A woman whose photos were stolen to create the fake persona of 'Dr. Aisha' - a catfish Twitter account posing as a frontline doctor who died of COVID-19, is a medical student in South Africa, BOOM has found out.
Speaking to BOOM, the woman requesting anonymity said she only recently learnt that her photos were being used by a fake account. "I am getting calls asking if I am dead. Those photos are mine and were taken by someone who stalked my social media account and the accounts of my family," said the woman who is a final year medical student at the Mthatha campus of the Walter Sisulu University. The woman whose name is not Aisha, spoke to BOOM over texts and also sent us her college identification card as proof to show that it was indeed her photos used by the fake account.
On August 1, Twitter was filled with condolence messages for a Dr Aisha, after a handle shared photos of a woman highlighting her deteriorating health and misled netizens. Several verified handles including some journalists retweeted updates from the now deleted handle @Aisha_must_sayz and expressed their concern about how a COVID warrior contracted the virus and finally lost her life.
Real Medical Student's Photo Used To Peddle Fake Information That She Is Dead
The handle - @Aisha_must_says, tweeted multiple updates of the fake Dr Aisha's deteriorating health along with images of a woman on a hospital bed, to show her coping after testing positive for COVID-19. The account earlier claimed it was being run by Dr Aisha herself and then started posting updates claiming the account was being run by the non existent doctor's sister, since Dr Aisha was getting treatment and under isolation. The fake account even posted that Dr Aisha had succumbed to COVID-19, which led to another wave of tweets with people feeling sad for the loss of another doctor to the deadly virus.
But soon, the account started raising suspicions after people noticed that a photo tweeted by it claiming it shows Dr Aisha was actually a stock photo of patient getting dental anesthesia. Several people pointed out that the account is a catfish account. Catfish accounts are fake profiles on social platforms where someone pretends to be someone else; this is done by using someone else's pictures instead of their own.
The Timeline of Tweets By The Fake Account
An archived version of Dr Aisha's account shows that it was created in October 2019 and had 3,026 followers. The account which has since been deleted used six images of a real and alive Indian origin medical student from South Africa to falsely claim that she was a Dr Aisha. We take a look at some of its tweets.
Starting July 30, the impostor account started tweeting images of a woman on a hospital bed with claims that she had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and was "going to be hooked up to the ventilator".
Soon the tweet went viral with verified handles retweeting the update and calling attention to the loss of a young doctor. By August 2, Dr Aisha was trending on Twitter with journalists including Nidhi Razdan, Rana Ayyub also falling for the fake profile.
Razdan later deleted the tweet once she found that it is fake.
To leave a smile like that upon this earth and leave. That's what all our life's goal should be, no fear, no anger, no regrets when we go, just smile and love. Keep spreading that smile in heaven Dr Aisha.
— Sanjukta Basu (@sanjukta) August 2, 2020
After claiming that Dr Aisha had tested positive for COVID-19, the accout soon started posting about her death. It claimed that the ficticious Aisha's sister who was also a doctor - Dr Sarkar had taken over the account and said Aisha had died, due to 'underlying conditions of Asthma, upper respiratory complications and hypertension.'
Later in the day, Dr Sarkar, the alleged sister of the fictional Dr Aisha shared photographs of a woman and said that the family received her body in a "sealed coffin" and that upon her request, all of Dr Aisha's social media accounts would soon be deleted.
The tweet says, " A request from her should anything happen to inform her friends on social media. We were handed a sealed coffin due to the virus. I will be deleting all her social media accounts."
Fact-Check
BOOM first ascertained that all six photos tweeted by the account are the same person and using a facial recognition tool, confirmed the same. We then used visual clues and searches to trace the account to an actual medical student in South Africa, who speaking to us over text said that it was her in the photos and she was alive and well and not even infected with COVID-19
We first analysed all the photos and started looking for clues to help us the trace the person whose photos were being used claiming to be Dr Aisha. We noticed the logo 'WSU' on a selfie posted by the fake account and since the account had added its location as South Africa we searched for WSU + South Africa and found that the logo is of Walter Sisulu University in the country and the uniform in the photo is the one worn by students in the health sciences course.
We further ascertained that the woman is from South Africa by tracing the logo on a hospital pillow seen in one of the photos to a Life Health Care hospital with branches all over South Africa. Over email, Tanya Bennets of Life Health Care confirmed that the photo was from their hospital but said that associated narrative with it is "fake news".
Having confirmed that the woman was definitely a resident of South Africa we reached out to student communities on Facebook for the from the various WSU campuses in South Africa.
Student president of the Mthata campus of WSU, Siphesihle Ayanda Msomi, identified the student and also rubbished the fake narrative that the woman had tested COVID-19 positive and then died. Msomi said the woman in the photo is a final year Medical (MBChB) student in the Mthata campus of the university and was healthy and "alive".
The same was also corroborated by Nonceka Mabena, a teacher from the varsity.
'Getting calls asking if I am dead'
BOOM managed to get the contact of the said student who requested anonymity but confirmed that the images in the viral tweets were her. The woman had recently learnt about the fake account and was distressed. Speaking to BOOM, she said, "It was quite disturbing to know that someone would spread horrible and sick rumours about me. Someone has taken the photos from my personal social media accounts and the same for my family's accounts. This is an attempt to hurt me and settle personal scores,"
The student told us that the account even tweeted a video from her birthday, which she celebrated recently.
To confirm her identity, she sent us a photo of her student identification card issued by WSU. Upon her request, we have blurred her photo and name from the identification card.
The identity card confirms that the woman is a student of Bachelor of Medicine and surgery at the Mthatha campus of WSU.
The woman explained that the hospital photos are from when she was admitted for a recurring medical condition, which requires frequent hospitalization. Currently appearing for her examinations, the woman said the incident has left her scared and anxious.
"I have exams and here I am answering calls of people asking me if I am dead. This is bullying and no way to treat anyone," she said.
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