A glamorous mum from Greater Manchester claims she has been kicked off Tinder as 'jealous weirdos' keep stealing her pictures in a bid to 'catfish'' men.
Carly Johnson, 40, from Stockport, says she's been bombared with messages from mystery men and women who say they've been flirting with her on Tinder, Bumble and Badoo.
When in fact she's been alerted to around 20 profiles using images she's posted on social media. Some are using her name, age and location whilst others are using completely different names and ages, some claiming to be over 10 years younger.
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Carly says she has now even been banned from having her own Tinder account and believes it's because the platform thinks it's one of the many fakes.
She's branded the 'weirdos' behind the fake accounts 'jealous' of how young she looks but admits she's flattered her images are being used by singletons to try and lure men.
One screenshot from Badoo shows a brazen person using her name and age while another from Bumble even has a supposedly 'verified' profile logo.
Bumble's website claims a profile is only verified once a selfie has been taken to determine the person using the profile is the same person in the images.
Despite finding the bizarre situation amusing she's been left 'embarrassed' to think what the people claiming to be her are saying to their matches. Carly's tweet about the profiles labelled the use of her photos and details a 'violation' and users rushed to agree with her.
In response to her calls for increased photo verification on dating apps, Tinder insisted they encourage every user to get a blue tick on their account by verifying it with a 'selfie video'.
Bumble Inc, who own the Bumble and Badoo dating apps, say their photo verification and selfie request tools aim to avoid catfishing although they acknowledge mistakes can happen and say they've investigated the accounts in question and have taken 'appropriate action'.
They add users can use the 'request verification' feature to ask a user to earn a blue tick before the match can message them. Carly said: "Potentially these people are just jealous of how I look at my age. They're weirdos.
"People send me a screenshot of these fake profiles pretty much every week. They are using my pictures to make a fake persona and catfish other people.
"I take it as a compliment because someone wants to use my photos. My own Tinder account got banned and I think it's because there's so many fake ones that people reported mine as being fake but it was actually the genuine one.
"They'll say I'm loads younger than I am so then I'm buzzing. I'm flattered that age 29 is being used. I'll take that. I laugh about it but in some ways it could be dangerous because if someone is thinking they're talking to me, you don't know what the person is saying to them.
"There was one on Badoo where they'd used my real name and age and that was a bit creepy. They're pretending to be me and men out there could think they're actually talking to me. It's embarrassing because they could be talking to anyone."
Carly says some of the profiles may even be run by men to get the attention of women and encourage them to send explicit images.
Carly said: "One time lots of lesbians messaged me telling me we'd been speaking on a dating app and one told me the person pretending to be me was trying to get them to send nudes.
"I think that was a man pretending to be a gay woman trying to get them to send naked pictures." Carly insists she asks the whistleblowers to report any fake accounts but says she wasn't aware she could report them herself.
Tinder has since explained Carly and other users can send screenshots of fake profiles to their customer services team who will investigate the imposters.
The singleton says she uses dating app Bumble and prefers to date younger men because she's 'still 25 in her head' and looks younger than she is.
She made headlines earlier this week after revealing people mistake her and her 17-year-old daughter Kia Douglas as sisters.
Carly's angry Tweet explaining her struggle against the fake posters said: "These dating apps should make you do facial recognition when you sign up because this is THREE fake ones in TWO days.
"Using my pics. The one on the top right is even using my real name that's a fu**ing violation." She later added: "I've just thought about it more. using my real name pretending to be me do you know how fu**ed up that is."
One commented: "It is a clear violation and I agree with you, It's totally wrong." A second said: "I don't think people understand how dangerous this is for the person's pictures they use." A third joked: "It's great being an ugly mug. Ain't nobody stealing my pics."
A spokesperson for Bumble Inc, the parent company of Bumble and Badoo, said: "We prioritise a safe and empowering community, implementing measures to prevent fake accounts such as profile verification and AI detection.
"Despite our efforts, mistakes can occur. If we become aware of a fake account, we promptly investigate and if found to be inauthentic, our moderators remove it from our apps. We strive to continuously improve our systems for a safer platform.
"We are dedicated to building a community where our members feel safe to make connections and build meaningful relationships. Every member of our community is expected to adhere to our guidelines anytime they're using any of our apps. Any profile that violates our terms or guidelines may result in getting blocked from the app.
"The accounts in question have been investigated and appropriate action taken in accordance with our community guidelines."
