what was happening, but it took four years of investigation on seven platforms before they managed to identify the suspect.
Sasha ended up filing a complaint against the woman in a London court and the case was closed this week.
"Four years ago, a person was living his life as if he were me, talking to men as if he were me, while people approached me on the street as if they knew me", begins recalling the young victim.
"I reported the situation many times and felt like nothing could be done. I stopped feeling safe in my own home," he continued.
In court, it was found that Elha-Mai Weston "engaged in a prolonged campaign of online identity theft, commonly known as “catfishing”" and "created and managed numerous accounts under the fictitious identity “Sophie” and variants thereof, including “Sophie Kadare”.
In total, it was concluded that the usurper had more than 100,000 followers across all platforms used.
Now, the woman will have to pay compensation of 10 thousand pounds [more than 60 thousand reais] to the victim, reveals The Independent. Despite the victory in court, Sasha's defense regrets that it took so many years to discover the suspect's identity, all for reasons related to the right to anonymity.
"For four years, Sasha did everything right. She reported [the situation] to the platforms, she reported it to the police, and no one helped her because the person behind the accounts was anonymous and everyone considered that anonymity was the end of the line", defended the young woman's lawyer.
"It's not. We identified her through information from open sources, based on traces left by her own accounts. As soon as a 'catfish' loses its anonymity, the campaign falls apart", he said, satisfied with the end of this battle.
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Source:
Noticias ao Minuto - Ultima Hora
