A mum is warning parents to be careful what photos they post online after pictures of her baby were taken and passed off as another child.

Someone behind several fake social media accounts has been taking photos from mothers all over the UK – including pictures of stillborn babies, scans of babies who have later died and babies’ funerals.

She then posts them online claiming they are pictures of her child.

A woman from Chatham has launched a Facebook group to raise awareness and offer advice to other mums to stop it from happening to them.

Leah, who did not want her surname published, said: “I feel absolutely gutted. I feel like nothing is safe any more. For someone to steal my photo, claim it as their own, is sickening.

“This person has thousands and thousands of baby photos that don’t belong to her.”

Leah is warning other mums to make sure they check their privacy settings on social media and to watermark their babies’ photos so they can be identified. She has also launched a petition calling for the theft of baby and scan photos to be made a criminal offence.

Pixie Rawlinson, 19, is among those whose photos have been taken.

She said: “I didn’t realise it could happen until it happened to me. It was a picture of my daughter that I had taken the day I brought her home from hospital. It wasn’t anything special, but this woman had taken it and posted it online saying it was her son.

“She has several social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram – with different aliases. She has other people’s pictures on all of them. She has been contacted by people all over the world whose photos she has taken.

“I have been able to move on from it, but when she takes pictures of babies who have passed away it is very upsetting and people have been really affected by it.

“This woman is deliberately targeting vulnerable women by going on to online bereavement forums.”

“But she is not doing anything illegal, so the police cannot do anything.”

The Messenger contacted the woman accused of being behind the fake accounts, but she did not want to comment.