Grieving mum’s identity stolen
Grieving single mum and cancer widow Janelle Brunton-Rennie was ‘‘violated’’ by a fake Instagram account that stole her photos and bio.
Brunton-Rennie has been open with her 9000 Instagram followers about raising 2-yearold Sage alone since her husband, Kurt’s, death in January last year.
But she’s been forced to rethink her social media presence after her photos and bio were lifted and used in a ‘‘catfishing’’ scam.
‘‘It was quite shocking to see someone using my photos, but the thing that was really upsetting was that somebody else was trying to use my tragedy to further themselves,’’ she said.
The fake account, whose Instagram name is ‘‘Susan Taylor’’ and goes by the handle @sus_antaylor, had a photo lifted from Brunton-Rennie’s own feed as its profile picture and had copied elements of her story into its bio.
The private account had 273 followers. It was unclear how long it had been active for.
Brunton-Rennie was alerted to the impersonation yesterday by one of her own followers, who had received a message from the fake account.
It appeared to be ‘‘catfishing’’, or carrying out some kind of scam using a fake story.
‘‘I feel violated mostly through the use of my tragedy that I live,’’ said Brunton-Rennie.
‘‘Someone thinking that makes a good dating story is pretty heartbreaking.’’
Brunton-Rennie’s husband, Kurt Brunton, died on January 7, last year, of blood cancer Diffuse Large B-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. He travelled to the US for experimental treatment but it was unsuccessful.
At the time of his death the couple’s daughter, Sage, was just 16 months old.
Since Brunton’s death, Brunton-Rennie’s ‘‘Instagram community’’ had been one of her most important coping tools.
‘‘Grief is so consuming and tiring that I really have spent a lot of time at home by myself and with my daughter and I haven’t been in a position to go out a lot and get support externally so the community that I have on Instagram has been unbelievably supportive from my own home.’’
She regularly shares photos of herself and Sage, along with honest and often raw posts about grief.
But the incident made Brunton-Rennie realise how vul
nerable that made her.
‘‘When we choose to share content and images online we are no longer able to control the use of those content and images the way that we would like to and it’s a risk that we all take. (This was) a good reminder of that.’’
She chose to have a public account so that others going through a tragedy could easily find and connect with her, but: ‘‘Does it make me rethink that? Yes, it does.’’
Once informed of the fake account, Brunton-Rennie reported it to Instagram. She also took a screenshot and posted it on her stories along with an appeal to her followers to do the same, about 100 of whom did.
Instagram says it ‘‘does not tolerate impersonation in any way and (takes) action against accounts that impersonate other people.’’
In this instance, the account was swiftly changed with a new profile picture of a bikini-clad torso and a bio that simply reads ‘‘i love jesus’’ (sic) but because it is private, Brunton-Rennie was unable to contact the user directly. Had she been able to, however, she said she wouldn’t have said anything ‘‘nasty.’’
‘‘Truthfully I think it’s probably someone very lonely,’’ she said. ‘‘I don’t think it was malicious.
‘‘I feel sorry for someone who could be that lonely and behave that way.’’