‘His Facebook was a shrine to my face’: the day I caught my catfish

I stumbled on a profile with my picture as the photo. What was this man doing with my identity? I set out to track him down ...

It was around 1am when I discovered my impostor was watching me. I was sitting up in bed, scrolling on my phone through the list of people who had viewed my Instagram story. The audience was the same as it always was: friends, family and a smattering of followers I had picked up over the years. But a tug from my subconscious told me, this time, something was wrong. I scrolled back up and there it was: an account I had never seen before. Their profile photo was a selfie I had taken in a bookshop basement years ago.

Have you ever walked by an unexpected mirror and jumped at your own reflection? That's how it felt as I stared back at myself, unnerved by my sudden appearance.