Here's the deal. I've been single since time immemorial. So, in an attempt to remedy my eternal singledom, and to get over my nauseatingly pathological fear of dates, I've decided to challenge myself. The challenge? To go on one first date a week for a year! So in 52 weeks time, I will have either found my Mr Right, or I'll stay forever Miss Write. This is what happens...


The Rules

Here are the rules to the 52 First Dates challenge...

1. A first date must be had once a week, EVERY week, for a year, that's 52 dates in 52 weeks.

2. Taking someone home after a drunken night on the cider does NOT count.

3. Second and third dates are allowed, I must continue first dates unless there are exceptional mitigating circumstances. For example, God forbid, the start of a relationship.

4. Each date must be blogged.

14 July 2011

Catfish Catch Up

For those of you who haven't been up to speed with my recent dalliances in online dating involving being 'groomed' for a month by someone who had stolen an innocent man's photographs, before reading on, have a little read of what happened here:

For those of you who do know the story so far, you may be interested to hear about recent revelations. After spattering my blog all over social networking sites in an attempt to get some answers, I was utterly astonished at some outstanding detective work amongst my Facebook friends. 

One of them recognised the background of the silent disco photo as being in Milton Keynes shopping centre. After posting this observation on my wall, within hours both her and another friend had managed to locate the man in the photos and had sent me links to his profile. This I am will absolutely in awe of, and Kathryn and Louise, you seriously are wasted if you're not currently working for CID. This innocent man will be known for current purposes as CT.

On Sunday morning I wrote perhaps one of the strangest emails that CT will have ever received. 'Hello, you don't know me, but I feel like I know you. Don't freak out now, but have a little read of my blog...' 

Would he reply? I know I would...but this is just too fucking weird right? Right!

Sunday night, as if by magic, CT got back in touch, and I can safely say he was as totally shocked by what was going on as I was. It turns out that many of the details I had been told, personal details, about his life, likes, loves had been lifted straight from his life. Other details had come from elsewhere. But in any case that, and the fact that I had been sent around 80 photos documenting his life over the last few years, was enough to freak him the fuck out. I've been duped by some sort of pathological liar, he's had his life stolen. Both really rather shit. So where now? 

I then went about sending CT every photo I had been sent from 'Sebastian' in an attempt to piece together how he could have acquired all these pictures. I sent him as much of a dossier as I could, including the last few digits of his phone numbers in case CT could identify it as maybe one of his so-called friends who would have had access to all these pictures. But what we then found out made us both feel physically sick.

CT emailed me back with Sebastian's exact telephone number, and said it belonged to a 'woman' called Amanda, whom he had been messaging back in 2008 through another website. He had never spoken to her over the phone, but like Seb, she'd cancelled meetings on a number of occasions. It turns out we had both been speaking to the same person. But was it a man? Was it a woman? Was it a couple? CT only has one photo that Amanda had sent him, but it's enough of a start to move this witch hunt on a notch...

So now we are desperately trying to track down anyone who may have also been duped / messaged / conned / lured by either of these two 'characters'. So, here is as much as we know:

'SEBASTIAN PRITCHARD-JONES' (not his real name, of course)
Age 35
Most recently used the dating username SOUJOURN
Apparently lives in Marylebone and works in a primary school in Westminster
Speaks with a Welsh accent
 
'AMANDA' (also we presume not her real name)

We are pretty sure this picture has also been stolen for purpose, so if you recognise her as someone you know, please also let me know.

The phone number both of them have definitely used is 07*** 228 114. They may have also used a phone with the number 07*** 068 375, the number used to send me threatening messages.

If you have either been chatting to either of these people, or someone with a phone number that looks like it may be the same, then please please PLEASE get in touch...CT and I know we can't have been the first and we certainly won't be the last, and we want to stop this person before anyone else gets hurt, conned, emotionally involved or have their time wasted. For all we know, this person could even be dangerous. So please, we ask you kindly, spread this around your social media, copy in @C_T_S if you're on Twitter. It helped me track down the innocent man whose photos have been stolen, I know we can find out more about what this person(s) has/have been doing, and to whom. Your help has been invaluable thus far, so let's kick this virtual witch hunt up a gear.



13 comments:

  1. Hell CTS....This is revolting and fascinating at the same time. So glad you're doing something about it...Is the real CT single by the way? Rae xx

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  2. Hehehe, no he's not, he's well out of this horrific online dating malarkey, lucky boy. That can be the ending for the film version... x

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  3. Oh my god, as if it could get any worse! I love a good witch hunt though, and amazing how quickly you were able to track down the real owner, but who knew it would take that twist!? I will certainly spread the word & keep a look out for said details! Horrifying, but does make for a good read ;)

    Also, shame the real guy is taken, that would have been an amazing twist of fate :)

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  4. Milton keynes has a silent disco?

    Just catching up, what a busy girl you've been, CT! Mental as all hell.

    P.S. I don't think anyone's going to be coming forward as knowing who the real "amanda" is, are they? I mean, I've seen way better costumes...

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  5. The real owner of the face sent all those photos of himself and talked about the death of his girlfriend and his beloved niece all exclusively through text messaging in exchange for one tacky picture of half naked Amanda? And you located him so quickly??!!! I hope you have as little to do with ‘Sebastian’ as you admitted on this blog and not creating this story to gain new blog readers, hurting others; I actually know someone that was hurt by ‘Sebastian’ (hopefully not your friend's voice). Strange coincidence he was your second ‘date’ and not the 46th.

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  6. If I was going to make this a really interesting book, which I hope it would be, I would have 'invented' Sebastian at the end. I didn't. This happened to me, and as a result someone else, who I suspect may have been your friend, got in touch with me after reading it because that's how she found out he was a liar. At her request, I have left her out of the blog as it is something she understandably wants to forget, but we have spoken at length about it and I would like to think she's in a better place now she's no longer being led astray. If it wasn't for me writing this, I dread to think how much more she would have been hurt. I didn't locate the real owner of the photos, if you read my blog back, you'll see some friends who were so shocked by the story did on Facebook. The real owner's ex girlfriend wasn't dead, for the record, but the name was the same. Whether you choose to believe my story or not is entirely your prerogative, but I went through every fucking minute of this debarcle, and although I write retrospectively with vitriol and humour, I was incredibly hurt by the situation too. My reason for writing this part of the blog up so publicaly is because it was part of the whole 52 First Dates challenge, but more imnportantly to help others who may have been duped by the same 'character'. I've helped expose him to another poor unsuspecting woman once, and that is more than reason enough to have written it.

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  7. PS Anonymous...if your friend isn't a lady called D, who contacted me after also being duped by Sebastian, please could you get them to get in touch with me? There's a lot more to this story than I'm allowed to write publicly. I'm on Twitter, @C_T_S...please ask them to get in touch.

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  8. Your web site is great. When is the next post comming on this topic.I’m joyful I discovered this weblog, hope you may come to alternate my website I’m a novice!

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  9. What a spooky story! Having so much evidence why don't you take this to the police for at least identity fraud if not more?! They easily would be able to find him by his IP address.. and he really sounds he's capable of anything!

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  10. I actually did report this to the police as soon as it happened, but as the investigation was ongoing I wasn't allowed to write about it. But it turns out posing as someone else isn't a crime unless they're defrauding someone out of money or behaving in a threatening manner. But still, at least it's out there as a cautionary tale for others. CTS

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  11. No, my friend was not D.you spoke to and she has never contacted you, in fact it was her, who after spotting your blog thought that discovering who the face belongs to so quickly and that 'the real face owner' gave so much personal info (then used by S) via text messaging to Amanda he never met was a bit suspicious. I am sure she will get in touch if she feels like it but 'Sebastian' is a joke from the past for her I believe. Happy Christmas season!

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  12. Yes. I too got fooled. I'm not on twitter though so I don't know how to make contact with you M

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  13. Hey Anonymous / M, thanks for your comment. There's a link to email me at the bottom of the blog, I'd really love to hear from you. CTS x

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Thanks for reading 52 First Dates! And thanks even more for commenting!