S’pore man's ex-schoolmate pretended she was married to him, used AI pics of their 'family' & sent out fake wedding invitations

When 32-year-old Phil (not his real name) discovered doctored photos of himself with a former schoolmate, he felt chills run down his spine.

The photos depicted them as a couple going on dates and even showed them with a newborn baby.

Phil's sister, Ana (not her real name), told Mothership that they first learned about the photos from a friend, who had seen them on the schoolmate's social media accounts.

The friend knew that Phil was single and became suspicious after seeing the photos. She alerted Ana, who was shocked when she saw them.

AI-generated photos

According to Ana, the photos appeared to be AI-generated using images that Phil and their family had posted on social media.

Since the discovery, Ana has tried several times to contact the woman and get her to come clean, especially since her then six-month-old son’s photo was used in the fake images, but she did not respond.

Ana then took to Threads on Jun. 7 to share the story, which has since garnered 558,737 views.

The woman only responded to Phil’s sister after the post gained attention, however no resolution was reached.

Pretended to be in a relationship

Ana said she was told that the woman would post edited photos with her brother, portraying them as if they were in a relationship.

Friends who followed the woman on social media asked Ana whether her brother had a girlfriend or fiancée.

"I was shocked to hear because if my brother has a partner, us family would be the first to know," she said.

Phil later recalled that the woman was a former junior from school and that he had barely exchanged a few words with her.

As the web of the woman's lies began to unravel, Ana and Phil discovered that she had allegedly been fabricating the story for about 15 years.

"To stay completely 'loyal' to someone who has zero contact with you, and then progress to creating a fake baby and a fake 'wedding' scheduled for this December - complete with real, unsuspecting people RSVP-ing to it - is horrifying," Ana said.

Most recently, the woman had apparently sent out fake wedding invitations and included their mother's actual full name as “Parent of Groom”.

Shortly after Ana's post on Threads, several people came forward claiming that the woman had been impersonating Phil and pretending to be in relationships with them from 2022 to 2024.

She allegedly went as far as creating fake Telegram accounts, Instagram accounts, email addresses, and phone numbers to impersonate Phil.

To make the deception more believable, she allegedly shared photos of Ana's family and personal information about her nieces and nephews, leading victims to believe they were genuinely in a relationship with Phil.

Another victim claimed she had been “catfished” by the same individual and believed she was in a relationship with a different man from 2017 to 2022, before later discovering that the actual man was married and had no knowledge of her.

Traumatised

Since the discovery, Phil has filed a police report, saying he felt traumatised and struggled to believe what had happened.

Ana shared that the first few days after seeing the photos were particularly traumatic for him. She added that he had trouble sleeping and found it difficult to concentrate at work.

"The mental toll of realising your identity has been heavily hijacked like this, is massive," she said.

The experience has served as a "massive wake-up call" for the family, highlighting the need to be hyper-vigilant about what they share online.

"Moving forward, it is in everyone’s best interest to set all social media accounts to private and strictly limit who can view your daily updates. We never thought public family photos would be harvested to feed an AI stalking obsession, but that is the reality of the digital landscape now."

According to The Straits Times, a clinical psychologist, Carol Balhetchet, said the woman shows signs of "delusional thinking", and that she has a "profound desire to gain control and power from a forced connection" with the man.

Balhetchet also said the woman should get psychological help.

Attempts by ST to reach the woman were unsuccessful.