Internet Sleuths Question Aussie Insta-Star’s Utterly Ridic Copycat Tale

SOUND THE SOCIAL MEDIA DRAMA HORN.

The immensely viral story of an Aussie travel Instagrammer discovering a globe-trotting copycat has been called into disrepute by a gang of self-confessed cyber sleuths. 

ICYMI, Lauren Bullen of @gypsea_lust issued a blog post last week, in which she recounted discovering another Insta user mimicking many of her shots. 

In the post, entitled Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Bullen compared screenshots of her photos and shots from the alleged impostor @diana_alexa. Bullen pointed out the second account had even copied her outfits: 
via Gypsea Lust Photo.
via Gypsea Lust Photo.

via Gypsea Lust Photo.

Since Bullen’s story went global – and after she gained a cool 200,000 followers – a few skeptics have questioned the veracity of those copycat images. 
They reckon it’s a lil’ farfetched someone would stump up the resources to schlep around the planet for the sole purpose of copying another microblogger, and they’ve also provided some pretty interesting ‘evidence’ to back up their claims the two accounts are more closely related than Bullen claims. 

User Myther on the Pretty Ugly Little Liar forums has assembled a timeline of oddities within Bullen’s story. According to Myther, a Google search for ‘gypsea_lust’ and ‘diana_alexa’ revealed Bullen’s email address in the profile section of an archived Twitter account – under the @dianaalexas moniker:

via Pretty Ugly Little Liar.
Of course, the implication there is that Bullen may have run an account bearing Diana’s name at some point in the past. Myther then commented with her Googled findings on Bullen’s original blog post:
via Pretty Ugly Little Liar.
via Pretty Ugly Little Liar.

Bullen’s claim in itself seemed dubious. Then, the @dianaalexas Twitter account allegedly entered ‘protected’ (read: private) status.
The sleuth didn’t buy Bullen’s explanation, asking other forum members “why would she respond so defensively and forcefully in her insistance (sic) that her email address and handles had never appeared on the Twitter account, rather than be intrigued?”

An update to the original blog post drew more suspicions, courtesy of how keen Bullen seemed for the issue to disappear. She wrote “[Diana] is of no threat to me or anyone else & she has agreed that is (sic) was over the line.” 
She also implied that everyone kinda, sorta, maybe needs to bloody drop it. 

“We are all human beings- we all make mistakes and its (sic) time the world moves on from this story, so we can all get on with our lives, learn a few lessons.”
Then, that updated blog post was deleted. It appears to have been reinstated shortly after, but yep, it’s definitely gone again now.
When Business Insider reached out to Bullen regarding the matter, she denied creating the copycat hoax, but BI have yet to uncover any other accounts run by ‘Diana.’ 

So, either Bullen’s claims are utterly authentic, she did have an international mimic, and she did make peace with ’em… Or, she may have once run an account under the ‘Diana’ pseudonym, before enlisting a globe-trotting mate into some kind of elaborate, bizarre and well-orchestrated hoax.

We’re a lil’ unsure of which possibility is weirder, tbh. We’ll keep you posted.

Source: Pretty Little Ugly Liar.
Photo: Gypsea Lust Photo.

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