Catfishing


Catfishing is a deceptive activity where a person creates a sockpuppet presence or fake identity on a social networking service, usually targeting a specific victim for abuse or fraud. Catfishing is often employed for romance scams on dating websites. The practice may be used for financial gain, to compromise a victim in some way, or simply as forms of trolling or wish fulfillment. Catfishing media has been produced, often featuring victims who wish to identify their catfisher. Celebrities have been targeted, which has brought media attention to catfishing practices.

History

The modern term originated from the 2010 American documentary Catfish. In the documentary, one of the characters mention a fishing urban myth relating to cod and catfish as the inspiration for his use of the term "catfishing". This myth originated in the fiction writing of Henry Nevinson and Charles Marriott.
Catfishing has become more widely known throughout the subsequent decade, thanks to a television series which followed the main star of the movie, Yaniv Schulman, helping other people investigate their possible catfish situation.
The term rose in popularity during an incident involving University of Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o in 2013.
According to a Washington Post article the Rolling Stone University of Virginia rape hoax story may have been an example of catfishing.

Sociology

Some online users have used catfishing to explore their gender and/or sexual identities. For example, on the MTV show , based on the documentary, a girl named Sonny connects with a male model named Jamison who is, in reality, Chelsea, a woman using her alternative identity to interact with other women in an online space.
Financial gain can be another motive of catfishing. In 2015, three girls created a fake social media profile and managed to steal $3,300 from the Islamic State, a terrorist group. They had been approached by a recruitment officer and asked for money to go to Syria. After being given the money, they immediately deleted their account and pocketed the cash for their own personal travel.
Catfishing can also be a tactic to stop criminals. In 2004, Dateline NBC produced the segment, To Catch a Predator, which documented undercover cops posing as minors online to catch pedophiles.
Catfishing is used for multiple reasons. An internet user uses a fake identity to persuade another to believe they are the person they portray. This often is used for relationships, such as the scenario in the movie Catfish. The person catfishing usually uses another real person's photos and life facts to make them appear as a real person. Often, the real person who is being used for the fake identity does not even know that they are having their pictures and name used. They are not aware that their identity was used to create these fake relationships online. The person uses catfishing in order to appear as a better version of themselves by using a fake identity. Their primary reason to appear as a fake person is to befriend the other person for a relationship or other sexual reasons. It can also be used as a way to cyberbully someone online. By using a fake identity, it is easy for the person to get away with bullying on the internet. Since they are using another person's identity or a made up identity, the person will not get in trouble and will not have any consequences. The cyberbullying cannot be traced back to them, which is a big reason why they use a fake identity in the first place. This type of cyberbullying has increased the number of suicides in teens over the past few years.

Dangers

There are many dangers of catfishing. It can be used to attract a person from the Internet and allow them to meet them in person. The person catfishing can lure people to a place to kidnap, or hurt in any other way. It is a new way for sexual predators to interact with their victims and possibly harm. These sexual predators use their fake identity to talk to teens, allowing them to get close to them so that the victim will trust them. It is then easy for the predator to get information from the victim so that they can use that information to harm them. An example of this was the 2007 murder of Carly Ryan.

Signs

There are several ways people can spot a catfisher, all of which are imperfect. If a random person starts following or messaging a user, and the person's profile picture looks fake or too good to be true, then the person may be catfishing. If the person messaging does not want to video chat, or keeps finding excuses to not meet up, they might be a catfisher as well. Tineye Image Search and Google Image Search can be used to help verify images.

Example

The identity of an Australian actor, Lincoln Lewis, was used by an impostor over four years. The actions resulted in the suicide of one victim, who had at one point reached out to the real Lincoln Lewis as they had attended primary school together, so she was familiar with some aspects of his life that were discovered and exploited by the perpetrator. The female perpetrator operated from at least mid-2011 until arrested in mid-2016, and in early 2019 was found guilty of stalking six people.