I recently moved to Ottawa, Ontario from New Brunswick, Canada, and was extremely confused with the usage you described above. Everyone I talked to had "as if" meaning "I believe it, but am shocked or incredulous at the news".
You get news that X is going out with Y, a surprising but plausible scenario.
"As if X is going out with Y! Good for them!"
Whereas I did not have that meaning AT ALL. For me, "as if" has only one usage of "I completely do not believe the statement".
You get news that X is going out with Y, a completely impossible scenario that you do not believe for a second.
"As if X is dating Y! Stop spreading rumours."
My friends' usage was completely confusing to me.
I first encountered it in writing, and I was genuinely hurt because I thought the other person did not believe me. Later, when I spoke to him, he explained that he DID believe me, but he was just shocked at what I had said.
I did a quick poll, and the people back in New Brunswick that I asked only had the "doubt" definition and not the "surprised" definition. I have also been wondering if it's a regional expression. Where in Ontario are you seeing it?
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