The woman behind the face behind the catfish

In today’s world, digital connections happen every day. Sometimes we might even meet someone with whom we share an instant connection. Do we know who’s really behind the screen? Can we feel deeply towards someone we have never met? What if we’ve seen pictures of them, but nothing more?

These are the questions journalist Hanna Ajala seeks to answer in Love, Janessa as she sets off on “a “wild quest” to find a woman, who goes by the name of Janessa Brazil. Janessa’s face has been used to catfish thousands of people around the world, with pictures and video recordings of her enticing people into romantic relationships. Many end up giving thousands of dollars to the woman they think they love.

Across seven episodes, Ajala takes us through her search for Janessa, a star in the world of adult entertainment. Beginning in the United Kingdom, she contacts a journalist who noticed thecoriginal catfish, but then ended up getting catfished himself. In Ghana she meets the “Saawa Boys”, conmen who make a living using other people’s personal images. She even meets a heartbroken victim who was convinced he knew the “real” Janessa.

In interviews that take place across the world, Ajala introduces us to people with insights and experience of one of the most intricate scams of all time. Along the way, she learns how these exchanges between strangers can form thrilling connections, It becomes more understandable how people fall into the scammers’ trap and hand over money for what they believe, sometimes, to be “true love”.

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As she follows the threads from the Janessa story, Ajala enters into the world of romance catfish scams, and is taken aback by their complexity. This is not just someone in a basement with a computer; it’s one of the most massive organised crime groups in the world. Business is booming for the scammers – so many people post images on social media without understanding the possible negative consequences.

When Janessa seems to vanish, Ajala begins to questionw hether she’s pursuing someone who doesn’t exist at all. Could she herself have been catfished from the start? During each episode, she unpeels another layer of the story that reveals how a person lose control of their own identity.

Love, Janessa tells the story of how one woman became the face of thousands of internet scams. Through her conversations and encounters, Ajala comes to know and understand all the players in this process. She empathises with the victims, and with the scammer – surprising even herself – who relies on this complicated “job” to make a living. Most of all, she feels for Janessa, who seems to have lost ownership of her own face and identity.

In the end, Ajala finds the real woman behind the face of Janessa Brazil. Her journey, which began in Ghana, ends in the US, where she tracks down a shock radio host who forms the final piece of her puzzle. In the closing episodes, she asks Janessa about her story: Did she know her face was being used this way? What did it do to her life? And where is she now? It’s worth taking this journey to find out.

This article was amended on Monday, July 10th, to clarify a reference to people sharing images on social media