NORTH BAY VILLAGE, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida woman from Russia has become the target of attacks across social media due to a case of mistaken identity.
“It’s not nice to have your picture posted in a wrongful content,” said Ekaterina Lavrova, a North Bay Village realtor.
For weeks, Lavrova has been harassed and even threatened on social media after being mistaken as Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov’s daughter, both sharing the same name.
“It sounds silly, but like I would never imagine that I would be in a situation like that,” said Lavrova.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, she said people on several platforms have been calling her out with hateful messages and phone calls. Some have targeted her real estate business. Others have even gone as far as sharing her home address on Twitter.
“People wish you to burn in hell, you know, ‘you should be deported,’ ‘let’s take over her apartment and host somebody from Ukraine,’” said Lavrova. “Everyday you think it’s going to get better, it doesn’t stop.”
As the war continues, so do the attacks on her.
“They make a post on Twitter, on Facebook or on Instagram, and they say, ‘This is his daughter. Let’s go attack her,’” said Lavrova.
The real Sergey Lavrov is a current Russian foreign minister and is under personal sanctions for his role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Lavrova said because of that and the similarity in names, people have been quick to target her. She’s afraid for her family’s safety.
“All it takes is one crazy person to come and do something, and God knows what can they do,” said Lavrova.
Lavrova tried pleading with Twitter reporting the harassment but said they refused to remove the posts or comments, responding with that they “didn’t find a violation of our rules.”
“This is how many people have, you know, spread it,” said Lavrova.
As the war wages on, Lavrova is wanting to set the record straight, she’s not the daughter of a Russian politician.
“I have no relation to that person, and I can’t influence that minister to stop it,” said Lavrova.
Lavrova is trying to get the word out to hopefully get these unwarranted attacks to stop.
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