Popular cosplayer Liz Katz revealed an ongoing issue with a cyberstalker, who has forced her to increase her “home and office security” due to his unwelcome advances.
Katz is a huge figure in the cosplaying scene with a following of over 200 thousand on Twitter and over 1 million on Instagram – but a recurring issue with one of these followers has forced her to bring an issue to the public about a “delusional” fan.
In a detailed Twitter thread, she revealed how an enamored man has been taking steps to get closer to her, even though she has repeatedly denied his fantasies of a romantic relationship.
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“I’ve been dealing with a delusional cyberstalker for nearly a year,” she admitted in a Tweet on January 23. “I do not know this person and they do not know me. Yet they are convinced we are in a relationship and that I had been sending them secret messages through my content.”
She mentioned how the unnamed person would have lengthy conversations with himself in her public message inbox. There, she found photos evidently showing he was prepared to make a life-changing move to California “in an effort to be closer to me for our ‘relationship.'”
Katz claimed that she eventually responded to him, talking him down and pointing out that her posts held no hidden subtext for him or anyone else.
I had been sending them secret messages through my content. (My photos and videos) This terrified me. When scrolling through my public inbox one day last year I just so happened upon a fairly disturbing one way conversation that this person had been having towards me.
— Liz Katz (@LizKatzOfficial) January 23, 2020
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“I offered the idea that maybe he had been catfished?” the cosplayer explained. “And I assured we had never spoken or written. He seemed to understand. He said he sometimes gets the wrong ideas about things.”
A mental health advocate herself, Katz suggested he seek a professional for help, and that “things cooled off for a while” following the encounter.
After a period of silence, he reappeared as a normal fan again, but the messages quickly turned to their previous, concerning tone. Once again, she expressed her discomfort to him. He apologized, and another period of silence ensued.
informed the police, and have been limiting my time outside. Which sucks that I feel the need to do this. Weighing my options now and still feeling really uneasy. They have courses on all sorts of things. How to take better Instagram photos, how to grow your audience,
— Liz Katz (@LizKatzOfficial) January 23, 2020
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Some time passed before he reappeared once again, this time flooding her, “comments and inbox, eventually writing every day again… about how we were together again, as if we were together.”
Since he’d already pitched the idea of moving to California to be with her, she believes he was further encouraged by a January 12 Instagram post in which the cosplayer is dancing in a Harley Quinn-inspired costume to the tune of “Freak” by Lana Del Rey.
“Baby, if you wanna leave / Come to California, be a freak like me, too,” the lyrics say.
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This ended up being the tipping point for Katz, who has informed authorities about the man and has been confining herself to her home by “limiting my time outside.”
These disturbing details have her community rallying in support for Katz as she is “weighing [her] options now and is still feeling really uneasy.”
Among her closing thoughts, she hopes the “individual can get the help they need,” but has largely remained quiet on social media after shedding light on her continuing predicament.
