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Catfishing is an insidious type of online scamming. The catfisher pretends to be a different person than they are. And then tries to get their victim’s trust or even make them fall in love.

What is Catfishing?

One type of Catfish pulls financial scams. There are pedophile catfishers who pretend to be age appropriate to attract underage children. 

There was recently a tragic series of events that played out in California. An older man catfished a teenager. Then drove across the U.S. to kill her grandparents and mother and kidnap the girl.

 Catfishing primarily takes place on social media platforms. And on dating apps or online dating sites or apps. Especially vulnerable is Facebook, where 85% of catfishing scams start. There are about 86 million fake Facebook accounts many of them set up by catfishers. 

Tinder, Twitter, and Instagram also have plenty of pretenders with differing motives.

How to recognize a catfish scam

Catfishing begins with deception. And the catfisher generally uses made-up names to go with their made-up stories and fake photos. They typically create an entirely fake identity.

The list below contains common signs of catfishing. These are the “red flags” that can be checked out on social media.

1. They avoid video calls and face-to-face meetings or in some cases phone calls. Keep in mind this could be an older person pretending to be young. Or it could be a man pretending to be a woman.
2. Little or no online presence. Usually, you will only find the catfisher on the platform where they found you. You rarely see them on multiple platforms.
3. They have very few friends or followers. And if you check their friends may have the same red flags.
4. The catfisher is usually new to the platform. And their sparse profile may have been set up in the last month or so.
5. Typically use professional or stolen photos. And they rarely, if ever, update photos of themselves. Although they may be stealing images of who they are pretending to be. 
6. The catfisher at times asks for money. This is not acceptable. They usually ask for money after they gain your trust. Scammers may also run more than one scam through their profile.
7. The catfisher may ask you to send them explicit photographs or videos. This is a bad idea. Do not let them send you pornographic images. And never send any to them.

Why do people catfish?

Some catfishers may be just lonely and create a persona strictly for innocent online interaction. They may be talking to people they believe would not talk to them if they see how they look in “real life.”

There are also abusive personalities out of catfishing. They sometimes harass or stalk their victims. And there is also the danger if you meet up with this type of catfisher they might be capable of physical abuse. 

Most of the time these online scammers have a financial motive.  They come up with a myriad of reasons they need money. For example, they say they need money to visit you. Or a family member may be sick.

Regardless of the money request...say NO.

1. Don’t give any money to the catfisher.
2. If you have given money to a scammer report the cyber fraud to local authorities. If you live in the US file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
3. Block the scammer from all your social media accounts. If you are in phone contact block their number.
4. Report the catfish on the site or platform where they approached you.
5. Even if they got away with cash from you, reporting the catfish can’t hurt to help keep future victims safe from the same cybercriminal. Report this to a scam tracker like the Better Business Bureau.