Sydney woman Torrie Marshall reveals horror catfishing experience

At 23, Torrie Marshall thought she had met the love of her life in Stelios – only for a single text sent from Macca’s to show the identity of an innocent man (pictured) had been stolen.

When Torrie Marshall came across Stelios’* Tinder profile, she was immediately attracted to him.

In 2019, the then 23-year-old beauty therapist had recently moved to the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, for work and was looking to date.

“I had just been travelling to Bali and I had my sister’s wedding,” she told news.com.au. “When I came home I was feeling a little bit, post-holiday blues and lonely, so I jumped on Tinder.”

Talking to Stelios, Ms Marshall felt an instant spark – the handsome Greek business consultant living in Sydney seemed to really understand her.

“He was obviously very attractive physically, but I think as time went on we got on so well, we just had the same sense of humour, the same sort of family values,” she said.

“We just connected on this emotional connection that I hadn’t really felt with a lot of guys my age.”

It seemed like the perfect start to a new relationship, but there was just one problem: Stelios didn’t exist.

Instead Ms Marshall, who appears on this week’s episode of Insight on SBS, was being catfished, manipulated by a complete stranger.

Torrie Marshall thought she had swiped right on a business consultant living in Sydney – but the photos were actually of famous singer Konstantinos Argiros (pictured), who was not in any way involved in the catfishing. Picture: Instagram/Konstantinos Argiros

‘We would be on the phone for hours’

After hitting it off on Tinder, Stelios moved their chat to Facebook Messenger, however, bizarrely claimed he wasn’t able to add her as a friend on the social media site.

He also insisted they phone and text via an app called Kik Messenger, which doesn’t require a phone number to register an account.

Uncomfortable with the idea of FaceTiming someone she hadn’t met in person, Ms Marshall was fine with his suggestion they only talk on audio calls.

Ms Marshall felt an instant spark with Stelios. Picture: Supplied

‘He got very defensive with me’

While Ms Marshall was falling for Stelios, she now says that in hindsight some of his behaviour didn’t quite fit with the picture-perfect front he was presenting online.

While he claimed to work as a successful business consultant at a real life Sydney-based company, he would often talk to her until 4am.

Ms Marshall had been unable to meet Stelios in person because of her work commitments, however, was surprised by his reaction when she announced she would be coming to Sydney and wanted to see him.

“I was travelling through Sydney and I asked him if he just wanted to catch up and get a drink or whatever,” she said. “He got very defensive about it and said he was busy with work and he can’t just drop everything to have a drink with me, which I found kind of weird.”

Stelios would also pressure Ms Marshall into sending intimate photos of herself, saying he would end things if she didn’t.

“He always wanted me to send something to him and really that wasn’t in my nature. I didn’t want to send any of that,” she said.

“I didn’t want to lose him so I just did it, but afterwards I just felt so disgusting that I had done that [as] I didn’t want to do it.”

During their long distance relationship Stelios would coerce Ms Marshall into sending him explicit images. Picture: Supplied

Catfish ‘asked me to do this video and dress up for him’

After nearly six months of talking, Stelios and Ms Marshall made plans to finally meet up. He said he would come to spend a week with Ms Marshall at her Blue Mountains home, prompting her to take time off work in anticipation.

There was just one thing he needed her to do before she got there.

“He asked me to do this [sexually explicit] video and dress up for him,” Ms Marshall said. “Immediately I said no because I didn’t want to do it – I didn’t feel comfortable.”

In response, Stelios said he wouldn’t see Ms Marshall unless she sent him the video, claiming he was waiting at a McDonald’s near her house.

“In the moment I was like I’ll just quickly go and do [the video],” Ms Marshall said.

As soon as Ms Marshall sent the video, Stelios cut off all contact with her, deactivating his Facebook account.

Devastated she had been ghosted, Ms Marshall sought solace from a friend, who suggested they do a reverse image search of the photos of Stelios.

Ms Marshall (left) was left suicidal over the betrayal. Picture: Supplied

‘My trust is so broken’

They discovered countless Facebook profiles with similar names using the same images, which actually were of famous Greek singer Konstantinos Argiros.

However Mr Argiros does not know Ms Marshall and was not involved in any way with catfishing her.

The discovery that she had not only been ghosted but also catfished left Ms Marshall feeling suicidal and she sought help from a nurse at her GP clinic.

The now-26-year-old finds it difficult to date and has trouble trusting people really are who they say they are online.

“I kind of don’t believe anyone if I’ve met them on Tinder and I’ve accused people of being catfishes when they’re actually not, because my trust is just so broken for so long,” she said.

Stelios had used photos of singer Konstantinos Argiros, who was not involved in any way in the catfishing. Picture: Instagram/Konstantinos Argiros

Finding closure

Torrie has since contacted a woman Stelios claimed was his ex-girlfriend, discovering the girl was also duped in the same way she was.

“I let her know that he was using her photos,” she said. “She had no idea.”

To this day Torrie has no clue who the real Stelios is.

“I used to want to know so bad – I was going to hire a private investigator, I was going to go on the show (Catfish), all this stuff to actively find who he was,” she said. “But at the end of the day, what is that going to give me? He’s already lied to and betrayed me.”

A Tinder spokeswoman told news.com.au that catfishing was a violation of the app’s community guidelines and terms of use.

Anyone discovered catfishing on Tinder “are removed from our platform”, with users encouraged to report any accounts they believe are impersonating other people.

“From there, our team will promptly search for and remove any matching profile,” the spokeswoman said.

“Additionally, we encourage our members to look for the ‘blue tick’, which indicates that the member’s profile image is genuine and has been verified by Tinder, through our Photo Verification program.”

Watch Torrie’s full interview on SBS Insight this Tuesday at 8.30pm or stream on SBS ON Demand.

*Not his real name.