Doppelgangers: most people would assume that these entities are merely figments of man’s imagination. But the truth is, they do exist, just not in the form most people think they do. One woman had to find this out the hard way when she discovered that she had an online doppelganger. Someone had stolen her identity through Facebook and she remained unaware of it for four years until recent events prompted her to dig deeper.

Jenna Moreton, 23 years old, got her first stirrings of doubt when she received an email from a stranger on Facebook. The man told her to contact Kurt Brizzolara, a friend of his, because this Kurt apparently had some information about her.

Curious, Jenna went on to contact Brizzorala, who then informed her that someone named Christine in New York had been taking her pictures on Facebook and posting them on MySpace as her own under the name of Kelsey Cute.

Kurt, as it turned out, was “Kelsey’s” on and off boyfriend for four years. They had never really met in real life which was why he had also been unaware that he had been in a relationship with an identity thief.

Kurt found out about the deception only when Kelsey stopped contacting him. He tried to contact Kelsey again, only to receive no replies. He then decided to Google Kelsey’s number only to have it linked to Christine who, as Kelsey said, was her ‘roommate’. Kurt knew about Christine because he had to use Christine’s mailbox whenever he sent Kelsey gifts. Suspicious, he went on to check out Christine’s profile and he found out that Christine had exactly the same interests and hobbies that Kelsey said she had. Putting two and two together, he sent Christine a message saying that the gig was up and he knew the truth.

Christine confessed, saying that the whole thing had started out because she created an account to spy on an ex boyfriend but had gotten carried away with the whole thing and carried on the ruse even after they broke up. It wasn’t long before she met Kurt.

Christine stopped contacting him because Jenna had unfriended her a few months prior because she was cleaning up her Facebook friend list. Jenna had accepted a friend request from a stranger – Christine years back. Without the pictures, it was impossible for Christine to keep up with the charade.

Jenna contacted her and Christine profusely apologized, claiming that she had been going through some family problems and using her ‘Kelsey’ identity had been some sort of escapism.

Jenna was somewhat flattered by the whole incident, but her others found her experience fascinating and weird.