Catfish victim thought he was dating Kym Marsh for 10 years

A man thought that he had been in a relationship with Coronation Street’s Kym Marsh for 10 years after falling victim to a catfish.

Kym had her identity stolen and used on a dating website without her knowledge for a decade.

The star has played Michelle McDonald in the ITV soap since 2007 and was left stunned when she learned that somebody was pretending to be her in order to trick men into an online relationship.

Speaking on Loose Women, Kym explained: “I knew there were fake profiles of me on social media – to a certain extent you expect it a little bit.

“But this one particular day I came home to a bunch of flowers on the doorstep of my home with a card that said ‘Sorry you couldn’t make the date, hope you’re better soon’ with kisses and no name.

“And obviously my boyfriend was a bit like, ‘What’s this about? The police did find out who it was, they contacted the guy and he thought he’d been having a relationship with me for the last ten years.

“He said that originally they’d been talking over social media and then this person [the catfish] had been texting and stuff as well and claiming to be me. It was really creepy… to have somebody at your home.”

The 40-year-old actress went on to reveal that she isn’t the only catfish victim in her family, with impersonators also targeting her relatives.

She continued: “Someone had claimed to been my niece and said that my actual niece had died of cancer. It also affects my family too.

“Since Emily [Kym’s daughter] has been about 14/15, there has been fake profiles made about her. We kept reporting it and it kept being taken off and another would put back up. One profile claimed she was bisexual and wanted to meet girls.

“She was getting really distressed about it because things were being said about her that’s not true.”

Kym is far from the only star to be impersonated online, with Nev Schulman and Max Joseph – hosts of MTV’s TV show ‘Catfish’ – previously exposing a British girl who was pretending to be Katy Perry online.

Her victim truly believed that he was dating the popstar and was left in denial when he came face to face with the real person behind the account.

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