Don’t Get Caught in the Hands of Sinister Catfishers
Online dating has opened the door to love for millions of people across the globe. Although embracing this idea might be the start of your happy-ever-after, you should also remember that there are some dangers to avoid.
One of the biggest issues related to online dating is catfishing. In this article, you’ll learn more about catfishing, its signs, and how you can avoid it.
What’s Catfishing and Why People Do It
Catfishing refers to pretending to be another person to deceive someone into entering a romantic relationship with them. Usually, the catfisher uses fake photos and made-up stories that support their fake identity. Others even claim a profession and bogus interests, preferences, likes, and dislikes.
Many believe that catfishers — those who catfish other people — have limited romantic care and attention; however, they often have more sinister reasons.
For example, they might ask for money from their victims after gaining their trust. Or they may force their victims to pay for something by combining catfishing with other common scams, like sextortion.
Catfishers trap their victims for other different reasons too. Some have “innocent” reasons, while others do this because they’re underappreciated and/or lonely in a place that doesn’t find them appealing. In the latter case, they create online personas to talk to victims they feel will not be interested in their life.
Regardless, catfishing can and often will become a huge problem when the goal is to stalk or harass victims. In fact, in some cases, catfishing can lead to more severe forms of abuse.
3 Platforms Used for Catfishing Others
You’ve probably encountered fake profiles on dating sites, but they’re also common on social media platforms.
Today, social media has made it easier to connect with family and friends. Consequently, other people’s photos and profiles have become more accessible to catfishers, making it easier to lure in their victims.
Here are the most common social media platforms where catfishing often happens.
Tinder
Have you seen Netflix’s The Tinder Swindler?
It’s a film about a group of women who were the victims of Shimon Hayut, a catfisher/swindler they met on Tinder. These victims sought to hunt him down and recover the thousands and millions of dollars stolen from them.
One of the worst parts of this film is that Shimon pretended to be the son of a Russian–Israeli diamond mogul, Lev Leviev, using the alias Simon Leviev. He used dating apps to contact women and tricked them into lending him huge sums of money, forcing his victims to apply for new credit cards and bank loans to “help” him. Then, he’ll use their money to lure other potential victims, essentially operating a Ponzi scheme. He’d pretend to pay them back by sending them forged documents that showed bank receipts and wire transfers before breaking off contact with his victims.
Don’t be surprised to see these types of incidents on Tinder, considering it’s arguably the biggest dating app in the world.
Fortunately, Tinder recently announced they’ll require ID verification for all users, making it more challenging for catfishers to find their potential victims.
Facebook is the biggest social media platform globally, with more than three billion active accounts, so it’s not surprising to see numerous cases of catfishing on Facebook.
Based on the Better Business Bureau data, 85% of catfishing incidents start on Facebook, wherein catfishers send direct messages to their potential victims and hope they’ll answer. And once they respond, catfishers will lure them in with fake stories or sweet-talking.
Instagram is a visually oriented social media platform with billions of users across the globe, making it quite as challenging to avoid being catfished here as on Facebook.
Catfishing on Instagram starts with catfishers sending direct messages or follow requests to their potential victims. Luckily, Instagram users can reject suspicious message requests; still, experienced catfishers likely know how to approach unknowing prey.
Although Instagram is a free social media platform, it seemingly belongs to the beautiful, rich, and famous. With that, you might find it hard to recognize profiles that seem too good to be true since most users strive to present their best image even at the cost of authenticity.
In other words, you are repeatedly exposed to countless real people posting phony things about their lives. So, how would you be able to recognize fake people and their shams?
How You Can Avoid Being Catfished
Catfishing can be harmful, so you should learn how to protect yourself from getting catfished.
Here’s a list of how you can do that.
1. Try to schedule or ask for video calls.
One of the best ways to check if someone is the real deal is through a video call because it lessens their chances of hiding behind fake identities.
Skype, Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, and FaceTime are a handful of examples you can use for a video call.
If the person you’re talking to online doesn’t want to do a video call, they might be catfishing you.
2. Check their social media accounts.
You can also check their uploads or activities on other social media platforms, but avoid stalking them.
To distinguish a fake social media account, look for these hints: Do they only have a few friends? Do they only have a few uploaded photos that look like they’ve been taken from Google? If you answered yes to both questions, you might want to consider avoiding that person.
3. Run when you see a couple red flags.
Do your best to be on the lookout for red-flag behavior. For instance, if the person you’re talking to purposely gives vague answers or refuses to meet up, that might be a sign that you’re being catfished.
However, that’s not always the case.
Check how they chat with you. Most catfishers claim to be of a certain age, but their writing style doesn’t add up. For example, the person you’re talking to may claim to be in their thirties but uses a lot of abbreviations or teen slang you’ve never heard of.
If you feel uncomfortable chatting with them, you can insist on a video call to talk to them face-to-face and check whether they are who they claim to be.
Thoughts to Ponder On
Nowadays, talking online has become the norm. Many people choose to reach out to family and friends online because it’s a more convenient way to contact them. It also makes it easier to meet new people.
Unfortunately, online communication also makes it easier for sinister people to act up and cause damage. So, considering how prevalent catfishing has become, the sooner you learn how to spot a catfisher, the better.
