'Catfishes stole my bikini snaps to make 12 fake Tinder profiles – it's scary'

dailystar.co.uk:

"Whilst it could be seen as a form of flattery it’s also extremely dangerous for my business as people may believe that these profiles are a representation of me and I have no idea what is being said in messages being sent from these accounts."For Sarah, who is in a relationship, one of the scariest moments was finding out a scammer had used her photos to arrange a date.

She said: "One message I received said this catfish was trying to arrange a meeting. That’s when I lost all humour about it." Sarah was made aware of 12 different fake profiles set up using images of her on holiday in a bikini and snuggled up with her border terriers, Baxter and Dougal.

The images were lifted from her Instagram page @sarahlouskitchen where she promotes her lifestyle and fitness coaching and nutritious home-cooked recipes.

They were posted on multiple apps, which made it difficult to deal with. She said: "I was on Bumble and Hinge as well as Tinder. "I found it disturbing to realise just how dangerous this could be and that people could be talking to these profiles believing that it was me on the other side of them. "I don't like to think that my face could be used to put someone in a potentially dangerous situation." But when Sarah contacted all of the dating apps to let them know that she was being impersonated she says she was told by Tinder on their live chat facility that they couldn't do anything unless she was a member and reported it directly.