The internet is full of resources that you can use for fun. For example, you can play games at Ice Casino, share posts on social media, watch movies and TV series on streaming sites. But if you’re not careful, the internet can also turn into a trap. Catfishing is one of the most common online threats, and anyone can become a victim. In this article, we explain what catfishing is and how you can avoid it.

What Is Catfishing?

If you’ve ever watched the popular “Tinder Swindler” on Netflix, you know what catfishing is. If you haven’t watched it, this is the general term for people who pretend to be someone else, usually for their own benefit. The young 24-year-old Wall Street broker you chat with on Facebook may actually be a 13-year-old teenager still living with his mother. A beautiful young woman who has shared hundreds of photos on Instagram may actually be an obese middle-aged man named Chuck. In short, even people who share detailed information about themselves on the Internet may actually be other people.

Catfishing is a type of cyber fraud that always has a victim. A specific person is selected as the target, and that person is contacted via social media & IM applications. In this communication, the attacker introduces himself as someone else and takes into account the interests of the target when creating this fake persona. If you have introduced yourself on social media as a romantic person who seeks love, the attacker will take on the role of the most passionate lover in history. If you share that you are expecting a relationship that will turn into a marriage, the attacker will take on the figure of a reliable mother/father. In short, whatever the target likes, the attacker makes himself look like him.

Catfishing can be done for “trolling” or financial purposes. Trolling attacks are usually not serious and easy to spot. Trolling catfishing attacks, made usually by teenagers, are short-lived and serve no purpose other than to get a reaction from the victim. The attacker often tells the truth after receiving a reaction that he finds funny or cringe.

Financial catfishing attacks, on the other hand, are far more frightening: detailed investigations are made of the target, and the attack continues for a while, sometimes for months. The goal is to get the victim to trust the attacker. Once this is obtained, the victim is asked for money on an excuse. For example, the person you see as your lover asks you for a loan to pay back shortly. Both the demand for money and the desired amount keep increasing. This continues until the victim realizes that something is wrong and begins to suspect. It’s possible to lose a lot more money than you might think: some of Tinder Swindler’s victims claim to have lost $250,000.

Protecting Yourself Against Catfishing

The general rule applies here as well: if something seems too good to be true, it is not true. If someone who is exactly the type of person you’re looking for suddenly contacts you over the internet, you should be suspicious instead of seeing it as a happy coincidence. However, if you still have hope:

• Examine all social media accounts of the person who contacted you. If he/she claims to have no social media account and insists on using a certain method of communication (e.g. WhatsApp), they are not the person they say they are.
• However, having a social media account and/or sharing photos online alone is not enough. Catfishers create fake social media profiles and steal photos suitable for this profile and add them to their accounts. Search all photos shared by the person you contacted with Google Reverse Image Search. If the photo belongs to someone else or has been tampered with, you can easily see it.
• If this “pre-check” is complete, insist on a video chat and request a meeting in the real world (in a crowded and safe environment). If they say no to any of these, you can be sure that this is a scam.
• But even if they say yes to both, you still aren’t safe. If they ask you for money after talking for a while, never accept it and end the communication. If someone you meet online asks you for money, you can be sure that it is a scam – there is no other option.

Using common-sense is the best precaution: trust your instincts and avoid posting too much about your personality online. The more information you share, the more resources the attacker can get to create a persona you like. Be suspicious of anyone who starts acting romantic too quickly and insists on meeting your “partner’s” friends. Catfishers almost always work alone, meaning they have no family or friends to introduce you to.