A case of identity theft that appears to have stemmed from ‘Catfish,’ that ‘MTV’ reality show that documented certain couples who had started relationships online but hadn’t seen each other in person, often discovering one another’s deception, It has gone viral on social networks in both Colombia and Venezuela.
The reason? A Colombian who called herself Sara Manuela Giraldo, she acted like a girl from the next country for over two years Y Encouraged dozens of people to build a support network.
So he made it known Martha HidalgoOwner of the photos, through her personal account.
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The Evidence of Deception
The story, told by Martha, a dental assistant and practice owner, begins just over a year and a half ago when a “random” person (as she mentions) messaged her on Instagram to let her know someone was impersonating her. . .
“I texted him that I had ‘someone is pretending to be me, please report this account’ on my profile,” he says. Nevertheless, didn’t pursue him believing he had deleted the account. But it was not like that.
In October 2022, another person alerted her again, this time with evidence: “Something I found really alarming was when he sent me the messages he exchanged with her,” well Not only did he have a fake account of her, but he also posed as her family using very personal photographs that have not been published on social networks.
Almost everything went together: apart from the name, they even had the same job.
“He tells me he met her on Facebook and they dated online for four months,” but Every time they tried to see each other, he found some tragic excuse, which made him suspicious. Therefore, when he confronted her about it, she accepted the impersonation, but also told him that “she suffered from depression, was overweight, had a very tragic life and that’s why she used photos of another person,” recalls Martha.
A phenomenon has occurred, and it is strange that the fake profile looked more real given the number of interactions, friends and publications it had, Hidalgo points out. All of the above surpassed that of the original profile.
Wrong profile on the left. It gathered more than three thousand followers.
(Also read: The “disturbing” photos with which Mara Cifuentes unsettles her followers).
Then came the Testimony of another young man who even broke up with his girlfriend to start a relationship with Sara Manuela. His interest was so great that he bought her tickets to Curaçao, a paradise island in the Caribbean, but she never made it to the airport.
looking for the scammer
The task of finding the person behind the mysterious profile was difficult: he used only one phone to impersonate her, with different lines and social networks (and also consistent among themselves). But it wasn’t impossible.
His whole family got together to find the scammer even though he had blocked them and they had an idea: find out who owned the numbers he was using to contact the above boys.
They found that one of them, under the alias ‘Laura Colombia’, appeared in both Martha’s and her mother’s contact lists: “My mother makes party decorations and apparently this person messaged her on Instagram a long time ago to request a quote. She never did the decoration, but her number stayed,” the young woman admits.
In your case, passed off as a patient who needed an appointment at his practicebut never participated. That’s why he had access to WhatsApp states.
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A happy ending?
I realized that she was a person suffering from a mental illness because she dared to tell me her story.
With this information he was able to find her, with “Laura”.
After noticing that the young woman had first contacted her from her personal profile to compliment her looks or make occasional comments, she decided to talk to her; He met someone in a difficult situation and somehow created his own refuge.
These were the first messages sent to Martha.
Photo:
Instagram: @saramanuelag11
“I never spoke ugly to her, I realized that she was a person suffering from a mental illness because she dared to tell me her story,” he says. Therefore chose empathy and with a message of “My apologies Martha, I hope to survive the depression, it’s not an easy battle but it’s not impossible. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk to you,” his alter ego said goodbye.
Martha, moved by his attitude and the way he apologized, let go of what had happened, promising that it would end there. However, he took control of the Instagram account to tell his version of the story and continue to warn his followers.
He also expected that there will be a second part as more important events came down after the case was made public, so thousands of people are now waiting for the sequel.
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Daisy Contreras
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