"I Was A Professional Catfish!"

Getting paid to send flirty texts seems like a golden job opportunity for those interested in adult work. There are dozens of texting companies that are constantly seeking new chat operators, but the information given on the company websites can be quite vague, with the true mechanics of the inner workings remaining shrouded in mystery until an applicant passes the interview stage. I spoke with Jessi, who has just finished working for one of these third party companies and is willing to give us a sneak peek behind the green curtain.

How did you get started?

Like loads of other people, I lost my regular job this year thanks to COVID-19. I needed a source of income and even though I have a few sites selling my content, I needed something with a little more stability that I could dedicate my time to. I discovered adult fantasy text operator jobs and spent a few hours searching Google and apply to different companies. The websites didn’t really give too much away, apart from that workers would be engaging in sexually explicit chat and could expect to earn around 0.10 GBP per message.

What is the Application Process like?

Though I applied to lots of companies, the first one to reply to me was the application I went with. After supplying my ID, I was given a brief interview via Skype messenger. When I passed this, I was given a company manual to read and memorise the rules and another interview to quiz my knowledge.

During the longer interview, I was given sample messages to reply to and I was judged on my responses. This first part was really professional and informative. Once I passed this, I was handed over to a ‘coach’ who didn’t really care about my questions, barely responded to me, and didn’t seem to care about the manual rules that I’d just had to memorise. I was told I would be paid 0.7 GBP and when I asked why and when does it get raised to the 0.10 GBP amount advertised my questions were initially avoided, then answered with ‘most people don’t last that long’.

What Did the Job Entail?

The easiest way to describe my job would be ‘professional catfish’ - gathering massive amounts of user data under the disguise of flirty messages on a dating site. The amount of data collection is actually insane.

A typical work session involves logging on to the website, reading messages, logging any information, and replying. Once you hit reply, the next message from the next person automatically loads. The user sees a normal dating or hookup site and thinks they are talking to one person that they’ve chosen, but really every message reply has been written by a different person. The chat operators keep lots of written notes about every user to keep up the guise of being a single person.

What kind of information did you collect?

Absolutely everything. Names, city of residence, medical problems, hobbies and interests, names and details of other important people. Basically, if a user gave any piece of information about themselves at all, it was logged in to the system immediately. I found it pretty creepy and shocking at first, but as became used to the job I didn’t think about it as much.

What about the messages? What kind of messages did you get?

It really was a mixed bag of messages, lots of horny guys looking for explicit hookups but also a surprising amount of normal conversations for lonely old men. I kinda felt bad for these guys, 90 years old and just wanting companionship. Then I usually remembered I’m playing a 20-year-old student and felt sick. In the end, I rarely felt sorry for the men involved because they almost always behaved in some gross manner that made catfishing them almost a pleasure.

What was the worst message you received?

The one that really chilled me was a middle-aged white guy who had been in the system a while and had become comfortable chatting with the dummy account. He sent me several photos of his stockpile of guns and ammo to ‘use at the next BLM protest’. This was recently after George Floyd’s death when riots were happening worldwide. I reported the message, but as soon as I sent the report the message was replaced by the next job. I still think about that guy, I pray he was all talk.

Damn, were there any good messages?

There were a few times where I got to use my acting abilities for some small good. I met a few Anti-vaxxer, Q-Anon types, and definitely spun a few tall tales to make them question their beliefs. I remember during the first COVID-19 lockdown I managed to convince people to wear masks by telling them my dad just died of Covid. It was a bit morbid, but let’s face it I didn’t take my moral compass to work with me. They just saw a nice little 50-year-old religious lady who was their trusted confidante. I like to think of it as chaotic good.

How much does it pay?

I was told each message was paid at 0.07 GBP...but I was also told that you would be given a warning and extra training before they fired you. They just fired me out of the blue, wouldn’t tell me why, and wouldn’t pay me as I had earned less than £50 in my short time there. They then messaged me a month later offering me my job back, but since there’s no guarantee that they won’t just sack me before I hit the £50 payout goal again.

Would you recommend this job?

This would actually be the perfect job if they paid the advertised 0.10 GBP per text, as there are always messages to reply to so you can work as much as you want. Each message has to be 150 characters or more, so it’s super easy for a fast typer to rack up a lot of messages. However, job security is another issue. They could fire you before you hit your payout limit and you’d have put all that work in for nothing. I don’t think I’d recommend this job unless you could find a really sterling company to work for. If you can find that, then it really is the perfect work-from-home job.