Leah's accounts have all either been suspended, closed, or remain private. BuzzFeed News has had to reconstruct much of her online presence from traces and fragments. But her true identity remains unknown: Even when Sonja and Charlotte enlisted the help of a hacker with links to the hacktivist collective Anonymous, they were unable to track down the culprit.

The story may not be over. Ruth says she would “put money” on there still being fake accounts out there still using her images. And in any event, this particular case of catfishing is only an extreme of a practice that is much more widespread than people realise. Several people BuzzFeed News spoke to who have tried to track down Leah Palmer themselves admitted to having created a fake social media account at some point, using pictures of someone else, whether it was due to teenage boredom, curiosity, or vanity.

DJ Fenton Gee has a world-weary take on people pretending to be what they’re not online: “I think it comes with the job or whatever, but I believe everyone is fake until I meet them. This isn't the first time it's happened to me – she’s probably the third or fourth who’s done this.”

But that still leaves the question unanswered of what happens to the victims – both those fooled by the fakers and those whose identities are stolen.

“People have said it’s my fault because I put those pictures out there,” says Ruth. “And maybe it is. But aren't those social media sites there so you can do that [post pictures]? Shouldn’t they make it so you can do that securely?

“I get that if you put things on a public domain, they’re not yours; I get that completely. But why should it be the case that you put them on there and you have to be fearful that that they might get taken and used for this, that, and the other?"

Perhaps the real lesson is the simplest. Like Justin, we all have a tendency to see what we want to see and believe what we want to believe. Especially when it's accompanied by a beautiful face.