Their goal often is merely to create an online persona to attract people they feel wouldn’t be interested in them in real life.

Some are more “innocent.” For instance, some people catfish because they feel lonely or underappreciated in a society that doesn’t find them attractive.

There are many different reasons people catfish. Since digital catfishers also chase their victim, the term was adopted to describe them as well. Since the catfish is the natural enemy of the cod, it’d chase the fish around constantly, keeping it fresh, active, and better-tasting. The term originally comes from the early 1900s, when anglers used to ship catfish with codfish. However, the documentary simply popularized the term – it didn’t invent it. Now, you might rightfully ask yourself: why is it called catfishing? Some people think it came from the popular 2010 documentary Catfish, which discusses a young man being deceived by a woman with a fake Facebook profile. Alternatively, they might attempt to force people to “pay up,” for instance, by combining catfishing with other scams, such as sextortion, which frequently happens. Many of them ask for money once they have gained the victim’s trust, for example. However, catfishers often have much more sinister motives. Some people catfish just because they feel they’re getting very limited romantic attention. To this end, the catfisher generally uses made-up stories and fake photos to support their fake identity. What is Catfishing?Ĭatfishing means pretending to be someone else to deceive someone into wanting a romantic relationship with the pretender. The 23,000 victims reported combined damage of more than $605,000,000.īut what is this dangerous practice of catfishing you’ve heard so much about exactly? Where can you get catfished? What are the signs you are being catfished? What should you do to prevent it if you have already become a victim? We will answer all these questions in this extensive article.

Moreover, the financial damage caused by catfishing is devastating. I n 2020 alone, over 23,000 US citizens reported being a victim of catfishing. With the surge in social media and online dating over the last decade, catfishing has become more common than ever.

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