Gabriella Cevallos's private world has become very public, simply because she uploaded photos of herself to Facebook.
“I had one of the pictures as my profile image, and I had a complete stranger inbox me saying they had seen my images being used on a website. I asked them for the link of the website, and then I realised it was an escorting website,” Cevallos said.
More stories from Today TonightThe bikini model and TV presenter had a major identity crisis on her hands. Without any knowledge, her pictures were copied off her Facebook page and used on several adult websites.
There's no mistaking who it is, and the photos on the adult website and Cevallos's Facebook page are identical. You can imagine how quickly word spread within her circle of friends, colleagues and people at the gym.
“It’s horrible - the truth is you wouldn't want this happening to anyone - any woman. It's the worst. I couldn't think of anything worse than calling a woman a prostitute - there is no other word that is worse than that,” she said.
More stories from reporter David EcclestonUnbeknownst to Cevallos, there was an even more upsetting sting in the tail, waiting to be uncovered. The identity theft perpetrator wasn't a faceless cyber company, simply profiteering off her image, it was much closer to home. It came from her once best friend, in the ultimate betrayal.
“I feel she is purposely trying to tarnish my reputation. She's purposely using it for her advantage, in terms of financial gain, and at the same time for people to think that it's me that’s doing that.”
Cevallos has been trying to stop the illegal use of her photos since July 2010. Back then, the owners of Cevallos’s photos, Harlem Productions, who didn't give any website consent to use the images, wrote to the escort company demanding their removal.
The agency apologised and took them down instantly. Her former friend, using the name Cartier Klein then went even further, writing a personal apology to the photo agency.
Yahoo!7 Technology: How to identify fake Facebook accounts“Dear Duncan,
It is true when they say Karma rears themselves when you are deceitful and dishonest.
In this case it has happened to me and taught me a scary lesson and one to remember and never to repeat!
It has left me feeling disgusted and upset. This will never happen again.
My sincerest apologies,
Cartier Klein”
It was all a fudge, and as quickly as they were removed, the exact same photos resurfaced - this time on several different websites.
“She uses the same description, but changes the alias name. This is the most recent website, but for all I know there could be ten. It's the same images that are being used, and the same description being used, so it's definitely the same person.”
Cevallos fears she's missing out on modelling work, and her TV presenting prospects, by the unwanted association to the adult industry.
Until tonight, she has kept the drama to a select group of friends, not even telling her parents for fear of embarrassment.After seeing the images of her daughter for the first time, Cevallos’s mum was distraught. “How can I tell everyone that my daughter is not an escort? It is very sad and very disturbing,” she said.
Close friend and fellow model Tina Wallman knows the impact of this sinister smear campaign.
“It’s hard. She's really upset about it, and you know just to see her go through that, and to hear people say things about her - nobody wants that to happen to them, and it can easily happen,” Wallman said.
“It’s happened to me. I've had girls use my photo on a website like that, so I've been through it, and it hurts.”According to Cevallos’s lawyer Stephen Alexander, his client has a number of options.
“Firstly she could engage a private investigator to track this person down, and obviously with what the private investigator obtains, she could take it to a further stage - whether seeking an injunction, or to have criminal charges.
“Taking civil action yourself in the supreme court, to seek an injunction, would cost many thousands of dollars. It would be a very expensive investment and process to follow, and there could be 50 websites she could be on, so she'd have to have an injunction for each and every one of those.”Cevallos had the idea to book the person purporting to be her on these websites, and to confront the girl who turns up, in a last ditch attempt to end the ordeal and clear her name.
“I can go around and tell everyone that I'm not an escort, but there's no proof, so the whole point of coming to Today Tonight is to prove that in fact I am not involved in that industry,” she said.
When the showdown occurred, Cevallos identified the girl as her former best friend, going under the alias of Lorena Aston.
“I'm actually really upset, because she actually used to be my best friend,” Cevallos said. “I don't know why she did it to me, and it really didn't need to come to this. She didn't have to use my images, and she could have kept doing what she was doing, without anyone knowing, but because she did this to me, this is why it happened.”Last year one in six Australians had their personal information hacked, and almost 60 per cent of ID theft happened over the net.
This year security experts predict the problem to become significantly more of a headache. The reason is simple. Thanks to social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, where millions of Australians plaster pictures and personal information, birthdays, addresses, for everyone to see, it’s all there for the taking.I.T. security expert Michael Lee no longer uses Facebook himself, because he has lost faith in the security tools with social network sites. He says it's too easy to duplicate someone's profile and pretend to be them to gain personal information from friends.
“There's nothing really preventing someone going to someone's Facebook page, and right-clicking on an image. You don't need a degree, you don't need any high expert knowledge to do that. It's extremely easy to do - anyone who is intent on stealing someone’s information can do it,” Lee said.
“That's the scary thing. Once you get into one friend, you have all this information. You get into one account, and that opens doors to other accounts. So all you really need to do is hack into one account, and all of these other accounts can be hacked into because you have all this personal information - they had trusted that friend.”
“I think you have to be realistic and accept and understand that there's no such thing as a private picture, or a private communication, that goes on the internet,” Alexander said. “And if you do accept that, before you do something, I think you'll be more responsible in what you do, because one day you might end up regretting what you did five or ten years ago.”
Cevallos hopes this story restores her shattered reputation, and sends a message to everyone who uses social network sites.
“It can happen to anyone, and you wouldn't even know it. You need to be more aware of what images you are uploading to Facebook. I'm sure people like myself never go onto escort websites to see if their images are there, you just need to be more careful of what you're doing in your images,” she said.
“I wouldn't wish this upon anyone. People need to know this is happening.”
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