This Famous Actor Scam - The Lydia Abdelmalek story
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Who is Lydia Abdelmalek and what did she do?
So this woman is about to pull off this crazy catfishing scheme by pretending to be a famous soap opera actor. Now her name's Lydia and she's around 21 years old. She lives in Melbourne, Australia and she apparently lives with her parents and doesn't have a lot going on. So one day, I guess she gets bored and decides, eh, I'm going to go catfish some people. Might be fun.
How did Lydia create a fake Lincoln Lewis profile?
So she makes a new Facebook profile. Of course, she doesn't use her own name. Instead, she uses the name of this famous Australian soap opera actor, this guy, Lincoln Lewis. And she makes this page look really authentic, and she starts pretending to be fake Lincoln Lewis. Now at some point, Lydia, as fake Lincoln, sends a friend request to this random woman. Now we don't know her real name, but we'll just call her Betty. And Betty, she's a nice woman. She's a flight attendant. And by some crazy coincidence, she actually knew the real Lincoln Lewis. Like they grew up in the same area as kids or something. Now, they don't really talk now, now that he's famous, but they used to know each other.
How did Betty fall for the catfishing scheme?
So, of course, Betty accepts the request from this famous guy she knew as a kid. And they start messaging back and forth, sending photos, and Betty has no idea that the person she's talking to is just Lydia catfishing her. And over time, their conversations get more flirty and they're sending adult photos of themselves to each other. Now, I don't know how Lydia faked nude photos of Lincoln Lewis out of Photoshop, I don't know, but somehow she did. And soon enough, Betty is in a full-blown romantic relationship with fake Lincoln Lewis. And so naturally, of course, at some point, Betty wants to meet up with Lincoln. Like, hey, when can we meet IRL?
What happened when Betty tried to meet 'Lincoln'?
So they make plans to meet up, but every time they're about to meet, fake Lincoln cancels at the last minute. And it keeps happening again and again and again. And after it happens enough times, Betty starts getting suspicious. Like, is my boyfriend really Lincoln Lewis? Now remember, Betty and Lincoln grew up in the same area as kids and they used to know each other. And in fact, they actually still have a mutual friend in common. So Betty reaches out to their mutual friend and gets the real Lincoln Lewis's phone number and she calls him. And the real Lincoln Lewis picks up and Betty's like, hey, have we been dating each other for the last few months? And the real Lincoln is like, no.
How did the real Lincoln Lewis find out?
And so Betty explains to him what's been going on, that someone friended her on Facebook, pretending to be him, and that now they are in a relationship. And real Lincoln is like, what the ? and he gets so mad that he goes and tweets about it. It has come to my attention that weird people have made Facebook profiles impersonating me and causing a lot of drama. Just deleted Facebook. Hope this stops. And Betty is also mad and she goes and reports fake Lincoln, aka Lydia, to the police. But unfortunately, police, they don't really do anything. They're like, eh, you got catfished. What do you want us to do? Meanwhile, Lydia knows Betty no longer believes her. But she isn't going to give up. She seems to enjoy catfishing, and she doesn't plan on stopping.
What was Lydia's next move after being discovered?
So she contacts Betty and tells her another big lie. She's like, okay, I'm not really Lincoln Lewis. My name is actually Michael. So now Lydia is pretending to be fake Michael. And fake Michael starts Betty and he tells her that he made the fake Lincoln Lewis profile Only as a joke, like he was just goofing around. And the worst part about this is that Betty believes him. And she's still mad at him, but she continues to talk to him. Like, she must be really lonely. Because soon enough, they're talking all the time again, like every day. And eventually, Betty falls in love with fake Michael. And they end up in a full-blown romantic relationship. Now, here's where it gets really weird. As if it's not already weird.
Why did Lydia start sending threatening messages?
For some reason, now, not only is Lydia pretending to be fake Michael, aka Betty's boyfriend, but she will also pretend to be other anonymous people. And when she pretends to be other anonymous people, she'll send threatening DMs to Betty and threatening text messages. Like, lots of messages. Sometimes up to 80 a day. Like, I'm gonna unalive you, or whatever. Like, what the hell is she doing?
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Who is Lydia Abdelmalek and what did she do?
0:00–0:21
2
How did Lydia create a fake Lincoln Lewis profile?
0:21–1:02
3
How did Betty fall for the catfishing scheme?
1:02–1:42
4
What happened when Betty tried to meet 'Lincoln'?
1:42–2:24
5
How did the real Lincoln Lewis find out?
2:24–3:10
6
What was Lydia's next move after being discovered?
3:10–4:00
7
Why did Lydia start sending threatening messages?
4:00–8:45
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
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