Hello everyone, I have been watching a lot of MTV’s Catfish and it still bothers me, why do people have to pretend about who they are, this is the Internet we are talking about were more than 3 billion people are on. There is always someone there for everyone who will share your interests or will like you. But let’s start from the beginning.
WHAT IS CATFISHING And CATFISH ?
Even though some say that the term “catfish” originates from the 2010 American documentary Catfish. The term catfish is a fishermen terminology “putting sea catfish in with the cod to nip at their tails and keep them active, during transport in order to have lively and fresher meat”, catfishing as made many a victim.
Now a days online dating as become more and more common because of all the increasing ways we can communicate, we are more connected than ever before, it’s both amazing and a bit scary. According to xnspy, there are more than 40 million people searching for love on social networking sites. And users like the idea of making themselves more attractive through their profiles, than they might be in real life. What could be an harmful little white lie in the hands of an online predator or scam artist becomes something much much darker.
Catfishing is become more and more common, some offenders committing this crime have said it was out of boredom, curiosity, revenge, loneliness or form bad life experiences. And like wolf in sheep’s clothing the catfish begins to paint a picture for the victim of someone, they are not and using this to earn their trust and all this misdeeds have a negative effect on the lives of the victims, becoming paranoid, depressed, suicidal and much more. Statistics show that one out of every ten profiles are fake.
Here is an infographics from xnspy, explaining it more ;
Signs You might be getting Catfished
- Prefers chat instead of using a webcam at least once in a while
- He or She seems to good to be true
- Says things that contradict earlier statements
- Not willing to meet in real life and keep giving excuses why they can’t
- Their pictures are not tagged by friends
- They have any outrageous to good to believe life (like claims to be a part time model and brain surgeon)
- Asking for money
Ways to Try and Protect yourself against Catfishing
- Go online and do your research into them(try to find their back stories and social media profile).
- Do image searching (reverse image search on google).
- install the XNSPY app.
- go through their friends list.
- do a phone number search.
- try matching up what they tell you to see if it’s true (like if they say they own a store, try and find it online).
- listen carefully to the background if you can get them to voice call.
- keep asking questions.
- Try and get them to skype and meet in real life as soon as you can.
- Try using geotags from photos of the person to figure out if the place he or she tells you they stay is valid.
- Use a laptop when doing this research into a person they are better suited for this than using a smartphone.
To the Online Catfishs
I just feel like why live a life of lies and always having to cover them up and make excuses, the web is a massive place there is always someone out there for everyone, no matter how weird or much of a loser you think you are. There is no how you look at it there person you catfish may never be with you, especially if you lie to them. It would be better to come clean no matter how long it’ been going on, the person will stay if they will stay.
There no point pretending to someone just to get a person, you both deserve to have someone who likes you for being you. And trust me when I say you will find someone out there who will. You are just going to end up hurting the both of you if you continue this.
Hope you like my article and it helps and informs people, share to your friends to let’s make sure everyone we care about is safe from the online catfish. Leave comments and message me, I would love to hear from you. Let’s all stay safe out there on the internet. Till next time take care and check out our other content.