On social media, we're all influenced by the people we follow. We might take inspiration from their fashion sense, flattering poses or sick caption game. And why not? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However, when you copy someone too much, imitation is the sincerest form of being a creepy-ass stalker.
In Dundee, Scotland, college student Chloe Cowan discovered that another young woman has been recreating her social media posts for two years. The bizarre lookalike wears a practically identical outfit, reenacts her poses in similar locations, and even copies the captions. We've seen people recreate celebrities' Instagram posts as a joke, and plus-size models recreate celebrity posts to promote body positivity. but recreating a stranger's posts, with meticulous accuracy? Pretty disturbing.
Chloe's sister, Linzi, broke the news on Facebook. Her post was shared 11,000 times and gained national media attention before getting deleted. The doppelgänger's Instagram account, honeybasra18xo, has been deleted as well. However, the screenshots survive, showing just how far the lookalike went.
She copied Chloe's photos posing in a strapless red evening gown, lounging on the rocks in a bikini, and rocking a little black dress, Mickey Mouse ears and a cane - just to name a few examples. (The captions are all plagiarized too.)
On Facebook, Linzi explained that she wanted to warn others about this strange behavior. Apparently, the lookalike created a fake social media account to follow Chloe. Here's what Linzi wrote before she deleted her post, as reported by The Daily Mail:
"Don't even know where to start with this but just want to let people know the dangers of social media. My sister Chloe is at Dundee university and another girl living in Dundee (who my sister wasn't aware of until this week) has been reenacting her life on instagram for almost 2 years.
"This girls stalking behaviour is to the extreme of reenacting videos of a photo album that Chloe posted of my dad who past away (gives me the shivers when I think about it). This girl doesn't follow my sister on social media and had made a fake account to stalk her without her knowing.
"Her behaviour is not ok and I just wanted this out in the open for people to be aware of just how scary social media can be. My sister should not have to hide away in worry of her every move being stalked by another girl! Imitation is flattering but this is just too far!"
No police reports have been filed about the incident, but since the doppelgänger deleted her account and was publicly humiliated, I'm guessing this is the end of it. Now she'll have no choice but to express her own personality. (Or copy someone else and be sneakier about it.)
