A RICH Kids Go Skint star convinced millions he was a Love Island contestant.
Callum Ryan, 19, set up the stunt with a series of videos and photos on TikTok.
The carefully created prank made it seem like he was about to enter the hallowed villa.
He posted videos pretending he was sharing a sneak-peak at "behind the scenes", and poorly edited headshots.
But despite the thrown together appearance of the clips and images, thousands of people were fooled.
And by the time the actual contestants went on the ITV fan favourite, Callum had gained more followers than them.
He claims it was to show how risky social media can be, and posted a video about cyberbullying.
The teen vlogger started his account aged 14, and saw the online abuse he received increase after appearing on Channel 5's Rich Kids Go Skint in 2018.
He told the Mirror: "The level of abuse got out of hand. I have kind of experienced it before, after I was on TV, and I knew it was coming – so I knew what to expect.
"But the hate that I got only went to show that the point I was proving was right.
PULLING A PRANK
"People who posted the hate are only going to come back and realise what they did wrong."
"A friend pretended to go on holiday to Europe a while ago, and I thought that I could use that idea – of creating something fake – in a positive way.
"It was in the planning for a couple of weeks. When it came out that there was someone else called Callum going into the villa, that was it.
"With a bit more planning, I had an idea to make it seem like I would be the second 'bombshell' Callum to enter the villa after the series had started."
He said the feedback has been positive, with most of his followers appreciating the point behind the prank.
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Keep up to date on all the villa action with our live blog.
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