Catfishing: The Dangers of Meeting a Stranger Online

Catfishing:  “The phenomenon of internet predators that fabricate online identities and entire social circles to trick people into emotional/romantic relationships” (urbandictionary.com).
Ever since Nev Schulman got “Catfished” and made his own documentary, it has been his goal to help people out that were in the same situation that he was.  So, he made the TV show Catfish.  As an avid viewer of this show, I would guess that 9 out of every 10 episodes, the online person was not exactly who they said they were.  The episodes that have happy endings are very scarce, however there have been a couple over the years (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/millennial-media/201212/catfish-and-the-perils-online-dating).  If most of these online relationships end poorly, why do people even bother?  Why not just go out and find someone in person to have a relationship with?  It is a much better option and much safer to date someone that you meet in person than someone who you met online.  If you don’t believe me, some of these statistics might persuade your thoughts.

According to scientificamerican.com, “Research has found that nine out of ten online daters will fib about their height, weight, or age. Men are more likely to alter their height, perhaps because it is a reflection of status, while women are more likely to provide lower estimates on weight, likely because we place a high premium of desirability on the notion of "skinniness."”  These are just the white lies that won’t really hurt anybody’s impression too much, but still, 90% of people lying in some sort of way is a cause for concern.  And then there are also people out there that will create entirely fake profiles for the purpose of fooling people into falling in love with them and doing things for them.  Why do people do this?  That’s another topic for another post, but a big reason is because of how easy it is.  It only takes a couple minutes to make an e-mail, make a Facebook account, and post fake information and pictures.  

On top of those statistics; "54% of online daters believe that someone else has presented false information in their profile, and 28% have been contacted in a way that left them feeling harassed or uncomfortable. (http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/catfishing-the-truth-about-deception-online)"  If nearly one out of three people feel harassed by somebody online, how good of an idea is it to meet someone online?  Those are not great odds.

As easy as it is to make a fake account with fake pictures, it’s also very easy to foil a fake account.  So if you are in a situation like this and you think the images are fake, all it takes is a google image search. The image below is an example of someone who is NOT a Catfish.  The image returns no exact results other than the one post through Facebook.  It returns similar results, but none of these are the same person as the original image.  I used my Facebook friend that I know in real life as an example for someone who is not fake.

 The image above is an example of a "Catfish."  For a while, one of my other Facebook friends had a picture of Tracy McGrady in a Knicks uniform as his profile picture.  After saving this image and dragging it into google, you see that this image returns many results, as images on fake profiles will.  Nev often uses this tactic in his show, and more times than not, this is where some dirt is uncovered. 

Based off earlier information, if 9/10 people lie in some sort of manner, how do you know that they won't lie again?  And how can you tell if people are lying to you online?  There are some precautions you can take to make sure that the person you are supposedly talking to online is not dangerous or lying.  The simplest way to find out if somebody is lying, especially about their appearance, is to video chat with them through Skype or another app.  If they are unable to do that in this day and age, that seems sketchy.  

The safest bet obviously is to find someone in person somewhere and skip the whole online dating fiasco in general.  That way you know exactly who you are dating and there are no questions about appearance or anything like that.  

PS: Don't be oblivious.  Someone on Catfish one season thought they were actually dating Bow Wow.  Really?  Use a little common sense.


Sources:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/catfishing-the-truth-about-deception-online/ 
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/millennial-media/201212/catfish-and-the-perils-online-dating