Lately, catfishing hasn’t been brought up as much as it used to be, but that doesn’t make it any less significant as of now. Not even to mention the fact it may be getting worse! The reason for this is that we now have much more advanced technology and a better knowledge of technology. As stated by cybersmile.org “Catfishing used to be seen more among adults using online dating platforms, it has now become a more widespread problem among adults and teenagers.” This statement shows the implication that this can be endangering a larger community of younger and more naive people.

Furthermore, in 2018 alone there were 18,000 reported people who were victims of catfishing, according to the FBI ( bestvpn.org ). On top of this many experts believe there were many more actual catfishing cases than this but the victims had not revealed them out of pure humiliation. Despite being embarrassing and misleading, catfishing can also lead to very bad financial situations for many individuals.

Some ways they could lure you into their traps can be simply asking the right questions, mentioning the right things, and making them seem interested in you and your life. They will make your “relationship” feel as real as possible, but once they do execute this, they will try to get money out of you. And many of them succeed in this, by seeming innocent and making you feel like you should just help them out this time as it feels like the right thing to do, but they will either stop talking to you altogether or keep sneakily getting money out of you. Another circumstance could be that the catfish will make plans with you to meet up by meeting somewhere or going on a trip, but then out of nowhere they will cancel for reasons like they “can’t afford it,” and this will lead to them asking for money. Besides that situation, they may also directly cancel plans and tell you they need money for a family emergency, or, in a rare case, because they got arrested. In addition, another very common plot used by catfish on many social media platforms is finding new “friends” on the app and then promoting a so-called “business” or “investment” (all catfishing schemes found at https://bestvpn.org/catfishing-statistics/ ).

At this point, you may be thinking “Why would people even catfish in the first place?” Well, here are a few reasons for the motives of Catfish: self-consciousness, mental illness,  revenge, etc. The reasoning behind these can be, people may not like how they look, or no one would like them if they knew what they really looked like, so they decide to use another picture of someone they believe is more “attractive”. Further, mental illness can affect a person’s self-image making them anxious to show who they truly are, or they may look down on themselves thinking they are not enough, which would result in them feeling more confident in someone they aren’t than the person they are in reality. Last but not least, many people are catfish seeking revenge. People may use catfishing as a form of revenge on their past lovers by creating fake social media accounts and using them to degrade their reputations and discredit them, or they may even create false identities and trap them in a relationship that isn’t authentic so later down the line they could hurt them emotionally ( all reasons and more are found at https://www.cybersmile.org/what-we-do/advice-help/catfishing ).

Accordingly, there are many adverse effects of catfishing on the victims that can be found at bulliesout.com such as “anxiety and depression, and it can also cause financial loss.” Henceforth, take this information and be well aware of who you are really talking to and if you can TRULY trust them.