Scamming influencers and faking a pregnancy with Jack Harlow: Who is Sophia Nur?

Con artists seem to be having a moment lately. But a con artist's unravelling is what hooks people the most. 

First we had Anna Sorokin, who became a household name following the popular Netflix documentary Inventing Anna. It told the story of how she convinced New York's high society that she was a German socialite and wealthy heiress. She also scammed them out of millions of dollars. But then there was the major fall from grace, involving charges, convictions and time spent in custody.

She isn't the only woman who has duped the rich and powerful. Sophia Nur played a similar game, except her targets were some of the online world's biggest social media influencers. 

Watch: The Case Of Keli Lane. From Olympic Hopeful To Convicted Murderer. Post continues after the video. 

Nur reportedly swindled them out of more than $10 million, prompting the social media hashtag #survivingsophia to go viral. But it was this very hashtag that eventually led to her undoing.

Who is Sophia Nur and what did she do?

According to TikTok user King Asante, Sophia Nur positioned herself as a Toronto-based publicist, and for more than two years, used that role to scam "cash, credit cards, food and flights" from big-name influencers and YouTubers including Jeff Wittek, Rickey Thompson, Denzel Dion and Suzy Antonyan.

Nur convinced Wittek to hand over his credit card, after telling him she'd been robbed and left homeless. She convinced others that she and Wittek were living together. Dion was also scammed out of money, after footing the bill for a trip to Las Vegas. 

Like Sorokin, Nur used fake connections with celebrities to convince other big names to bring her into their inner circle, under the false belief she could get them into exclusive events and get hold of backstage passes. 

According to Assante, Nur said she was pregnant with rapper, Jack Harlow's baby - and people believed her.

Others believed she'd been sexually assaulted by Harlow, and that he was obsessed with her. She even conned her own cousin out of thousands. 

Nur said she was pregnant with rapper, Jack Harlow's baby. Image: Getty/Instagram.

#survivingsophia

Over time, Nur's so-called friends became suspicious, ultimately creating a Twitter space group called #survivingsophia, inviting a bunch of influencers to join. Turns out, Nur had plenty of victims, but having come from different social circles, few had put two and two together. 

Before long, influencers were coming out of the woodworks, sharing stories about being duped by Nur. 

One victim claimed Nur said her mother had passed away, requesting $4000 to cover the funeral.

Another victim met Nur at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where they 'bonded' before Nur claimed she'd been left stranded by her friends, and couldn't return home. The victim forked over $1000, followed by another $4000 for fake funeral expenses, having fallen for the same story about Nur's dead mother. 

Yet another person lamented buying a plane ticket and hotel stays for Nur, who promised to pay her back, but never did. 

A woman claiming to be Nur's cousin wrote on Twitter that she'd been waiting to tell the story of her deceitful cousin for more than two years, having been duped out of thousands of dollars. 

While no one likes a scammer, many Twitter users felt little sympathy for the influencers who were seemingly using Nur for her connections anyway. 

After #survivingsophia went viral, Nur's social media profiles were quickly removed. The situation was also spun into a story for Rolling Stone who featured it all, exposing the web of lies.

Despite the scamming though, many online appear to have little sympathy for those caught up in Nur's antics. But one of her victims wants people to know this.

"People just want to see the world burn. They want to see influencers and get their money taken because they feel influencers make money easily and they scam their fans, which is true in some situations," said YouTube Wittek to Rolling Stone. 

"She preyed on good people. She didn't prey on sh**ty influencers that are ripping people off."

Feature image: Instagram/@mtv_somali.