Online star reveals identity theft nightmare among shock surge in online crime

An actor and influencer has revealed how she had her identity stolen online — and she is just one of thousands of Australians experiencing the same nightmare.

Australians are rapidly losing their identities to online scammers with more than 4000 catfish scams being reported on social media this year alone. 

The scams see people impersonate social media users by stealing their photos and name to dupe mutual followers. 

This latest wave of online crime has cost Australians more than $80m in 2023 — a shocking 43 per cent rise since the year before.

Cybersecurity expert Professor Jill Slay said more needs to be done to control the social media platforms scammers use to steal identity. 

“There is an increase in those scams, online fraud, every kind of scam imaginable. I have sat through years of conferences where someone comes from the intelligence community in Britain and they tell us what they’ve done and then I watch people in Canberra sitting up taking notice and doing nothing,” she said.

Social media catfish crimes are on the rise.

“We are seeing this rampant misuse of the internet whether it’s for the publication of terrorism, misinformation, cybercrime, it is happening all over the place. 

“If we can control the platforms we would be able to control things like people’s photos being presented to us as fraud.”

She said Australia must follow other countries, like the UK, in urging social platforms to do

more to stamp out online fraud.

Senior director at a cybersecurity company Proofpoint Adrian Covich said identity theft was a major concern with the rise in social media use. 

“Social media has been used quite a bit to scam people, the statistics prove the damage. There is a role for technology and social media to help stop these types of scams, whether it be to make it more difficult for accounts to be signed up that are fake or extra authentication,” he said.

Mr Covich also said it is important that social media users are educated on the potential scams and find ways to best keep their accounts secure.

“I think the advice is somewhat timeless and persistent and always have a healthy level of scepticism for anything that you receive on the internet and if it seems too good to be true it probably is,” he said. 

Molly Rose Walker, who has 60k followers on TikTok, had her identity stolen online. Picture: Liam Kidston

Molly Rose Walker, an actor and influencer said a scammer had used her photos and information online to claim free PR packages under her name in June 2023.

“One day I got a direct message from a brand saying they were happy to meet me through a creator website and to be working with me, but I had never even heard of the website or the brand,” she said.

“This unknown person had connected my profile picture, had linked my TikTok and Instagram usernames but had my first name and a smaller creator’s last name and email.”

Ms Walker contacted the website furious they had no security checks or verification processes.

“They got back to me and admitted their identification process wasn’t up to date and that they would sort it, while I waited for the issue to be resolved by the website I had more brands reach out saying they were excited to work together, so this unknown person kept going until the very last minute when the website finally took the account down.”

Ms Walker said she thinks the rise of social media has made it more accessible for scammers, and that newer platforms need to look at their security and verification processes. 

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The content summaries were created with the assistance of AI technology then edited and approved for publication by an editor.

Originally published as Online star reveals identity theft nightmare among shock surge in online crime