In 2024 you would think people would be more savvy when it comes to detecting catfish.
The internet has been around for over 20 years – people should have a healthy dose of skepticism when dealing with anyone that they don’t know
Any naivety or gullibility should have been crushed by the Tinder Swindler.
But yet there comes a story that seems to rival that in craziness.
We’ve had a married rabbi pretending to be a single dog-trainer, guys pretending to be astronauts and now we can add to the list, a woman pretending to be a guy in order to chat up women.
When it comes to catfishing there’s 2 basic ways to go about it
- Everything about you including what you look like is fake.
- They know what you look like – and you make up elements of who you are
So if it’s the first type, they’re doing it not to meet you. They just want to chat with you online and have an online relationship.
If a person is who they say they are they have a basic digital footprint – such as social media accounts – LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and the information on them reconciles with what you’ve already said.
If you are skeptical about who they are – pay attention to the pictures. Are they different or are the same headshot over and over again?
Now of course someone could create all these things for a fake person. They could take the photos from someone else’s profile and create mirror profiles this way. This fake profile could connect with people they’ve never met and have hundreds of connections, friends and followers.
The problem is that in 2024 – there should be no issue with having a video call – Whatsapp, Facebook, Zoom, Google Meet, so on and so forth. If they don’t agree to a video call, they’re a catfish.
If it’s second type, this is like the Tinder Swindler and it depends on what likes they’ve told you – ie family background, personal background, professional background, etc.
The best way to verify information about them is to speak to a mutual friend but the mutual friend may be in the dark just like you.
If this is the case, you are going to just have to find this out for yourself, or possibly never find out at all.
As Oscar Wilde said Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.