Catfishes | Latest7 Column
Holly Would:
Be careful on social media! Catfishes are everywhere…
My friend Abi received a message on Facebook last week from a boy that she didn’t know.
The message said: “Hi, this might seem a bit random. But I was speaking to a girl online for a few months and it turns out that it was an imposter pretending to be somebody else.
They have a whole profile set up but they were using your photographs.”
So a random stranger, or possibly somebody that she knew, had set up a Facebook page under a false name and was using Abi’s photographs to talk to boys.
This type of thing might sound unlikely or like a plot taken straight from an episode of the MTV series: Catfish, but it is actually quite common.
For those of you that don’t know what a Catfish is, it is ‘to lure (someone) into a relationship by adopting a fictional online persona’ which is exactly what this person was trying to do with Abi’s photographs.
It’s such a weird thing to have happen to you and understandably Abi had been completely shaken up by the whole situation.
Luckily nothing bad came of this strange incident and the fake profile has since been deleted but Abi said: “I’m still a bit uneasy about the fact somebody was watching me. They took my photographs and went through all that effort to make a profile; I just can’t understand it to be honest.”
What’s more disturbing about this is that this person also sent explicit photographs, that weren’t of Abi, to the boy claiming that they was her.
She added: “It is just all so weird and seedy. If somebody wants to send and receive photos like that then can they please do so without using my face.”
Similarly, within the last week, my friend Leah had her photographs taken by an imposter in order to Catfish people through an Instagram account.
Alarmingly, this imposter was giving out personal information to men about where Leah worked and lived which led to her receiving many messages from strange people.
From 4pm to 1am last Sunday, Leah had received over 100 messages from strangers claiming that they had been speaking to her on Instagram.
On this occasion the Catfish clearly knew quite a lot about Leah so they either knew her personally or they were at least friends with her on Facebook in order to access her information.
Leah contacted the Police and the account was soon removed but she is continuing to receive some strange messages.
Catfishing is clearly the work of disturbed individuals but it’s quite scary to think that there might be enough information about you online for this type of thing to happen.
I’m always quite careful with making sure that anybody who sends me a friend request, I have met personally and I always keep my privacy settings high.
But I think that this is something that more people should be doing in order to protect their identities.
Social media is such an incredible tool for contacting people but when it’s left to the wrong hands it can be very scary indeed.
CelebCity:
DJ Fatboy Slim and crime writer Peter James were among the guests at the Snow Dogs, Martlets Hospice event in Brighton.
The charity art project is set to have 50 individually designed sculptures of popular cartoon canine around the city's streets September to November next year.
A business, organisation or an individual will sponsor each sculpture. The aim is to raise money for the Martlets Hospice in Hove, which cares for people nearing the end of their lives.
We can’t wait to see what designs are thought up.
Gogglebox star Stephen Webb announces his engagement to boyfriend Daniel Lustig on Twitter after he was proposed to in India. Stephen told the Sun: “"It was all so romantic, the best day of my life!”
Internet Stalkers Stole Our Identities | Front Page
TWO teenage girls had their identities stolen and their photographs bandied around the internet.
Leah Gardiner, 19, received more than 100 messages from strangers after fake Instagram and Snapchat accounts were set up in her name with her picture.
Meanwhile Abi Chapman, also 19, had a fake Facebook account set up with her photos and sexually explicit messages were sent to men.
The Haywards Heath teenager only became aware her identity had been stolen when one of the men who had been contacted tracked her down and alerted her.
The two are the latest to become the victims of so-called Catfish profiles.
The term was made popular by an MTV series of the same name. It means to lure someone into a relationship by adopting a fictional online persona.
Miss Gardiner, from Crawley, said she was “freaked out” after someone set up Instagram and Snapchat accounts with her details.
Not only did they use her name and photographs but they also gave out personal information to a number of men.
As a result she received more than 100 messages in just one day from strangers who claimed to have spoken to her.
Miss Gardiner said: “I asked one of them what was said about me and they said that they know I drive, that I work at Gatwick Airport and whereabouts in Crawley where I live. Which freaked me out.”
She contacted the police and the accounts have since been removed.
However, she is continuing to receive messages from strangers.
It comes after we reported last February the case of then 25-year-old Ruth Palmer.
The Brighton woman also had her online identity stolen and for more than three years social networking sites such as Instagram and Twitter were operating with her photos under the name Leah Palmer.
A Student who had her online stolen is warning others after sexually explicit messages were sent to men.
Abi Chapman, 19, had photographs taken from her Facebook page which were used for a fake account under the name of Skyla-Rae Gardener.
Whoever was operating the account then contacted men with sexually explicit messages.
She said: "It's scary too think who is watching you.
"I still can't quite believe that somebody went through all that effort to make a profile, and several others so that it looked like they had friends, just to talk to boys.
"It is just all so weird and seedy. If somebody wants to send and receive explicit photos, then can they please do so without using my face."
The teenager from Haywards Heath had no idea her identity had been stolen until she received a message from a man who had been contacted by the person operating the Skyla-Rae Gardener profile.
In his message to Miss Chapman, he said: "Hi, this might seem a bit random. But I was speaking to a girl online for a few months and it turns out that it was an imposter pretending to be somebody else.
"They have a whole profile set up but they were using your photographs."
"I'm not sure how this people got all of my photographs, unless maybe it was somebody I am friends with online.
"I'll definitely be very careful with who I accept on to my page in the future.
The profile has now been deleted.
Background: Catfish is the name of an American reality- based docu-series that is on MTV.
It explores the truths and lies of online dating and has had four series so far.
Given the subject of the show, the title has come to mean a person who creates fake profiles on social media sites using someone else's pictures and false information to pretend to be someone other than themselves.
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Mayor of Brighton & Hove Visits Portslade Cat Shelter
For years, one man has led a charity helping to rehome thousands of cats.
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Lady Colin Campbell Feature
Worthing's newest aristocratic resident Lady Colin Campbell is starting the new year with the task of restoring her new home, Castle Goring in Worthing.
The Jamaica-born eccentric, 66, revealed that she had bought the rundown Grade I listed building when she entered the Australian jungle in November as one of the contestants in the ITV reality TV show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
"I was obviously the grandest person in the camp. We know that the British public are obsessed with class," she said after quitting the show early following clashes with fellow contestants Tony Hadley, the Spandau Ballet singer, and Dragon's Den star Duncan Bannatyne.
"There is no prospect of me ever having Tony r Duncan in my life in any way, shape or form," she said.
"They have earned my disregard... They will have to live with it."
As the start of the series, which ran during November and December, Lady C, as she became known, told viewers there were two reasons she had entered the jungle: to lose weight and to pay for a roof for the castle she bought for £700,000 in 2013.
It's thought I'm A Celebrity contestants are paid six-figure-sums to take part in the series.
The 18th-century castle, which sits south of the A27 on the outskirts of Worthing within the South Downs National Park, is in need of £2 million worth of repairs.
It is on English Heritage's list of neglected building, which describes it as "a fragile gem of a country house [that] now urgently requires major repairs".
The roof work alone is thought to cost £50,000 after thieves stole lead from it in 2012.
Designed by John Rebecca for Sir Bysshe Shelley, the grandfather of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and built in the 1970s, it has famously been home to novelist Mary Shelley and a Navy vice-admiral among others.
Inside, the country home has at least six bedrooms, inter-connecting reception rooms, a card room with leather wallpaper and a refurbished owner's apartment at the top complete with a kitchen, dining room, two bedrooms and a living room.
It's believed there is a glass dome above a spiral staircase described as "magnificent".
In 2013, at the time of the dale to Lady C, previous owner Clement Somerset refused to comment, but recently told The Argus newspaper: "It's been in our family for 200 years, so we were caretakers of it.
"I suppose, for that time and now Lady Campbell is the occupier.
"It was lived in up until the war, then it was requisitioned before it was turned into a language school."
When asked why he sold it, he replied: "Why do you think?", referring to the extent of the building work the property requires.
Lady C, a writer who published books about Princess Diana's affair with James Hewitt, was at the heart of many key moments in I'm A Celebrity: she was involved in explosive rows and was voted to do many bushtucker trials whilst always wearing her pearls.
She was one one of three Sussex contestants in the jungle, alongside the former boxer Chris Eubank, of Hove, and What Not To Wear presenter Susannah Constantine, who lives on a £5 million estate in Sussex.
Boy George Feature
Flamboyant and androgynous, 80s pop star Boy George is instantly recognisable.
And as his band Culture Club made a recent comeback and the singer debuts as a new judge on the BBC’s talent contest The Voice this month, the man behind the band’s new image is Worthing photographer Dean Stockings.
He has become Boy George’s first port of call whenever a new video or photo shoot is needed ever since he took magazine cover photographs featuring Boy George in 2010.
So it was no surprise when Dean was commissioned to take shots of Culture Club as the original band members reformed to record their new album Tribes, set for release in early 2016.
Dean says, “George loved the way I made him look. He’s very down to earth and ‘ordinary’ in his everyday life and he doesn’t come across as a ‘star’ at all - until he puts on a bit of eye shadow and one of his famous hats!”
And Boy George says, “Dean is great photographer, collaborator and friend and we have so much fun working together. I hate him!"
Boy George, real name George O’Dowd, joins singers Paloma Faith, Will.i.am and Ricky Wilson in the red chairs on the new-look judging panel of the fifth series of The Voice. Hosted by Emma Willis and Marvin Humes, filming for the series began late last year.
He says, “I'm thrilled and excited to be a coach on The Voice UK. I'm a huge fan of the show and have watched and engaged with it from series one. If I can help someone to win, I will be delighted. What a wonderful opportunity to share my experiences and help someone move forward with their musical career. I can't wait to sit in that chair!”
Culture Club was one of the biggest pop bands of the 80s – and made instant headlines over Boy George’s androgynous image when the band appeared on Top of the Pops in 1982 with their first hit Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?
They followed up the huge No 1 hit with a series of Top 10 hits including Karma Chameleon, Time (Clock of the Heart) and Church of the Poison Mind, as well as albums including 1982’s Kissing to be Clever and Colour By Numbers in 1983. Cultuire Club was the first band since The Beatles to score three Top 10 hits from their debut album. In 1984, they won the Brit Award for Best British Group and have sold more than 50 million records.
“Culture Club is a living soap opera and at times I have to pinch myself because it is beyond madness,” Boy George said in 1999.
The band, reformed with the original line up of Mikey Craig, Roy Hay, Jon Moss and Boy George, have already received top reviews for their national tour and their new album is expected to be just as popular.
Dean says, “It was fantastic to be working so closely with people whose work I’d admired from afar since I was a teenager.”
He recalls being flown out to Ibiza as Boy George was on holiday there and wanted Dean to take photos for the cover of his 2013 solo album This is What I Do.
“I ended up spending 20 minutes shooting the album cover in the evening light on the terrace outside the villa and the rest of the week lounging on the beach or by the pool!
“I’ve always found George to be very sweet and generous - if he likes someone, he’ll go out of his way to help them. He’s lucky in that he can almost turn fame on and off. If he dresses down and wears some glasses and a baseball cap, he can go about his daily business without being noticed, but as soon as he puts on a bit of make-up and a hat, everyone instantly recognises him.”
Not only is Boy George a great performer but, according to Dean, he’s a keen photographer and film maker too, and they often work together on projects.
“We made videos together for some of his contacts in the music industry under the name Stockings & Suspense. We didn’t make much money - but we had a lot of fun!”
Dean was an A level photography student in Brighton who bluffed his way backstage at a music festival at Worthing Rugby Club with his portfolio in his hands and left with a commission from Toyah Willcox.
He has now shot over 300 magazine front covers and several videos, working with famous names such as singers Beverly Knight, Steve Strange and Samantha Fox, as well as comedian Julian Clary, guitarist Robert Fripp, actress Billie Piper and cage-fighting Celebrity Big Brother winner Alex Reid.
Recently, he has launched a new business called Marryoke, a play on the words ‘marry’ and ‘karaoke’, where he films music videos at weddings with the happy couple and their guests miming to a song.
He has already received enquiries from Turkey and Northern Ireland and his first Marryoke this year takes place in Virginia, USA. In June, he has been booked for the wedding of DJ Fat Tony, a friend of the model Kate Moss.
Dean explains, “Kate Moss is actually the wedding planner - so it should be a blast. There’ll be lots of celebrity guests too, including Marilyn and Naomi Campbell, so I’ll be getting as many as possible to take part!”
* For more information, visit www.idomarryoke.com and www.deanstockings.co.uk.
Why is Brighton a Foodie Hotspot?
From gourmet restaurants to top-notch street food Brighton is Hove is certainly making waves in the food scene.
So what makes our city such a foodie hotspot?
Here's Holly Keogh
Christmas Overeating | Latest7 Column
Holly Would:
Happy New Year!
Does everybody have their New Years resolutions planned out yet?
Mine is to try and accomplish a previously failed resolution.
One of these was to lose some weight, it’s been my resolution for the last three years and I haven’t quite managed it yet… Third time lucky, eh?
Did I overdo the eating this Christmas? Possibly. Do I regret it? Possibly.
My kitchen became an Aladdin’s cave of food during the festive period and the rest is a bit of a blur in all honesty.
It was no longer a question of what should I eat, but how much can I eat in one go.
I would be walking around the kitchen with a Quality Street in each cheek and an arm full of anything else that I could find.
I’d then amble towards the living room, snuggle up underneath a blanket and watch Christmas films with my family.
That was my routine and as you can tell it didn’t involve a lot of exercise.
Christmas day came and my Nan, sister, nephew, brother-in-law and cousin came to our house for Christmas lunch.
I’m pretty sure that I ate an entire Turkey.
I was an unstoppable eating machine.
It wasn’t my fault; my Mum is quite possibly the best cook in the world.
But now that the holidays are over I’m too afraid to jump on the scales and see just how much damage was done to my waistline.
If the tightness of my jeans is anything to go by, the damage was severe, but this year I’m determined to become one of those people that really enjoy exercise and healthy eating.
In the past, I have tried every crash diet going… That is probably the reason I never completed my New Years resolution: Crash diets do not work.
I tried protein shakes, no carbs, no dairy, no eating after 5pm, the 5:2 diet, the caveman diet, I even did a water fast (which was really stupid and you put any weight loss straight back on again, so don’t try it!)
I know that exercise and healthy eating is the only way to really lose weight, I guess I was just looking for a shortcut but there isn’t one.
Another one of my failed resolutions was to organise everything in my bedroom.
My bedroom is clean but it is not organised at all.
I hate throwing things away if they have a memory attached to them so most of the things in my room end up being stuffed into the drawers underneath my bed.
Opening these drawers is something that I like to keep to a minimum.
I can’t tell you exactly what’s in there, as I’m not 100% sure myself… All I know is that, at one point in my life, I decided everything in there was too important to throw away.
These drawers are the type of drawers that, once they’re opened, refuse to shut.
Years of “tidying my room” have been crammed into them, so much so that the slightest interference causes the whole of Narnia to come tumbling out onto the floor.
It’s mainly old school work, photographs and birthday cards.
As much as I want to sort out everything that’s under there, it will probably take weeks so maybe I’ll put that one off until next year…
CelebCity:
Cate Blanchett is moving to Brighton! After four years of living in London, the Australian actress is trading the city life in for a life by the sea.
Blanchett will live in an exclusive four-storey townhouse overlooking Brighton's marina with her husband, Andrew Upton, and Dashiell, their 18-month-old son.
She told the Evening Standard: “We're moving out of London for good. I suppose it's just the draw of the ocean for me.
"I'm an Aussie girl and get a bit worn down by enormous cities.
"Brighton is really quite a large place in Australian terms - like Sydney or Melbourne - and that's big enough for me."
Welcome to Brighton Cate!
Zoe Sugg and her boyfriend Alfie Deyes, AKA YouTube sensations Zoella and PointlessBlog, took to Twitter to ask for privacy after fans repeatedly turned up at their house for photo opportunities.
The couple, who live in a five bedroom mansion in Dyke Road Avenue, Brighton, have fans peering over their garden wall and posing for photographs beside their house number daily.
Sugg tweeted: “Really starting to lose my patience with people just turning up at our house and peering in or ringing our bell, makes me hate my house!”
Deyes added: “You cannot just drive to my house and climb our walls - that is really not fair.”
She's Still Got It! 85-Year-Old Beauty Queen
Now videos of the Miss Universe Competition went viral earlier this month as the wrong winner was crowned..
Well Latest TV's Holly Keogh has been speaking to one beauty queen who's never lost her crown....even at 85 years of age!
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