Woman almost agreed to meet charming 'Engineer' she'd been video-calling for months. Then a mutual friend from his alternate Facebook exposed his scam

Online relationships can feel just as real as in-person ones, but sometimes, the individual on the other side of the screen is not who they claim to be. Sassybil (@sassysluck), a woman from Memphis, shared her experience from years ago when Ahmed, a random Egyptian engineer, added her on Facebook (FB). After months of video calling and talking, he said he wanted to meet her. But when she saw they had a mutual friend on the platform, her curiosity got the best of her, and thankfully, that led her to his ugly truth. The video was shared on July 2, 2026, and since then, it has received 95,000 views on TikTok. 

The investigation

For context, Sassybil could not see any details about him on his original FB account. After getting to know him for a while, she thought he was sweet. But because their conversation kept circling back to marriage, she had to stop talking to him. Sassybil knew it would not work because he lived quite far from her. For context, she lived in the U.S., and Ahmed was working in Kuwait. After distancing herself for months, Sassybil received a message from Ahmed proposing to meet her soon. Uncomfortable with his suggestion, the woman blocked him. However, right before she did, she saw he had three accounts and noticed a mutual friend (Sassybil's schoolmate) on one of them.

The shocking truth

Without wasting time, Sassybil began investigating. It turns out Sarah (her mutual friend) was catfished by an engineer named Ahmed. To get more details, Sassybil reached out to her almost immediately. The story got even more interesting when Sarah told her that Ahmed was talking to her friend, Reem, and had promised to meet her in NYC. Moreover, he had lied about paying all expenses for Reem to meet him.

Ahmed had apparently lied to Reem, bought her a cheap bus ticket, and made her stay overnight at the station. In fact, things were so bad that she didn't even have any money for food or accommodation and had to reach out to Sarah. Moreover, when Reem was finally supposed to meet Ahmed, he even asked her to pay for an Uber. When she told him her financial situation, he began calling her a liar and a catfish. Later on, after the man calmed down, Reem asked for her Airbnb details but found out he planned for them to stay together. She immediately refused, and when Ahmed failed to convince her he was a "good guy," he began verbally abusing her. A day later, Sarah met him to convince him to pay for Reem's trip back, but he told her to pay for it herself. Sarah described him as standoffish, rude, and just a foul person in general. 

Plenty of catfish in the sea

Ever since social networking came into being, more people have reported being catfished by people they met online. A 2021 YouGov survey revealed that 9% of respondents were directly catfished, 7% reported a family member being catfished, and 8% revealed their close friends were catfished. Luckily, on the other side, more than half (63%) reported they had never experienced catfishing firsthand. Similarly, in 2026, Casino.org surveyed Americans and found that Tinder (43%) was one of the main platforms where people got catfished, followed by Instagram/Snapchat (40%), Facebook Dating (19%), Plenty of Fish (16%), and Bumble (16%).

Dodged a bullet

People in the comment section expressed how much they loved Sassybil's storytelling, but moreover, they were glad she dodged a bullet. @honeydall commented, "I feel for your friend, but I can’t fathom why she would travel so far away with no money or backup plan in case it didn’t work out?" @ashleygailmayberry wrote, "I’m so happy you got out. The very first red flag was him calling you anyway after you said, 'No, thanks.'"

You can follow Sassybil (@sassysluck) on TikTok for more lifestyle content.

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