Catfishing

So catfishing has been around as long as the internet. It usually happens on dating sites and on social networking sites. So what is catfishing? Catfishing is the act of talking to someone online and tricking someone into thinking that you're someone you're not. This can be for so many reasons.

One of the main reasons is money. This happens on both dating and social networking sites. This happened to me twice, thankfully I was smart enough to know what was going on. There's just a few types of money catfish. One of the main scams with the prince scam. This scam still makes $700,000 a year. This scam is where there's a prince, government official or a heir of some sort. If you agree to help you will be asked to send information like bank information, social security number and other personal information.

There are variations of the prince scam. In one of the variations the email claims that you are the beneficiary of a will. The email will state that your personal bank information is need to prove that you are the beneficiary and to send your inheritance. In another version someone contacts a person (the scam victim) advertises something for sale and they are contacted by a possible buyer. The buyer will send a counterfeit cashier check or international money order for an amount much bigger than the price agreed on. Then they ask the seller to put it in their bank and then send them the rest.

On dating sites these catfish may give you a sob story and then give you some reason that they need money. Usually they ask for money to come see you. I had one that asked me to help him set up a pay pal account I said only if I didn't have to put my info into it. After that I never heard from him again.

Another reason for catfish is boredom. They may not have a lot going on or many friends so they choose to catfish someone. They could get addicted to it and possibly start believing they are who they pretend to be. Also it could be because they're insecure. Someone may feel like they deserve love but they want it so they pretend to be someone else.

They may also catfish to cause trouble or ruin someone's life. People may also want revenge. There are many stories where people hated someone so they ruined the person's life. There are also stories of people who were the victim of a catfish that have lost their jobs or houses.

How do know you've ran into a catfish? One of the main red flags is that they won't talk on the phone or get on video chat. I understand there's some people who don't like to talk on the phone but you got to have proof that you are talking to a real person. They wont tell you what town they live in. I understand not telling your address but you should at least tell the city you live in. They seem flakey or never want to meet. Yes life get busy and people may have lots going on but at some point it should seem weird or different. The reverse google is tricky because you could have the fake or the real profile but when paired with the other signs you can know that you ran into the fake. Also if they ask for money you obviously know.

What do you do when you run into a catfish? Well if it's a money scam report them to the app/website and cops. Make sure you have screen shots just in case you need proof especially for the cops. If it's just a catfish that's annoying or maybe they threatened you report or block them.

One of the most bizarre and insane stories of a catfish involves the basketball player Chris Anderson. The story also involves 2 woman one woman was named Paris who was the other victim in this story and the catfish. Paris had been on the show catfish because people used her pictures to catfish people. Paris used social media not only to be a model but to interact with her admirers, she would also use the platforms to flirt with famous athletes. One day she got a message from Chris and they began to talk. One day the conversation moved to texts and it eventually turned X rated, even including nudes photos of Paris. Then some how another character by the name of Tom Taylor (who is real) messages Paris claiming to be Chris' friend but the real Chris and tom never knew each other.

"Tom" convinced Paris that Chris wanted to meet her. Chris ended up buying Paris a plane ticket. Chris was even there to pick her up but they noticed that there were inconsistencies in conversations. Chris would mention something and Paris would be confused. After the weekend Paris continued to who she thought was Chris and Tom. Paris mentioned to both of them that she was going to a Clippers event where she was going to meet Blake Griffin. Tom and Chris were both upset, Tom even took it as far as threatening to have her raped. He also posted her nude pictures online along with her name and address. So Paris told her mom what happened and they called the police.

The police started to look through all the messages. It didn't take the police long to notice that all the messages are sent to from an IP address out of Canada. It turns out that a catfish had made fake accounts to communicate with the real versions of Chris and Paris. Basically Chris was talking to fake Paris then the person posing to be Paris would talk to the real Paris as Chris. The same person that was posing to be Paris and Chris was posing as Tom. Paris was 17 when she started her relationship with Chris but the catfish lied to Chris about her age. Chris did get let go from his team but when his name was cleared he was picked up by another team. He was also scammed out of money by who he thought was Paris' mother. The catfish did go to jail.

I hope you enjoyed this and learned from this. I will post more dating safety style posts later so stay tuned!