Copycatting to an extreme

What if someone copies everything you do down to a T?

Prominent Malaysian blogger Tey Cindy, who blogs at teycindy.com, had an experience recently where an overzealous fan copied her online posts to haunting detail.

Speaking to The New Paper on Sunday, Miss Tey, 27, alleges that she found herself being stalked by a female fan on Instagram.

The fan would post photos and updates that were uncannily similar.

For instance, when Miss Tey posted a photograph of herself with a red packet covering half her face on Instagram during Chinese New Year, her fan followed suit.

When the blogger uploaded a photo of her book and teddy bear, presto, a few weeks later, a similar update appeared on the fan's page.

When we contacted the fan about the allegations, Madam Yeap Wan Hoong said that she may have been a "little extreme" in her fan adulation but denies any wrongdoing.

She explains she is "going through a tough time".

"I just plainly admire her. But I took it to an extreme level and she took it (the wrong way)," she says.

"And because of this issue, I have to resign (from my job) and I will be migrating," she adds.

She declined further comment.

Ms Tey says she actually met Madam Yeap once, during a promotional event last year.

"She was with her husband. She seemed perfectly normal, like a loyal and happy fan," Miss Tey says.

Miss Tey - who was also the winner of the first season of the Malaysian Dreamgirl modelling competition back in 2008 - then accepted Madam Yeap's friend request on Facebook.

That, she alleges, was when things started to get strange.

Initially, she dismissed the too-similar posts. But she began to worry when Madam Yeap started following her friends on social media outlets.

"My friends then came up to me, saying that she had started following them and their boyfriends on social media. And that she asked them about me," Miss Tey.

The line had been crossed and Miss Tey decided to block Madam Yeap on Facebook.

The blogger alleges that her fan started using foul language (on her now defunct Twitter account) while addressing her by name.

"She said she hoped that I would be 'raped and murdered'," says Miss Tey.

There was also an anonymous phone call to her office in Kuala Lumpur, which turned out to be Madam Yeap trying to confirm Miss Tey's whereabouts.

Miss Tey made a police report on the same day in February.

"The next day, (Madam Yeap's) husband called me and promised to keep his wife in check. She also apologised on Twitter, asking me to retract the police report and saying that she would not stalk me anymore."

Last month, however, the stalking resumed.

This time, she used different names but when Miss Tey traced the various IP addresses, they all matched Madam Yeap's.

"I decided to reveal her actions on my blog because she did not keep her promise not to stalk me," Miss Tey says.

She wrote a detailed account of her experience and posted it on July 13.

Mr Daniel Koh, a psychologist at Insights Mind Centre, says that the fan may have done all that to get closer to Miss Tey.

"By doing the same thing (copying Miss Tey's social media posts), fans may feel a sense of connection towards the blogger," says the psychologist of 14 years.

On Madam Yeap's tweets directed at Miss Tey after Miss Tey blocked her on Facebook, Mr Koh says that when people get isolated or rejected, they can become angry or spiteful.

Miss Tey says that now, she takes extra precaution. For instance, she makes sure to check-in to a location on Foursquare only after she has left the place.

She also tries not to be alone in public.

"On the surface, I can ignore (the incident). But when I grab a coffee at work, I feel scared, because she knows where I work," says Miss Tey.

When fans cross the line

Local bloggers say they get such treatment too.

We checked with local bloggers on whether they have had similar experiences.

Blogger Ang Chiew Ting, 27 (above)

Popularly known as QiuQiu

bongqiuqiu.blogspot.com

She says she has had her fair share of people stalking her on social media.

Ms Ang says that there have been people who closely follow everything she updates.

"Some will leave rude and demeaning comments on my blog or Instagram but I always delete/block them (afterwards)," she says.

Ms Ang shares that she had a "persistent stalker" on her blog more than two years ago, when she was planning for her wedding.

"He/she kept leaving me comments about very personal details of my relationship with my then boyfriend (now husband). This person knew so many details that I felt quite creeped out, like he or she might know me, or know a personal friend of mine," says Ms Ang.

The incident made her feel vulnerable and scared.

She also says that there are people who have known her from long ago, such as primary school, secondary school or polytechnic, who have come online to share about how she was back then.

"I feel these people truly have no sense of privacy for others. It makes you feel that your whole life could be more exposed to the public than you think it already is," she says.

What has Ms Ang done to protect herself online?

"I have stopped sharing so much of my personal life online and I keep my personal circle of friends really close and small.

"I feel even though I'm someone who makes my living online, I have the right to filter what I want to show people and what I don't. If I do it right, there wouldn't be cases of creepy followers anymore. Even if there are, I will block them all," she says.

Blogger Wendy Cheng, 30,

Popularly known as Xiaxue

blog xiaxue.blogspot.com

She says that there have been times where people have followed her dress styles online.

The mother of one says that they've only copied her once or twice, and that these people were not persistent.

She shares that she received a threat a few months ago from an anonymous person on Instagram.

"The person said that he'd kill my son. He said it many times in the same day," she says, adding that she blocked him after that. Ms Cheng also says that she had been harassed on the phone via SMS.

"There was this guy who found my phone number and called me a b****. The person also said some incoherent things," she says.

She has received "prank calls" and says they were just a result of "over-zealous readers who overstepped their boundaries and come into (her) real life".

Ms Cheng adds that because she lives next to a secondary school, there was once where students waited for her at the foot of her block.

"I live on the second storey and they yelled at me from the first storey," she says.

This article was first published on August 3, 2014.
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