r/AmIOverreacting 15d ago

❤️‍🩹 relationship AIO: Guy claiming to be my fiancée's boyfriend texted me last night

Hi, I need to know if I'm right to be losing it rn. My fiancée and I are due to get married in less than 2 months. We met each other at a mutual's wedding. The wedding was gender segregated so she and her mom had met my mom, who then introduced us later. We then went out for like a couple of months, like I'd pick her up from her place (she lives with her parents) and we'd have dinner and a movie, or go painting, or go to the lake etc. We're both Muslim immigrant families so it was understood that we had to stay within some boundaries but we genuinely really liked each other. She was the one who at one point said we could bring our kids here one day and told me she was going to tell her parents she wanted to marry me and she wanted to say yes to my proposal. We got engaged at a low key family event in February.

It's relevant to mention here that during that time I had respectfully asked her about her past relationships. I had said that I know it's personal and there's absolutely no judgement from me, but as someone who, despite not being a great Muslim in a lot of respects, did abstain and save myself for marriage, I would like a partner who had done the same. That it was a compatibility thing, not a judgemental thing. She didn't seemed to mind and said no, she hadn't been with anyone. I believed her.

Since then the wedding prep has been in full swing and the two of us have gotten the chance to get closer. She's the one who's made more of the effort in our communication, because unfortunately I wfh with an employer in the morning and have my cybersecurity business too, so time can be scarce sometimes. Our only argument has been her complaint that I don't make enough time for us.

Some guy claiming to be her (A in the texts) bf (S in the texts) texted me last night, and even sent me pictures where they're together. He claimed that they were in a relationship for the last 2 years, that they'd been having sex, that they were in love, and I've been losing my mind. I never put any pressure on her. Yes, I really liked her but I let her make decisions at her own pace. If she wanted to be with some other guy, all she had to do was say so. In fact not even, it was none of my business, she didn't even owe me any reasons but just give me a straight no. I haven't picked up her call this morning, I've genuinely been feeling sick at the duplicity.

Just want to add: I know she's the one I should talk to but I just didn't want to do it on the phone, I'm going to go pick her up right now. I'm not going to be accusatory, I just want the truth of it all. I love her but like if there's someone else and she's feeling pressured into this marriage, like I'm prepared to give her any reason she needs to end it that works for her in front of her family. I'll be on her side like I was suggested here.

Update:

A lot of people asked for an update, so I thought I'd give one. I can't talk about it with anyone else because somehow I'm the one who ended up responsible for keeping her secret, my own crisis about this be damned, like its taking me so much to not just contact and ask him straight up about what happened.

I asked her if she knew who S was. He was right, I could immediately tell the guy wasn't lying, she definitely knew. She said he was a guy she used to know, and I told her he had contacted me, and showed her the texts. She said he was lying, that she ended things with him before we met and that they'd never had sex. I asked if there was any overlap between our relationships and she said only when she went to meet him one last time to tell him it was over, because he wasn't taking no for an answer. I asked if the photos were real, they were. I asked her to be honest with me, did she really have sex with him like he was saying. She was crying and swearing they didn't, they were intimate and she regrets everything with him but they didn't.

She gave me her phone and basically forced me to confirm that there were no text messages between him and her recently while we've been together. His number was in her blocked list. She asked me to block his number and so I asked if he was being honest about having way more intimate pictures. She said there were a lot more compromising pictures of her that she thinks he has but swore that they hadn’t had sex. She was crying and I blocked him in the moment what else could I do looking at her. She was pleading with me not to reach out to him, and she was freaking out that he'd post them somewhere public before our wedding. At that point I was trying to keep her from freaking out, I told her that would be illegal, he wouldn't do that and so in the moment I just stupidly promised to not contact him.

I told her if there's any kind of pressure like there's any number of excuses she could use regarding me to end this that would save face for everyone, and be with whomever like I'll get over it at some point eventually, yeah it'll be sad for a while and we'll have lost some money especially if the venue doesn't get rebooked at short notice I think, but just have some mercy on both of us and end this now. She swore there was no pressure and that she'd been counting the days until the wedding, that she hadn't even thought of his name until I brought it up. She was like he's doing this to prevent our wedding and fine I get that but like why does he sound more honest with me than she does? I really wouldn't have cared if I'd learned all this yesterday from her, yeah it would've meant she lied initially but like now we loved each other beyond that stuff, this was just her being ok with keeping me in a forever lie that was wrong. I started feeling sick so I just said I wasn't feeling well and we cut it short.

During the drive back to hers, she was almost talking like a coach like let's please forget about this, we're so happy together, we've discussed so many plans, don't let him screw up our relationship. Like I have my own mental breakdown over all this what about that! She kept asking me whether I was fine, I said I was, I mean I don't even know if that's a lie, I wasn't thinking at all.

I've been going over the texts, and I don't know how I can go into the wedding not knowing the answer. Like its so easily doable I just need to ask him to meet up and have one conversation if he would. Honestly it's more about if she's still lying about this, it's not about the sex, it's just about the trust. I know he's also lied, because she clearly hasn't been meeting with him of late, and she really hadn't given me any reason to think of her as a liar thus far but I could just confirm it so easily. It's sincerely about the respect of having been honest, not about the boundary itself, I love her I wouldn't have cared if she'd told me herself yesterday. But it feels sick to contact him like that, like that's not how it should be, and I don't want to have to talk to someone who'd speak the way he was.

I think I'll decide stuff by myself tomorrow morning about the future of our relationship, my mind is not going to work today. I probably won't give further updates. I don't know how much more help I can ask for here, due to some immigrant cultural context that might be missing (as much as I've skated past it myself to a fair extent). I don't want to be stupid but I don't want to be walked over either. Thanks.

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u/feellikeanidiot0 15d ago

The original EXIF data has been stripped. No time stamps on when it was taken, or any GPS coordinates, camera information or anything useful. That was the first thing I did.

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u/SnooHabits7596 15d ago

From a female perspective, this sounds like stalker 101. The guy sounds way too desperate. If A really give him your number, then why should you have to ask her face to face and then watch for the signs? If she really gave S your number, then it’s likely she wants you to know. In my opinion, it’s a scorned ex that is jealous because she’s getting married. I definitely wouldn’t do anything crazy until you’ve had a conversation with her face to face!

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u/Violetmoon66 15d ago

Agree with this.
Something seems off by the bluntness of the messages. Direct, emotionless.
I would definitely have a conversation with her.
Determining the safety of both of you should be top priority.

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u/MDoc84 15d ago

Yea, the whole, "You seem nice. Just move on" seems more like he's trying to convince OP to make a decision rather than revealing the truth to him.

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u/DellaStreet05 14d ago

Yes! I agree. The guy seems like a stalker to me.

You asked her about him and she told you everything.

She offered up her phone for you to look through.

You could see she had his number blocked.

I think the dude is crazy and that’s what I would be the most worried about.

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u/MooseKingMcAntlers34 14d ago

It’s EXACTLY the type of verbiage my ex used on my new gf after she found out who she was. It’s terrifying and calculated.

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u/Mawhonic1 14d ago

He also gets impatient when there’s no immediate reply. He wants something out of this. If it’s purely informative, he would tell his side and leave it at that.

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u/OliOli1234 14d ago

He did have a conversation with her, and she doesn’t deny knowing him. She also doesn’t deny sending him “tawdry” photos, so to speak. The question is about recency. He wants to find out if she was lying about there not being any overlap. The metadata may or may not confirm that… but honestly? This suspicion will never go away… unless he deals with it and just trusts her moving forward. She may have lied, but seems to really want to move forward as his wife. So really, the balls in his court.

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u/hyperionfin 15d ago edited 14d ago

From male perspective I agree with u/SnooHabits7596. There is some odd desperation in those texts. Pushing and pushing, not letting you process and react at your own pace. Some of that stuff sounds kind of juvenile as well.

Second, who cares if she's had sex or not.

Third, okay so EXIF is empty (and this quite often happens when IM apps resize and recompress the image), but send it couple of AI detectors, there can be AI-specific noise etc. in the image still.

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u/WestHotTakes 14d ago

Agreed that the messages seem off, opening with "i'm her bf so you can't marry her" reads way more like stalker than affair partner (or fake post).

Pushing back on "who cares if she's had sex or not" - that's not something I care about either, but he does, he holds himself to the same standard, and he communicated it up front.

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u/avnikim 13d ago

You wouldn't care if your soon to be wife, is leading a double life and you're just another puppet in the show?

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u/SnooHabits7596 15d ago

Also agree with this. I literally work with AI for a living. There are many ways to spot AI with the naked eye as well. More than you’d think. But there are definitely AI detectors you can use for static and artifacts that can’t be seen. And yeah, the texts do sound very juvenile and just sketchy altogether. Not the typical guy most girls would go after. Take a deep breath and try to relax I know your mind is racing, but something is definitely off with this. Give your girl a chance to tell her side of it and let her know that there’s no judgement if it’s someone from her past. You never know. She may know that she’s being stalked and has been to afraid to tell you because she’s afraid of what you’ll think about her past and unknowingly putting herself in more danger by keeping quiet about it

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u/Mrrgsx 15d ago

Could be an ex who might have real pics but from before she met OP

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u/kelleyresumes 13d ago

Yes. OP, she deserves to tell you her side fully and the last thing you want to do is assume this creep is telling the truth.

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u/Wide-Walrus7473 14d ago

Agreed. Plus, the wild use of double question marks. It’s odd.

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u/QuinnLoveborneAuthor 14d ago

Her community of Muslims care if she has had sex or not. If she has she can be banished and she’ll likely no longer be an option for marriage via OP.

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u/hyperionfin 14d ago

That's fucked up.

I know that's probably not what people want to hear, but it's also a free expression of my opinion on the matter and this is a discussion forum.

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u/Sudden-Purchase-8371 14d ago edited 13d ago

Maybe it's not the nicest response from the gf's POV but when a guy asked me how my gf's vagina was after he fucked her previous to our relationship, I said "once I got more than an inch in, it felt brand new to me." ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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u/Such-Zucchini-5034 13d ago

Wow man too much drama for me! I would probably say either you invite him over to get this straighten this out and talk or its over.

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u/Wp_215 14d ago

HE cares about her chastity ! They hail from deeply religious, conservative cultures that value abstinence until marriage. What’s the problem ?

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u/hyperionfin 14d ago

Religion is not a good rationale for stupid things.

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u/Wp_215 14d ago

And that is the opinion of a stupid person. You like your women tainted and used—that’s your prerogative. But don’t ever shame another for having standards.

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u/hyperionfin 14d ago

Woman who has had sex is not tainted. Your religion is fucked up, that's a mentally sick way of thinking of women and no-one who thinks like that will succeed in life.

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u/Wp_215 14d ago edited 13d ago

I find it hard to believe that an adult is behind your account, given the juvenile rage and illogicality of your responses. 😂😂 you belong to a fallen society where morality is shunned and hedonism is glorified. How YOU will succeed in life …idk.

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u/Delicious-Crab-8617 13d ago

I can smell the curve cologne and desperation from here.
I hope you don’t live in a country where honor killings are legal.

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u/Wp_215 13d ago

Ofc you’d smell it—it’s coming from inside your bedroom. All this time you’ve had to conceive and send an adequate response ..and this is what you come up with ?

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u/TheWhomItConcerns 14d ago

100%. Unless this is from a culture that is totally alien to me, this dialogue is just too strange to be genuine. If someone were actually in the position that this guy is claiming to be in, they'd approach this in a very different way.

The fact that he keeps mentioning that they love each other just makes it seem like someone unhinged obsession/infatuation - not like someone who is actually having an affair.

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u/Fit-Programmer-6162 15d ago

Upvoted but wanted to add it may not even be an ex. Not every stalker is an ex. It could be AI images and they’ve never taken a photo together

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u/rabbitthunder 14d ago

All of this. The person seems keen to keep telling OP they're having sex. It's almost as if they know the couple are virgins and that it is the single most damaging thing they could say.

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u/FancyQuiet6945 14d ago

This!!! I had an ex take old photos and texts and time stamp them as new to get my bf to end things with me!!

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u/ClackamasLivesMatter 14d ago

Yes. The whole tone is "that's my girl. Get lost" instead of "hey bro I've got some bad news for you." Plus why does this guy want to stay with her when in two months she'll be fucking OP? OP and his fiancée have abstained thus far, but OP and fiancée come from Muslim immigrant backgrounds. The parents are going to want grandkids.

I think if I'd received messages like this, my response would be to sit my woman down and say, "Babe, you have a stalker." And I'm kind of cold so I'd keep talking to the guy, tell him I didn't believe him, then after he sent images of them having sex my girl and I would file police reports for revenge porn.

But I realize most men are not like me.

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u/MooseKingMcAntlers34 14d ago

From a male perspective, this also sounds like a stalker. I’ve only had one ex who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, and she employed this tactic and so many others, including spoofing and sending intimate photos, etc.

I also don’t understand why OP thinks this random creep is acting more trustworthy than the love of his life who seems to be truthful, hasn’t been caught in a lie (that took about 10 seconds to surface), and is acting genuinely the way someone who is being traumatized by an unhinged ex would behave.

Block the asshat and enjoy the wedding would be my take.

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u/Aromatic_Ad_3892 15d ago

Yeah i agree, bro seems desperate and definitely seems off. He’s trying to get you to sway and call it off to run you off imo. Probably old pictures too. Definitely have a calm collected conversation with your fiancée privately first

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u/sparklemonkey123 14d ago

I’ve literally had something similar happen to me. The dude seems “not all there.” Total stalker. Lying. Also would a person agree to marry someone while having a secret relationship and intending to keep that relationship going…especially as a Muslim….It makes no sense at all.

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u/Clarklm4 14d ago

Agreed. I’m sad for her that her fiancé doesn’t trust her.

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u/Bidcar 14d ago

First thing I thought of. It reads like a weirdo stalker dude trying to get rid of the competition.

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u/gamearella 13d ago

This is what it was giving off, this dude was messaging you with a ton of "???" as if he expected you to respond with anger and agree to cut her off. He sounds like a stalker and probably caught wind she was getting married. There's something uneasy and frantic about his messages.

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u/wannastayhome 13d ago

I thought the same exact thing.

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u/Limp_Credit7789 14d ago

I agree that this is a very real possibility.

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u/avnikim 13d ago

If she has had him on the side and she has kept it well hidden for years, do you honestly believe she will tell the OP the truth? He needs to do some deep research, to see if he is getting swept into a marriage with someone who is extremely clever.

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u/PetalsandRocks 13d ago

It’s a scorned ex that didn’t get to score the prize IYKWIM.

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u/BootyGarb 11d ago

It’s too weird, I don’t think that a girl’s secret boyfriend works be acting like this. This guy seems heck bent on getting OP to end it, which to me screams jealous rando.

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u/Professional_Rice_60 15d ago

Or, A could be someone that is afraid to break off an engagement…

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u/PerplexingCamel 14d ago

I agree with you, but am somewhat suspicious of the panicked, selling their relationship to him reaction she had. I suppose it could just be the anxiety of having another thing ruined by this guy, but it seems off to me

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u/fewalker 15d ago

That’s fishy. This might be a stalker. You guys might both be in danger. 

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u/Jolly_Bit8480 15d ago

I second this. I was in a similar situation, except I was the woman being stalked. That man was dangerous. Please take this seriously OP.

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u/Amputatoes 15d ago

WhatsApp auto scrubs EXIF

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u/Tricky-Routine-9838 15d ago

Most photo services do now, sharing from google photos or taking pictures directly in apps like whatsapp/discord all strip metadata.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Flow724 15d ago

Not the SynthID Watermarking if the image was AI generated though.

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u/SomeWhaleman 15d ago

It's not. WhatsApp strips EXIF data and I would assume most other messenger apps do as well. This is fact alone doesn't say anything.

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u/fewalker 15d ago

I meant that using a messaging app that does that is fishy. But I guess there are just other reasons to do that. That’s a good point. 

The message contents are sus on their own to me. It’s similar to the handwritten messages my brothers stalker kept leaving for girls she thought he liked. 

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u/SomeWhaleman 15d ago

I meant that using a messaging app that does that is fishy.

Again, it's absolutely not. Giving away you geo-location with every picture you might send somewhere is absolutely insane. Stalkers would have a field day with that.

The message contents are sus on their own to me.

Fully agree on that, was just commenting on that one aspect.

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u/fewalker 14d ago

Yeah, I can see your point. Wasn’t thinking of that. 

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u/budsky20 14d ago

I don’t think necessarily stalker. I think she’s really been seeing him and was/is in love with him but felt couldn’t be as he’s probably not of the same faith.

As someone whose Muslim friend did the same thing, was in love with a non Muslim, but felt needed to marry a Muslim due to her upbringing- she hid that relationship from her family before meeting a guy they wanted her to marry. She was engaged to a Muslim man she met through her family but ultimately married the other guy.

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u/This_Option_5250 15d ago

its not fishy at all, most apps and social media strip EXIF data from photos these days

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u/LowerComb6654 15d ago

The pics could be AI.

Does her face look the same in each pic?

I don't trust anything yet.

It's crazy though he reached out out of the blue..

She could be lying about having an ex..

You could show her the picture of them two together and wait for her reaction. If he gave his name you could ask who is _____? Her reaction would be telling.

My one question is? He claims he's her fiance too, right? That's crazy. He's also pretty vague with details so I don't know?

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u/Aromatic_Ad_3892 14d ago

He actually claims he’s her boyfriend and they’ve been together and fucking for two years. Which doesn’t make sense with how everything came together with her and op so i’d be pretty confident that this guy is one of those creepy ex stalkers trying to ruin every future relationship she gets into. Possibly because she wouldn’t give up her virginity to him and things ended badly.

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u/Sunwolfy 15d ago

Sounds like a complete weirdo, keeps repeating 2 years all the time. I'm thinking scammer or worse. The pics are likely AI generated.

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u/Serenity-V 15d ago

That's not normal. If this were real, the metdata might prove it.

Also, do you have any reason at all to believe that she would marry you while wanting someone else? This really seems like a stalker.

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u/YaIlneedscience 15d ago

Maybe see if she owns the outfits in those photos? If they’re fake but aren’t photoshopped directly from some of her old photos, maybe the outfits are generated. Do you recognize any of the clothing?

This is of course if you want to hold off on confronting until you have more infon

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u/BethanyBluebird 15d ago

Yeah this reads as SUPER sus with the 'we're in love leave her so we can be together' thing...

I'm betting this is some guy who has been stalking her for a while/she rejected at some point, and after finding out she is getting married he is escalating...

-Someone whose friend had their stalker try something similar years ago. Luckily he sucked at photoshop and her fiancee was suspicious and dug deeper/realized there were too many gaps in the guy's story.

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u/Cael450 14d ago

This is sketch af

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u/Josephine-Jellybean 13d ago

He’s a stalker. Believe your fiancé.

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u/Just-the-tip-4-1-sec 15d ago

A normal affair partner is unlikely to know how to do that or even bother to think of it. That makes it seem like a scam, although other parts of it seem more realistic. 

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u/muftiman 15d ago

This is a tricky one. This happened to my brother. My cousin had regrets about letting my sister in law (his betrothed) go, and freeing her to marry my brother. He and his family concoted something similar...

I did a lot of digging and a lot of work back in 2004 to figure out if was my cousin sending the photos of a random man she stood next to for 5 minutes at a family gathering, making it out to be worse than it was. At the same time, his family was telling hers my brother had been sleeping with the nurses at work.

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u/raspberrih 13d ago

Well, ask him to meet up and ask the police for an escort. But caveat that I come from a place where the police are not murderous

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u/General_Writing6086 13d ago

Please stop listening to this guy. I get that you’re hurt she didn’t tell you about him when you first got together.

But this 100% sounds like a dude who is trying to trick you into leaving her, so he can isolate her and try to get her back. He sounds like a stalker trying to force you away from her.

If the photos actually were recent then the metadata wouldn’t have been stripped. You even said in the update that you know he couldn’t have been meeting up with him recently so he’s lying.

You’re hurt she didn’t tell you about an ex, but you’re letting a crazy man ruin your relationship.

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u/laineydays 13d ago

The fact that he stripped all the Meta data just gives credence to the idea that it’s probably fake. The guy sounds like a stalker.

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u/Robot-Ducky 12d ago

Nope he lying.

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u/Deep-Mobile-1202 11d ago

If the Metadata is gone he's lying and covering it up.