What Is Catfishing?
Catfishing is a type of online scam where someone creates a fake identity, often using stolen photos and fictitious information to trick a victim into forming a relationship with them. The intent may be emotional manipulation, financial gain, trolling, or simply to get attention. The person doing the pretending is known as the “catfisher.”
What Makes Catfishing So Dangerous?
Catfishing is dangerous because it emotionally manipulates victims, often leading to intense feelings of shame, anxiety, and depression. It can also cause financial loss. It goes beyond “just lying to someone online.” It can be a life-altering event.
Emotional Manipulation Hurts
We all want connection. That’s what makes catfishing so painful. When someone builds trust only to reveal it was a lie, it breaks more than just the relationship. Victims often share private photos, personal stories, and emotional vulnerability. Once trust is broken, it can lead to shame, anxiety, and long-term difficulty trusting others. For many, the experience leaves lasting emotional scars.
Long-Term Financial Damage
Catfishers often have money in mind. Once they gain emotional control, they may start inventing stories to trigger sympathy or urgency. A sudden family emergency. A fake business opportunity. A plea for help that feels too real to ignore. Victims who want to help end up sending money, only to realize it was all part of the scam. The financial loss is often significant and deeply distressing.
How Does Catfishing Work?
Catfishing follows a predictable flow of events. It starts with a scammer creating a fake persona, and ends up in significant emotional, financial, or reputational harm for the victim. Here’s how it works:
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They Create A Fake Profile
The catfisher creates a fake account, making up their background story. Often, pretending to be an ordinary person. Sometimes, a catfisher claims to be someone famous. In rare cases, they even hack or impersonate a real person.
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They Send Videos Or Photos
The catfisher then starts sending "picture-perfect" photos to the victim. It's extremely difficult to tell whether the pictures are fake or real. They tend to use professional photos or impossibly perfect pictures to entice you. And now, with Generative AI at everyone’s fingertips, it’s even easier to create and harder to trace.
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They Establish Trust
They start conversations by complimenting you and showing an interest in every aspect of your life. They act caring towards you, creating a sense of being wanted. The catfisher makes you feel good about yourself, which makes you want to keep them happy. They might even buy you gifts or shower you with affection to quickly build trust.
Agreeing with a topic, giving you advice, listening to you, and supporting your decisions can also be ways a catfisher establishes trust.
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They Develop An Emotional Connection
The catfisher then fabricates a background story, which could be that they are rich and live an amazing life. The intention is to make you feel flattered, or that you've met your "soul mate." They could simply make up a sympathetic story about their hardships, so the victim feels sorry for them and becomes emotionally invested.
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They Communicate Frequently
The victim is often bombarded with messages. This makes the victim feel important and special, speeding up the emotional connection. It also prevents the victim from thinking too deeply about the substance of prior conversations, or lingering on red flags, because by the time these thoughts arise, the next conversation is already underway.
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They Avoid Verification
The catfisher continually makes up reasons why they can't answer the phone. They dodge video calls and avoid meeting in person, usually blaming work, a bad connection, or even a broken camera.
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They Start To Manipulate You
Once trust and an emotional connection has been established, the catfisher switches gears. This is done by asking for sensitive information. The catfisher could ask you for your full name, date of birth, address, or even bank details. They could ask for explicit and intimate photos or video footage of you. This is leverage so they can blackmail you (sometimes known as sextortion) in the future. Then the requests begin. It can be as simple as asking you for a favor to the extent of asking for large sums of money.
What Motivates People To Catfish?
People catfish for all kinds of reasons. Some want a connection. Others want control. And for some, it’s all about the money. Common motivations include:
- Financial gain: Usually, the main motivation for catfishing is to steal money.
- Desire for attention: Some catfish just want to feel seen, heard, or validated.
- Assuming a different identity: Hiding behind a fake persona can be empowering and used as a means to escape reality.
- Entertainment: For a few, it’s just a twisted way to pass the time.
- Trolling or cyberbullying: They do it to provoke, hurt, or humiliate. Sometimes it’s for fun, other times it’s for revenge.
- Mental illness: Psychological issues can drive someone to create a fake identity and live life through it.
- Experimenting with sexual preferences: Some use fake profiles to explore sexuality or gender in a space they feel safer controlling.
Signs You're Dealing With A Catfisher
Catfishers often follow predictable patterns. From rushing into relationships to dodging video calls, there are common behaviors that can give them away. Here are some of the most telling red flags to watch for.
Moves Too Fast
Catfishers tend to come on strong, pushing for a fast emotional connection. They’ll talk like you’ve known each other forever and say things like 'I’ve never felt this way before' to build trust before you start asking questions.
Avoids Voice And Video Calls
Catfishers often avoid phone calls. They might say they’re unwell, that something urgent came up, or that their battery died. Some blame bad reception. Whatever the excuse, the goal is the same. They're trying to hide their real identity.
New Account, Few Followers
Having a large number of followers requires time and effort. They have to like posts, communicate with others, and create content, which is time-consuming. Most catfishers don’t have time to amass followers, so usually their profiles reflect that.
Asks For Money
After establishing a connection with you, they ask for money. That’s a huge red flag! It is one of the most common signs of catfishing, and should be treated with caution, regardless of how genuine the request may seem.
Won’t Meet In Person
Catfishers use the excuse that they feel self-conscious or ashamed about the way they look. Meetups are easier to avoid when the catfisher claims to live far away. When they say they live locally and continually come up with reasons not to meet, you should start to feel suspicious.
Fake Or Reused Photos
A catfisher’s photo library is usually limited. Since the photos are stolen, they only have a handful to work with. When put in a pinch, a catfisher may attempt to reuse images, adding filters or alterations to pass them off as a new image.
Pushes for Personal Info
The catfisher will be very invasive with you, asking you to provide private information about yourself. But it’s a one-way street. It’s a major red flag when they continually avoid answering questions about themselves.
Wants Explicit Content
Catfishers may ask for explicit content. They'll ask for nude photos or sexual footage of you. But once they have that content, they have power over you. It can be used to manipulate, blackmail, or publicly shame you.
Tools That Help Prevent Catfishing
Reverse Image Search Tools
These tools let you check if someone’s profile photo appears elsewhere online. If the image shows up on stock photo sites, modeling profiles, or under different names, it’s a strong sign the person might be a catfish.
- Google Reverse Image Search: The most popular and general purpose reverse image searching tool, provided by Google.
- TinEye: A highly specialized reverse image search engine that can provide unique insights into where the image has been seen.
- ImageRaider: A tartgeted reverse image searching tool that allows you to upload and monitor for the appearance of your images on the internet.
- Bing Image Match: A general purpose reverse image searching tool, provided by Microsoft.
Identity and Background Check Tools
These tools help verify if someone’s name, phone number, email, or social media matches up with real-world data. They can reveal inconsistencies, fake identities, or hidden histories that point to catfishing.
- Spokeo: An aggregation tool that pulls together information from publicly available resources such as social media profiles, real estate listing, court records, and more, to provide a detailed report on a person's digital footprint.
- BeenVerified: A background checking platform that pulls together information from a mixture of public and private resources to form an extremely detailed report on an individual.
Final Tips To Protect Yourself Online
Remember to always stay cautious with strangers or new friends online. Verify what they're saying. Limit what you share online. Keep all personal information to yourself. Never send money online to someone you don’t know, and report suspicious behaviour. Be careful when sending photos, and make sure you take your time when forming online relationships. Use FaceTime or video chat early in the relationship and block anyone who you feel is suspicious.
Scammers are using AI to fool you.
Would you fall for an AI-powered callback scam?
Listen and decide for yourself!Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called “catfishing”?
The term catfish gained popularity after the release of the 2010 documentary "Catfish," which explored the deception in depth. It's about a young man who builds a romantic relationship with a woman on Facebook, who turns out to be completely fake. In the documentary, the woman is compared to a catfish, due to the tendency for catfish to be included in shipments of cod, where they are effectively imposters.
Where does catfishing happen most?
Catfishing usually happens on social media platforms. The most popular sites include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Private messaging apps include WhatsApp, Snapchat, Telegram, WeChat, and Facebook Messenger.
The most common dating apps include Tinder, Grindr, Hinge, and Bumble.
What should I do if I suspect I’m being catfished?
If you suspect you're being catfished, stop all contact immediately. Save any messages, photos, or other details that could be used as evidence. Then report it to your local police or cybercrime agency. The more information you can provide, the better chance authorities have of taking action.
How is catfishing different from sadfishing?
Sadfishing is when someone exaggerates their emotional struggles online to gain attention, sympathy, or validation. The term is a play on “catfishing,” which is when someone creates a fake online identity to deceive others. Both involve manipulation, but in different ways. Catfishing targets your trust and identity, while sadfishing plays on your emotions.