A 35-year old Maine blogger warns others after she finds social media accounts that have stolen her family’s photos – including photos of her children. Meredith Steele is a 35-year-old mother of two who lives in Portland, Maine and she no longer shares photos of her children online – warning others to do the same.
It all started back in 2021 when Steele was out to dinner with her family and posted a picture of her family at the restaurant – tagging the restaurant in the post. Just minutes later, the waitress saw the photo on her phone – not once – but twice. Come to find out, an imposter account was stealing her photos and sharing them as their own. The imposter account had over 30 photos of her family.
She has over 157,000 Instagram followers and over 922,000 followers on her TikTok account – and often times shares photos of her family, including her children. Steele has since changed her attitude about sharing photos of her children.
Often times, thieves across the globe will steal an online social media users images, name and likelihood of their life – in order to perform scams on innocent victims.
While this is incredibly disgusting, it does happen daily, all around the world. While most adults wouldn’t be happy that their photo’s are being stolen by criminals or catfish, many can deal with it as a part of the digital age. However, having your children’s photos stolen and claimed as someone else family – feels sinister – and as though a line has been crossed. (although many lines have been crossed when stealing anyone’s identity).
A good rule of thumb – don’t share any photos on social media that you wouldn’t want to get stolen!