REIGNING Miss Zimbabwe Samantha Tshuma came face to face with herself on Facebook, the social networking website, and was horrified by what she found.
The page in her name contained some of the model’s personal details, but also photographs of her that friends had posted.
The site, set up by an imposter, was realistic enough to fool even those who know her well.
This week, Tshuma, 21, said she was angry that thousands of people had been tricked into thinking they were communicating with her.
Tshuma becomes the first Zimbabwean celebrity to lift the lid on rampant identity swiping on the social networking site.
She had the fake profile taken down this week after a string of complaints to Facebook over several weeks.
The fake ‘Samantha Tshuma’ opened the account just a week before the Bulawayo beauty took part in the February 6 Miss Zimbabwe finals.
After Tshuma’s triumph, her Facebook impostor posted several messages, including one in which she thanked President Robert Mugabe for her victory.
Tshuma said: “I did not create a Facebook account. I was shocked to hear people saying that they saw my posts on the internet.
“At one time there is this guy that I know but I don’t really talk to who came up to me saying that I sent him a message that was silly.”
Tshuma says she was also baffled by the appearance of personal photographs on the fake account on Facebook – a suggestion that the impostor is someone she has come into contact with.
In one of the pictures she is wearing a grey scarf and a red top. It is in a folder called “This and That.”
“I used to have that picture as my screen saver on my phone. Obviously the person who put it on Facebook had access to my phone,” added the model.
Dozens of Zimbabwean personalities have had their identities cloned by impostors. Fake profiles created on Facebook include those of President Robert Mugabe’s daughter Bona, singer Alick Macheso, Tsholotsho North MP Professor Jonathan Moyo and Warriors captain Benjani Mwaruwari.
It is the ease with which a fake profile can be created that is telling. So, too, is the difficulty for Facebook to establish which is a real identity, and which is fabricated.
Celebrities are finding out that the freedoms of the internet are also its vulnerabilities and the accessibility of Facebook creates a breeding ground for the growing obsession with celebrity. On the internet, fantasy and real life can merge.