Woman planned a trip with 'online friends'—only to discover their real identity all along

Relationships are built on mutual respect and, most importantly, trust among partners. But, many times, one can take the other for granted by breaking that trust, leading to irreversible consequences. The same happened to a woman after she found out that her boyfriend’s friend circle she had been chatting with for the last two years was, indeed, him only. The heartbroken girlfriend—who goes by u/Mindless_Tennis_4045 on Reddit—opened up about the recent sabbatical that shook the couple’s two-year romantic journey, turning it into a sad story.

In a widely circulating post, the woman claimed she was added to an Instagram group by her partner since they started dating in 2022. Before she joined the online private chat, it had three members, whom her boyfriend referred to as his closest friends. “The two other accounts seemed like real people because they had real followers and comments on their posts,” she explained on the platform, adding that the individuals had drastically different aesthetics. They all eventually signed up for a personal Discord server.

“This alone was convincing enough since multiple times we’d all be active at the same time,” the woman said, further explaining how she never heard her boyfriend’s so-called friends’ voices. “We never voice chatted, but I used to never voice chat either, so I didn’t think twice. The group got closer though as more and more time passed since I was first added to their group chat,” the girlfriend stated. Then, she revealed their plan to visit Hawaii for purely research purposes together last month. The plan prompted the couple, residing on the East Coast, to make their reservations. However, the woman then accidentally stumbled upon a strange find while she was at her partner’s place.

When the girlfriend tried to open Google Docs on her boyfriend’s laptop, she discovered some follower bot sites open. Her boyfriend was also logged in to one of his online friends’ accounts and was chatting with her. Despite getting a sinking feeling, she didn’t jump to the conclusion that his friends were fake. “I thought maybe he just had their logins since they’re all so close and was too interested in their messages. But then I noticed the only chats were group chats and the server, and the real kicker was that the email address it was signed up under was his backup email with his full name,” her post read. The woman admitted she continued snooping through her partner’s device until he got out of the shower and caught her.

"I’ve never seen his face so red; he absolutely panicked, shouting at me to get out of his business,” the post concluded. The woman, at a loss for words, decided to walk out of her boyfriend’s apartment while sobbing. She shared a screenshot of their message exchange the following day, showing the escalating argument. While she was seeking answers, her boyfriend was busy blaming her “volatile” upbringing. Several people from the online community jumped in to show their support for her, slamming her partner as untrustworthy.

Among them, u/danielric3 wrote, “I'm blown away that this is actually real, because what? How could someone do that to you, your partner of all people?” “He’s so insecure that he needed another angle into her life. He probably has trust issues and was prying for information by pretending to be a friend,” u/Concrete__Blonde opined. u/ora_wu remarked, “Girl, leave that man and know peace. Listen to/Watch the Sweet Bobby story and understand that this is not normal behavior.”