TWO teenage girls had their identities stolen and their photographs bandied around the internet.

Leah Gardiner, 19, received more than 100 messages from strangers after fake Instagram and Snapchat accounts were set up in her name with her picture.

Meanwhile Abi Chapman, also 19, had a fake Facebook account set up with her photos and sexually explicit messages were sent to men.

The Haywards Heath teenager only became aware her identity had been stolen when one of the men who had been contacted tracked her down and alerted her.

The two are the latest to become the victims of so-called Catfish profiles. The term was made popular by an MTV series of the same name. It means to lure someone into a relationship by adopting a fictional online persona.

Miss Gardiner, from Crawley, said she was “freaked out” after someone set up Instagram and Snapchat accounts with her details.

Not only did they use her name and photographs but they also gave out personal information to a number of men.

As a result she received more than 100 messages in just one day from strangers who claimed to have spoken to her.

Miss Gardiner said: “I asked one of them what was said about me and they said that they know I drive, that I work at Gatwick Airport and whereabouts in Crawley where I live. Which freaked me out.”

She contacted the police and the accounts have since been removed.

However, she is continuing to receive messages from strangers.

It comes after we reported last February the case of then 25-year-old Ruth Palmer.

The Brighton woman also had her online identity stolen and for more than three years social networking sites such as Instagram and Twitter were operating with her photos under the name Leah Palmer.