In 2019, the then 23-year-old Torrie Marshall a beauty therapist had moved to the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, for work and was trying to date as reported by news.com.au
Ms Marshall thought she had met the love of her life in Stelios the Greek God and was instantly hooked on him when she saw his profile on the popular dating app.
Speaking to Stelios Ms Marshall felt an instant spark – the good-looking Greek enterprise advisor residing in Sydney appeared to essentially perceive her.
“He was clearly very enticing bodily, however I feel as time went on we received on so nicely, we simply had the identical sense of humour, the identical kind of household values,” she stated.
“We simply linked on this emotional connection that I hadn’t actually felt with a number of guys my age.”
It appeared like the right beginning to a brand new relationship, however, there was only one drawback: Stelios didn’t exist.
Ms Marshall, who appears on this week’s episode of Perception on Australian Tv station SBS, was being cat fished, manipulated by a whole stranger.
‘We’d be on the telephone for hours’
After hitting it off on Tinder, Stelios moved their chat to Facebook Messenger, however, bizarrely claimed he wasn’t able to add her as a friend on the social media site.
He also insisted they phone and text via an app called Kik Messenger, which doesn’t require a phone number to register an account.
Uneasy with the idea of FaceTiming someone she hadn’t met in person, Ms Marshall was fine with his request they only talk on audio calls.
Ms Marshall had been unable to meet Stelios in person because of her work commitments, however, was surprised by his reaction when she told him she would be coming to Sydney and wanted to see him.
“I was travelling through Sydney and I asked him if he just wanted to catch up and get a drink or whatever,” she said. “He got very defensive about it and said he was busy with work and he can’t just drop everything to have a drink with me, which I found kind of weird.”
Stelios would also pressure Ms Marshall into sending intimate photos of herself, saying he would end things if she didn’t.
“He always wanted me to send something to him and really that wasn’t in my nature. I didn’t want to send any of that,” she said.
“I didn’t want to lose him so I just did it, but afterwards I just felt so disgusting that I had done that [as] I didn’t want to do it.”
After nearly six months of talking, Stelios and Ms Marshall made plans to finally meet up. He said he would come to spend a week with Ms Marshall at her Blue Mountains home, prompting her to take time off work in anticipation.
There was just one thing he needed her to do before she got there.
“He asked me to do this [sexually explicit] video and dress up for him,” Ms Marshall said. “Immediately I said no because I didn’t want to do it – I didn’t feel comfortable.”
In response, Stelios said he wouldn’t see Ms Marshall unless she sent him the video, claiming he was waiting at a McDonald’s near her house.
“In the moment I was like I’ll just quickly go and do [the video],” Ms Marshall said.
As soon as Ms Marshall sent the video, Stelios cut off all contact with her, deactivating his Facebook account.
Devastated she had been ghosted, Ms Marshall sought solace from a friend, who suggested they do a reverse image search of the photos of Stelios.
They discovered countless Facebook profiles with similar names using the same images, which actually were of famous Greek singer Konstantinos Argiros.
Konstantinos Argiros the famous Greek Singer does not know Ms Marshall and was not involved in any way with catfishing her. In fact, he is one of Greece's best-selling Greek artists of his generation and is well known by the Greek Diaspora.
Finding that she had not only been ghosted but also catfished left Ms Marshall feeling suicidal and she sought help from a nurse at her GP clinic.
The now-26-year-old finds it difficult to date and has trouble trusting people really are who they say they are online.
Watch Torrie’s full interview on SBS Insight this Tuesday at 8.30 pm or stream on SBS ON Demand.
