Inside the devastating reality of catfishing: The most shocking cases explored as the UK’s ‘most prolific catfisher’ who preyed on 3,500 girls is jailed for 20 years

The tragic death of American teenager Cimarron Thomas has been a sobering reminder of the threat catfishing poses to society. 

In 2018, Cimarron tragically ended her life with her father’s handgun in a desperate bid to end prolific catfish abuser Alexander McCartney’s ‘sadistic’ campaign of abuse against her. 

On Friday, McCartney, 26, was sentenced to life in prison at a hearing at Belfast Crown Court after the former computer science student pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Cimarron, 12, at her home in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, in 2018.

Britain’s most prolific catfish abuser also admitted 184 other offences of blackmail and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Police in Northern Ireland estimate he ’caused serious and long-lasting harm’ to about 3,500 victims and their families, running what they believe was a ‘paedophile enterprise’.

The former University of Ulster student pretended to be a teenage girl and contacted hundreds of young girls, mostly between the ages of 10 and 16 and who were gay or unsure of their sexuality, on social media platforms like Snapchat.

He would persuade them to send topless or intimate photos, before revealing they had been catfished in sinister, threatening messages. Catfishing involves the use of a false identity online to befriend and exploit victims.

On one occasion, it took him only nine minutes from meeting a 12-year-old girl for the first time until he had groomed, blackmailed and abused her. In another horrific instance, McCartney threatened to send people to rape his victim if she didn’t comply with his twisted demands.

McCartney first made contact with Cimarron Thomas in May 2018. After receiving intimate photos, he tried to blackmail her into carrying out his perverse demands. Despite tearfully pleading with him to stop, McCartney threatened to send the photos to her father and friends.

When she refused his demands and said she would shoot herself he cruelly began a countdown and told her ‘goodbye and good luck.’

Cimarron was found dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound by her then-nine-year-old sister at their home in West Virginia.

McCartney’s sinister catfishing scheme tore the family apart as Cimarron’s guilt-ridden father, former US veteran Ben Thomas took his own life 18 months later.

Speaking after McCartney’s sentencing at Belfast Crown Court, Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan from the PSNI’s Crime Operations Department laid bare the full extent of McCartney’s horrific catfishing operation that spanned 30 countries.

American teenager Cimarron Thomas, who shot herself with her father’s handgun in a desperate bid to end Alexander McCartney’s ‘sadistic’ campaign of abuse against her

‘McCartney is nothing but a disgusting child predator who was posing as young girls online to groom, manipulate and sexually abuse his victims, as young as four, to satisfy his own sexual perversions and that of other online child sexual offenders.

‘Sitting in his childhood bedroom in Newry, he began his offending as a late teenager and built what can only be described as a paedophile enterprise. He had a number of devices and was operating across different time zones,’ Corrigan told members of the press outside the court.

McCartney was arrested in 2019 after one of his victims, a 13-year-old girl from Scotland complained she was a victim of catfishing.

Police in Scotland contacted their counterparts in Northern Ireland about a teenager who had been groomed by an adult using the alias of someone her age. This led to investigating officers tracing and arresting McCartney five years ago.

While raiding his home in Newry, South Armagh, police recovered 64 devices and found tens of thousands of images of underage girls performing sex acts while being blackmailed.

As the appalling extent of McCartney’s crimes are uncovered, we revisit the origins of catfishing while breaking down the ways internet predators honeytrap their victims – through the prism of some of the most famous cases the world has seen… 

What is catfishing and what happened to Nev Schulman?

Nev Schulman turned his 2010 documentary about being catfished into a MTV program 

The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘catfish’ as a verb: ‘To try to trick or attract someone by pretending on social media to be someone different.’ It refers to the creation of a fake internet personality – including profile pictures, job titles, interests, and friend circles – to lure someone into a romantic relationship typically with the intent to scam them.

The emergence of such elaborate social schemes online was brought to light in a shocking way in the 2010 documentary ‘Catfish,’ in which Nev Schulman fell in love with a gorgeous young woman’s Facebook profile and her voice over the phone – both of which turned out to belong to a middle-aged wife and mother.

The film opens with Nev, then 24, receives a package from an eight-year-old girl Abby at his New York office. He was flattered to discover the parcel contained a painting of a photograph Nev had taken. An unlikely friendship develops between the two, with Nev encouraging Abby’s artistic pursuits and Abby, in turn, sending him her latest works.

They add each other on Facebook, with Michigan-based Abby introducing Nev to her parents Angela and Vince, her babysitter Noelle, and local art dealer Tim. And, of course, her 19-year-old sister Megan, who Nev falls head-over-heels in love with.

Nev’s courtship with Megan comes to a screeching halt after he discovers the woman he has been imagining building a life with is not the fresh-faced Megan but Abby’s mother, 39-year-old Angela Wesselman.

While Abby is real, her paintings were all created by Angela, who also manufactured at least 17 fake Facebook profiles – including those of Tim and Noelle – to catfish Nev into their romance. Angela gave each of them distinct personalities, voices, and interests, building characters to inhabit the make-believe world she was drawing Nev into.

Schulman later turned the documentary into an MTV show titled Catfish: The TV Show, where he helped others solve the mysteries of their online relationships.

Nev Schulman with MTV Catfish co-host Kamie Crawford 

The potential victims always asked Schulman the same kinds of questions about their online lovers: ‘Why does he refuse to chat via web cam?’; ‘Why is she never able to meet in person?’; and finally, ‘Why does it just seem too good to be true?’

Since Schulman first brought catfishing to the world’s attention 14 years ago, and against the rise of dating apps and social media, online romantic scams have become frustratingly common.

In 2022, Statista surveyed 2,000 respondents between the ages of 18 and 50 in the UK to discover that 22 per cent of them had personally experienced catfishing, while 40 per cent of people knew someone who had been catfished.

Additionally, one in 10 respondents were aware of a catfishing victim who was under the age of 18.

Catfish UK

Three years ago, Schulman’s MTV program was adapted for British audiences, with the release of Catfish UK. In one of season’s most shocking reveals, a man from east London realises his hunky personal trainer boyfriend of eight months was a serial catfish who was using the photos of a ‘straight lad with a missus’ and a child.

Project manager Lee, then 28, discovered that ‘Paul’ – who he first met on a dating app – was actually Shay, a man who’d catfished 90 people over five years because he ‘gets a buzz out of it’.

Despite being caught in the act on Catfish UK, Shay – who has several social media profiles under different identities – continued to scam people because it’s ‘addictive’ and ‘not something he can stop’.

In another jawdropping episode, a Hastings-based hairdresser who had been dating his boyfriend for more than a year discovered his personal trainer beau was actually a woman he had scorned.

Viewers couldn’t believe their eyes when it was revealed that 30-year-old Alex’s partner ‘Matt’ was actually a woman called Jess – who had concocted a revenge plan after Alex met her at a party and branded her ‘boring’.

When it premiered, Catfish UK laid bare an uncomfortable truth: no single motive unites this new class of internet scammers that prey on their victims’ longing for love and connection for dozens of different reasons – from revenge and loneliness, to boredom.

And in some baffling cases like Kirat Assi’s nine-year catfish ordeal, there’s absolutely no motivating force to explain her cousin Simran Bhogal’s alleged devious actions.

Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare

Hounslow-based Kirat, now 43, spent close to a decade believing she was communicating online with a doctor named Bobby Jandu; first starting as friendship before blossoming into more

In Sweet Bobby, Kirat recounts how ‘Bobby’ eventually became obsessive and controlling, leaving her suffering from chest pains and being signed off work due to stress

It was later revealed that the wealthy cardiologist she thought was her boyfriend was actually her cousin Simran Bhogal, who set up more than 50 fake profiles to ensnare Kirat.

Based on Tortoise Media’s podcast of the same name, Netflix’s recent true crime offering revisited Kirat Assi’s baffling and convoluted catfish story that saw the radio presenter from west London become embroiled in an online relationship with a man she never met.

It was later revealed that the wealthy cardiologist she thought was her boyfriend was actually her cousin Simran Bhogal, who set up more than 50 fake profiles to ensnare Kirat.

Hounslow-based Kirat, now 43, spent close to a decade believing she was communicating online with a doctor named Bobby Jandu; first starting as friendship before blossoming into more.

Kirat and ‘Bobby’ would speak daily, including having phone conversations that sometimes became sexual, while navigating shocking circumstances, including ‘Bobby’ allegedly being shot, getting a divorce, being placed in witness protection, and suffering a brain tumour – over a tortuous nine-year period.

In Sweet Bobby, Kirat recounts how ‘Bobby’ eventually became obsessive and controlling, leaving her suffering from chest pains and being signed off work due to stress.

All the while, ‘Bobby’ rebuffed Kirat’s many attempts to meet him in person, with the latter growing more and more desperate for a face-to-face meeting. Every time an arrangement was made, ‘Bobby’ came up with an excuse – including once, when he claimed he’d suffered a heart attack.

Kirat, in a still from the Netflix documentary, later brought a civil action against Simran, which was settled out of court

When Kirat pressed him too hard on details of his claims, or meeting up in person, he would threaten to take his own life.

Following more and more outlandish claims from ‘Bobby’, Kirat finally discovered that she had been communicating with Simran after hiring a private detective and confronting the ‘real life’ Bobby – who had no idea that his name was being used to launch a nine-year campaign of deceit.

She went to police, who said no criminal offence had taken place. Catfishing is not considered a crime in the UK. She later brought a civil action against Simran, which was settled out of court.

‘She has taken ten years of my life from me, years I will not get back,’ said Kirat. ‘In that time I could have met someone real, had a baby. I lost my friends, my job, my savings.

‘I opened up to him – her! – telling him things about my hopes, dreams, my childhood, that I’d never tell anyone. I feel violated.’

UK’s ‘Tinder Swindler’ who left behind ‘trail of emotional devastation’   

A Tinder swindler who ‘preyed on women looking for love’ raped one victim while she slept and conned nine others out of a total of more than £214,000.

Christopher Harkins, 37, from Scotland, targeted single women on dating websites and worked to gain their trust, portraying himself as a successful businessman.

He then claimed to be experiencing issues with his bank account being frozen and asked some of his victims to lend him money for a short period of time, prosecutors said. 

Several women borrowed significant sums in order to help Harkins, who left what the judge described as ‘a trail of emotional devastation and financial distress’ in his wake.

He pleaded guilty to 11 fraud charges at the High Court in Glasgow on January 16. 

And following a trial at the High Court in Paisley in May, Harkins was found guilty of raping a woman and was also convicted of filming two women in intimate situations without their consent before sending them the graphic content.

Judge Alistair Watson, who sentenced Christopher Harkins to 12 years in prison, noted the ‘devastating psychological effect’ his crimes had on the victims in a statement. 

‘The degree of harm caused by you is extremely high. Many of your victims were deprived of all or some of their personal savings leaving some in financial difficulty.

‘These frauds are what are commonly described as romance scams. The court recognises that this is a particular type of fraud which preys upon a person’s compassion and emotions, where your contrived pleas and explanations as to your need for money were, in fact, calculated ploys designed to take advantage of the decent nature of those women.

‘It is self-evident that this particular type of fraud is likely to have a devastating psychological effect on the victims quite apart from any financial loss to them.

‘I have taken time to read the victim impact statements provided by a number of the victims of these crimes. 

‘They describe in detailed terms the feelings of shame, humiliation, stress and exhaustion suffered as a consequence of your course of criminal conduct.’

Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist

Another Netflix documentary about Notre Dame footballer Manti Te’o’s catfishing scandal brought viewers to the edge of their seats when it was released in 2022

The former Notre Dame linebacker made headlines in 2013 when it was sensationally revealed that his ex-girlfriend, who died after being diagnosed with leukemia, was actually a trans woman named Ronaiah ‘Naya’ Tuiasosopo who is still very much alive.

Another Netflix documentary about Notre Dame footballer Manti Te’o’s catfishing scandal brought viewers to the edge of their seats when it was released in 2022.

The former Notre Dame linebacker made headlines in 2013 when it was sensationally revealed that his ex-girlfriend, who died after being diagnosed with leukemia, was actually a trans woman named Ronaiah ‘Naya’ Tuiasosopo who is still very much alive.

Tuiasosopo concocted a new identity to woo Te’o after she fell in love with him but was too afraid to come forward as her true self.

Te’o met Tuiasosopo’s creation, a 22-year-old Stanford student named Lennay Kekua, online in late 2011.

Tuiasosopo concocted a new identity – 22-year-old Stanford student named Lenny Kekua – to woo Te’o after she fell in love with him but was too afraid to come forward as her true self. She created the account using photos of one of her high school classmates, Diane O’Meara

In September 2012, about nine months into their relationship, Te’o (right) was made to believe that Kekua had passed away from cancer

The two began messaging back and forth through social media before they turned to phone calls and texting, and the athlete from Hawaii quickly fell for Kekua.

When it came time for them to talk on the phone, Tuiasosopo enlisted her cousin, Tino Tuiasosopo, to speak with Te’o – seducing Te’oin a series of intimate phone conversations, which were said to have cemented their relationship despite their never having met in person.

She created an entire backstory for Kekua, telling Te’o that she had been in a horrific car crash, and that she had discovered she was suffering from leukemia during her recovery.

Her tragic story soon stole Te’o’s heart. And in September 2012, about nine months into their relationship, Te’o was made to believe that Kekua had passed away from cancer.

However, Tuiasosopo’s scam was ultimately uncovered after Deadspin reporters reporters Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey began to question Kekua’s real identity, and published a tell-all article revealing that she was not, in fact, a real person, in January 2013.

She was instead created by Tuiasosopo, one of Te’o’s childhood friends who later admitted that she had fallen ‘deeply in love’ with the sports star, so she created the account using photos of one of her high school classmates, Diane O’Meara.

Tuiasosopo’s scam was ultimately uncovered after Deadspin reporters reporters Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey began to question Kekua’s real identity

In an interview with Katie Couric, Te’o vehemently denied any involvement in the hoax, explaining that he believed Kekua was dead until he received a mysterious phone call on December 6, 2012, saying that she had not died of leukemia as he had believed.

Te’o added that he then struggled to uncover the truth, up until the Deadspin article was released one month later – which he called ‘painful and humiliating.’

‘In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious,’ he said to ESPN in a separate interview. ‘If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was.’

The Tindler Swindler

Netflix released a deep-dive into the alleged crimes of convicted fraudster Shimon Hayut as the film’s eponymous ‘Tinder Swindler’ in 2022

 The convicted conman would use the money he acquired from other victims to impress single women with an expensive lifestyle and lavish gifts – it’s believed in total he conned women out of around £7.4million in total

The purveyors of sensational catfish true-crimes, Netflix released a deep-dive into the alleged crimes of convicted fraudster Shimon Hayut as the film’s eponymous ‘Tinder Swindler’ in 2022.

Posing as Simon Leviev, the son of billionaire diamond merchant Lev Leviev, Hayut found his unsuspecting victims on the dating app Tinder, lured them into relationships by love bombing them and taking them on extravagant first dates, before conning them out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The convicted conman would use the money he acquired from other victims to impress single women with an expensive lifestyle and lavish gifts – it’s believed in total he conned women out of around £7.4million in total.

One of his victims, Cecilie Fjellhoy, was a 29-year-old Norwegian graduate student living in London, when Hayut conned her out of more than £200,000.

She believed that she had finally met her Prince Charming, when she matched on Tinder with ‘Simon Leviev’ in 2019.

He claimed to be a billionaire playboy and even took her on a trip using his private plane during their first date.

Hayut similarly scammed Pernilla Sjöholm and Ayleen Charlotte out of hundreds of thousands of pounds. In the wake of the documentary’s release, Hayut’s victims were flooded with messages of support and set up a GoFundMe account to recoup their losses.

Cecilie Fjellhøy was one of the unlucky stars of The Tinder Swindler – the streaming giant’s hit documentary about fraudster Simon Leviev

The serial fraudster, who is no longer on Tinder, had 200,000 Instagram followers before deciding to close his account following backlash from the Netflix documentary

Hayut has never been charged for scamming Cecilie, Ayleen or Pernilla, but was jailed in Israel for use of a fake passport in 2019. He was released after five months on good behaviour.

The serial fraudster, who is no longer on Tinder, had 200,000 Instagram followers before deciding to close his account following backlash from the Netflix documentary.

Shimon’s last message read: ‘Thank you for all your support. I will share my side of the story in the next few days when I have sorted out the best and most respectful way to tell it, both to the involved parties and myself. Until then, please keep an open mind and heart.’

Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara

Celebrity culture intersects with catfishing in the new Hulu documentary about Canadian singers, and twin sisters, Tegan and Sara Quin’s story that dates back to the mid-2000s

A hacker, who came to be known as Fake Tegan, began catfishing members of their fandom in the mid-to-late Noughties 

Celebrity culture intersects with catfishing in the new Hulu documentary about Canadian singers, and twin sisters, Tegan and Sara Quin’s story that dates back to the mid-2000s.

In the late Noughties, some members of the indie-pop band’s largely-queer fandom began receiving messages from Tegan. While most people would be suspicious of an email from their favourite celebrity, the documentary explored how Tegan and Sara’s brand of celebrity was built on being relatable, accessible, and champions of the community that formed around them.

Those who responded to Tegan’s messages often began online friendships with her that sometimes turned sexual. These people often received photos as well as personal information about the Quins – including their mother’s breast cancer diagnosis that had not been made public at the time. In some cases, Tegan also sent her fans-turned-Facebook friends the band’s unreleased music.

However, these messages weren’t coming from Tegan but rather a hacker, who came to be known as ‘Fegan’ (Fake Tegan) and had access to Sara and Tegan’s personal ID documents, email accounts, medical history, and home addresses.

While making Fanatical, the team behind the series reviewed over 2,000 messages between Tegan and Sara’s fans and ‘Fegan’ over a 16-year period that continues to cast a shadow on the lives of everyone impacted.

A still from Fanatical, currently streaming on Hulu

One of the victims, musician JT recalled how the encounter with Fegan alienated her from the community of Sara and Tegan’s fans in the Hulu documentary, ultimately robbing her of her safe space.

JT, who’d had a traumatic upbringing, didn’t question an email she received from Fegan because she was a part of Sara and Tegan’s social circle in Calgary, Alberta.

Their exchanges quickly turned sexual and flirtatious but when JT suggested meeting Tegan in-person, her requests were either refused or ignored altogether. When word got back to Tegan, one of her associates reached out to JT to alert her about Fegan – but JT refused to believe them.

Her insistence that Tegan had let her down and broken her heart ultimately alienated her from the community of fans that found solace in Sara and Tegan’s music, with JT telling Hulu: “I didn’t want to be in queer spaces, I still don’t want to be in queer spaces.