Catfish creep targets QUB freshers

A number of sinister fake profiles have been targeting first year girls at QUB, asking them to meet up and stealing photos. 

Chloe Henry is one of the first years contacted by the profiles, by a man claiming to be “John Rowley”.

Chloe says: “I knew he wasn’t on my course because my course is very small and I had already met everyone. As soon as I sent it he blocked me.”

She then went on to say “There’s another one called Tracy Malty too, did the same thing to me in summer and I believed her, she also brought up a guy called John who was apparently in my course. She suggested we meet up after lectures too”

First year English student Jasmine McCrory was contacted in the same way by a fake profile claiming to be her “English buddy”.

But the catfish chameleon apparently takes on many different courses at Queens, from Dentistry to Law.

Even more disturbingly, this apparently isn’t the first time “John Rowley” has tried this. Business 1st year Gemma McNamee says: “Last year he wrote to me around the end of August/beginning of September telling me he was in my class doing computer science and wanted to meet up.

“Looking at his page and given his age I found it a bit strange so never replied.”

The most sinister part of the catfishing saga is the allegations that the photos on the profile were stolen. One Pharmacy 1st year told us:

“He stole my cousin’s uncle’s photos, not his profile picture, but every other picture on his page is his.”

Psychology 1st year Lauren Patrice O’Doherty added to this saying he was sending her similar messages

We contacted “John Rowley”, who didn’t reply to our messages and has since deleted his Facebook.

Have you been contacted by these profiles, or catfished while at uni? Tell us your story, email [email protected]