A scam too wonderful to believe!
Scamming is for sure an art, which is why those
who excel are called scam artists. And I thought
BeachGrit, Home to the Pro Surfer Jumbo Jet, was also Home
to Surfing’s Most Famous Scam Artist until yesterday.
You most certainly recall our Michael Kocher.
The war veteran who pretended to have brain cancer in order to get
money from you in order to buy drugs. A low-level scam to be sure
but amplified in when he later died in a police shootout while
maybe taking people hostage.
He was number one and I know that many people would argue Miki
Dora was way more famous than Michael Kocher and a bigger scam
artist and those people would be right except but let’s not get all
bogged down in “details” because yesterday it was revealed right here by
the Right Reverend channelbottom that an even BIGGER surfing scam
artist is prancing on the earth.
Let’s meet Brazil’s Eduardo Martins!
Eduardo Martins’ story was too perfect even for the world of
internet celebrity.
The 32-year-old from Brazil said he had been abused as a child
and beat leukaemia as a young adult.
But he had turned his life around and now worked as a UN
photographer whose experiences helped him connect with human
suffering in some of the world’s most dangerous conflict
zones.
His work appeared in reputable international outlets such as
Getty Images, The Wall Street Journal, Vice and BBC
Brasil.
In between trips to Mosul in Iraq, the Syrian city of Raqqa
under the control of so-called Islamic State (IS) and the Gaza
Strip, Eduardo Martins enjoyed surfing.
He shared glimpsed of his life with his almost 125,000
Instagram followers.
Until it all came crumbling down when a BBC Brasil
investigation found out that Eduardo Martins was a completely
fictitious character.
For years, someone using that name had been stealing
pictures taken by professional photographers who had risked their
lives in conflict to get them.
Eduardo Martins fooled journalists and picture editors by
making slight alterations to the images, such as inverting them,
just enough to elude software that scans pictures for
plagiarism.
As Eduardo Martins’ list of clients grew and became more
impressive, it became easier for him to distribute the next lot of
photos. He further boosted his profile by giving interviews to
websites and magazines.
“Once in Iraq shooting a conflict, I stopped shooting to
help a boy who was hit by a molotov cocktail, dropped the camera
and helped get him out of the conflict area,” he told Recount
Magazine in October 2016.
“In scenes like this, which are common in my work, I stop
being a photographer and become a human being. I cannot be
impartial in these moments.”
Fabricated identity
He kept his cover going by stealing images of Max
Hepworth-Povey, a British surfer, and photoshopping him into
pictures of war zones.
Mr Hepworth-Povey remained completely unaware of the fraud
until it was exposed.
“When a friend showed me the pictures, at first I thought it
was a joke, someone making fun of me,” he told BBC Brasil.
“But actually my pictures had been stolen. It is mad that a
random guy has decided to use my image amidst so many options on
the internet.”
The 32-year old from Cornwall said some of the images stolen
from him date back five years.
“I work very far from war zones, with surfing trips,” said Mr
Hepworth-Povey, who has been living and working in northern Spain
for the past three months.
“I don’t like the idea of creating an aura of glamour around
a country in conflict.”
Fraudster busted
Eduardo Martins’ career came to an end after he contacted
Natasha Ribeiro, a BBC Brasil contributor based in the Middle
East.
She became suspicious because neither she nor any others
among the small pool of Brazilian journalists working in the region
had ever met an Eduardo Martins in person.
So she started digging.
BBC Brasil got in touch with the UN, which confirmed he was
not employed by them.
Organisations that the fraudster claimed to have visited around
the world were also contacted and none of them recognised
him.
Mr Hepworth-Povey told BBC Brasil that back in 2014 he had
been contacted by someone identifying himself as “Bruno” who wanted
to talk to him about some work related to surfing.
But when the pair tried to have an online meeting, “his video
wasn’t working and eventually I said I was no longer interested”,
Mr Hepworth-Povey recalls.
The surfer says that a week later, a fake profile of his
appeared on Facebook, which led Mr Hepworth-Povey to close his
Facebook account. “It was all very creepy,” he said.
The timing coincides with the period that Eduardo Martins
started sending pictures to publications around the world.
It could also explain why editors contacting Eduardo Martins
via Skype would see a picture of the handsome surfer before the
connection allegedly dropped and the conversation with the fake
photographer moved to voice and text messages sent via messaging
service WhatsApp.
BBC Brasil has also been in contact with one of at least six
women, all young and professionally successful, who say they had
romantic online relationships with Eduardo Martins.
None of them has ever met him in person and they all have asked
to remain unidentified.
Once it was clear Eduardo Martins was a fake, BBC Brasil took
down a story it had published about him and issued an apology to
its readers, adding that the case “will help reinforce our
verification procedures”.
Oh the story goes on and on and on. Nobody knows who “Eduardo
Martins” really is and this makes him bigger and better than anyone
ever. Congrats “Eduardo!” But I still have lots of questions.
Primarily, if you were Mr. Hepworth-Povey from Cornwall wouldn’t
you be crazy hyped and thankful to “Eduardo” for taking your sissy
last name and making you an international war hunk?