Have you ever been catfished?

[BAD]

Catfishing, for those who don't know, is a term that refers to the use of a created or stolen persona in order to form a relationship (platonic or romantic) over the Internet without the other person realizing the fraudulent behavior is responsible for the connection.

So it can be having someone use a fake Facebook or Tinder account to chat with you or someone pretends to be your girlfriend on an MMO and you thought it was genuine or whatever.

I once pretended I was a female player in Star Wars Galaxies MMO and got men to give me millions of credits for being a "sweetheart."

Well I've been on some hookup apps lately and people often ask you to prove you aren't catfishing them these days. Asking for pics with specific hand gestures and what not. I thankfully haven't caught anyone catfishing me and misleading me, but it got me wondering...

Have you ever been catfished? Have you done it to anyone?

 

[Officer Big Mac]

No. But I've been badgergiraffed.

 

[Transistor]

No, but I helped catfish someone else to help someone catch a cheater in the act

 

[36 Chambers]

I had a guy pretend to be a girl on Tinder years back. Knew something was off, confronted him about it, he admitted it and still begged to suck my dick until i blocked him

People are weird man

 

[Sanjuro]

I used to use voice masking on Xbox Live to pretend I was a robot.

Not actually a robot.

 

[Woolley]

I don't think so. If we're not meeting up a week in then I'm just going to ignore them going forward.

 

[jack_package_200]

Yes.

Messaged a girl on Okcupid and when we met in person she was about 50lbs heavier than what her pictures showed and what her profile said.

 

[dralla]

I've met people who were clearly using old pictures of themselves. Not exactly a catfish but similar. It's always awkward as hell too since there's no great way to bring it up without coming off has hostile. In one situation, the girl was about 75 pounds heavier than her pictures and she brought it up as soon as I sat down to meet her, blamed it on surgery and being on bed rest. I generally try and exchange Instagram accounts before meeting people now.

 

[Deleted member 8257]

Yes and I made a thread about it:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/is...gy-after-being-catfished-long-time-ago.41510/

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

I've been duped with those Myspace angle pics. On the other hand I had a few that actually looked way better in person so I guess it evened out.

 

[AwwBubbles]

No I have not.

 

[Shatty McKracken]

Yep, back in the early days of online dating.

Someone I met on Match.com.

I showed up to her house to pick her up. We were going to go to a club and I was picking her up at 8:30. Lie #1 - she still lived at home, her angry dad answered the door. Not a dealbreaker but she made herself out to be single successful and had her own money. Lie #2 - she comes out of her room and she wasn't ready - just a pet peeve of mine. If I'm picking up at 8:30, that means I'm ready to go at 8:30. She was still working on her hair and was in a bathrobe with green cream all over her face. I had to sit there until 9:15 waiting on her to finish while trying to have uncomfortable conversation with her dad and fighting off her weiner dog continuously trying to have sex with my right leg. Lie #3 - she was at least 50-100 lbs heavier than any picture she displayed publicly. Didn't look anything like what she portrayed herself to be.

When we were finally ready to go, I told her we needed to drive separate because I had something come up from work I had to be there early the next morning and was not going to stay out late. My lie #1. I told her I wasn't familiar with the area of the club and I would need to follow her in her car. My lie #2. I pretty much knew I was going to bail at that point so I waited for an opportunity. We came to a 4-way stop and she went straight through. I took a hard right and kept on going, never answered her calls or texts after that.

 

[Matttimeo]

I've never knowingly been directly catfished. Although I used to mod a forum where one of my fellow mods ran like 3-4 secret alternate accounts and would chat to 'himself' and in a few occasions would moderate behaviour his alt accounts. This must have gone on for a good year or so before he slipped up on masking his IPs and we asked him as to why so many users had his IP address. He completely vanished into the ether after so never got a good answer for why he did it.

 

[Jmille99]

Yep, on two different occasions.

The first I was just starting high school and got to the point where we started talking on the phone. She lived in California and we lived in Kansas. My parents noticed the calls to California, wondered why, and called it themselves. The grandparents of the girl who she lived with informed them of everything, and thats how I came to find out about the lies that way.

The second was college, and I was posting a lot on the MTV message boards. A few of us became decent enough friends and one in particular who lived close seemed to have a possible relationship brewing. Other friends realized she was trying to pull a fast one, brought it to my attention, and I called her out on it. Still talked a little after that, but basically came to a halt shortly after.

 

[RecRoulette]

Yeah, live and learn.

 

[BasilZero]

I've never knowingly been directly catfished. Although I used to mod a forum where one of my fellow mods ran like 3-4 secret alternate accounts and would chat to 'himself' and in a few occasions would moderate behaviour his alt accounts. This must have gone on for a good year or so before he slipped up on masking his IPs and we asked him as to why so many users had his IP address. He completely vanished into the ether after so never got a good answer for why he did it.

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Lol what

That sounds really odd....

 

[JCHandsom]

No. But I've been badgergiraffed.

Click to shrink...

Why did this get me?

 

[N.Domixis]

Nah, I used to be the catfisher. Got curious by tinder and just trolled girls left and right. And since I was not well informed of the dating world I was confused why some called me a catfish until years later I learned about that term.

 

[Beartruck]

I catfish all the time. Caught a 5 pounder last week.

 

[riotous]

I've never knowingly been directly catfished. Although I used to mod a forum where one of my fellow mods ran like 3-4 secret alternate accounts and would chat to 'himself' and in a few occasions would moderate behaviour his alt accounts. This must have gone on for a good year or so before he slipped up on masking his IPs and we asked him as to why so many users had his IP address. He completely vanished into the ether after so never got a good answer for why he did it.

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Lol, were some female personas?

Reminds me of Brianna Haskins / guernicaman from TeamXBox.

 

[Alice]

I always just get women who wait a very long time to actually tell me that they have children. Does that already count as catfishing?

 

[Inkblots]

Remember Serafitia?

 

[ryutaro's mama]

Catfished, no.

Duped by older pics inconsistent with the present? Yes.

 

[Deleted member 6173]

Yes and it fucking sucks so much. The sad part is that I keep falling for it because anytime any girl shows me any attention I'm like a gullible fool.

 

[honest_ry]

No, im not a cunt.

 

[Borgnine]

Is it Catfishing if the person is just overweight? A catfish is a big fish but we should be using a different bigger fish like a tuna or a sturgeon.

 

[EndlessNever]

No, it never happened to me personally and never found the reason to do it as I'm happy with who I am.

 

[klastical]

A woman at my work was/is being catfished. She's sending money to an "american soldier" posted up in Nigeria. They are engaged despite never meeting. We all found out when she sent a note around the office asking for money to bring her fiance home for Christmas. Needless to say nobody gave her money and tried to explain to her what was happening but she wouldn't believe it and became upset. She's been out of work for a few months for family issues so nobody knows what's going on with her.

The amount of sadness I felt for that woman the day I learned about her being catfished is indescribable. Just a very deep, dark sadness.

 

[Deleted member 12379]

Yep, back in the early days of online dating.

Someone I met on Match.com.

I showed up to her house to pick her up. We were going to go to a club and I was picking her up at 8:30. Lie #1 - she still lived at home, her angry dad answered the door. Not a dealbreaker but she made herself out to be single successful and had her own money. Lie #2 - she comes out of her room and she wasn't ready - just a pet peeve of mine. If I'm picking up at 8:30, that means I'm ready to go at 8:30. She was still working on her hair and was in a bathrobe with green cream all over her face. I had to sit there until 9:15 waiting on her to finish while trying to have uncomfortable conversation with her dad and fighting off her weiner dog continuously trying to have sex with my right leg. Lie #3 - she was at least 50-100 lbs heavier than any picture she displayed publicly. Didn't look anything like what she portrayed herself to be.

When we were finally ready to go, I told her we needed to drive separate because I had something come up from work I had to be there early the next morning and was not going to stay out late. My lie #1. I told her I wasn't familiar with the area of the club and I would need to follow her in her car. My lie #2. I pretty much knew I was going to bail at that point so I waited for an opportunity. We came to a 4-way stop and she went straight through. I took a hard right and kept on going, never answered her calls or texts after that.

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haha well played. I probably would have gone all the way to the club and then made an excuse. you weren't having any of that!

 

[TheWooniestWoona]

I've never knowingly been directly catfished. Although I used to mod a forum where one of my fellow mods ran like 3-4 secret alternate accounts and would chat to 'himself' and in a few occasions would moderate behaviour his alt accounts. This must have gone on for a good year or so before he slipped up on masking his IPs and we asked him as to why so many users had his IP address. He completely vanished into the ether after so never got a good answer for why he did it.

Click to shrink...

I suspect something pretty similar happened to a forum I used to spend a lot of time on. Never had proof of multiple accounts, but my gut feeling is that's what happened. Even had the disappearance off the face of the earth. It was weird.

 

[HeySeuss]

Yep, back in the early days of online dating.

Someone I met on Match.com.

I showed up to her house to pick her up. We were going to go to a club and I was picking her up at 8:30. Lie #1 - she still lived at home, her angry dad answered the door. Not a dealbreaker but she made herself out to be single successful and had her own money. Lie #2 - she comes out of her room and she wasn't ready - just a pet peeve of mine. If I'm picking up at 8:30, that means I'm ready to go at 8:30. She was still working on her hair and was in a bathrobe with green cream all over her face. I had to sit there until 9:15 waiting on her to finish while trying to have uncomfortable conversation with her dad and fighting off her weiner dog continuously trying to have sex with my right leg. Lie #3 - she was at least 50-100 lbs heavier than any picture she displayed publicly. Didn't look anything like what she portrayed herself to be.

When we were finally ready to go, I told her we needed to drive separate because I had something come up from work I had to be there early the next morning and was not going to stay out late. My lie #1. I told her I wasn't familiar with the area of the club and I would need to follow her in her car. My lie #2. I pretty much knew I was going to bail at that point so I waited for an opportunity. We came to a 4-way stop and she went straight through. I took a hard right and kept on going, never answered her calls or texts after that.

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This story makes you sound like an absolute dick. So what she wasn't ready when you got there? Have you not dated many women before? My girl would be late to her own funeral. The weight thing isn't catfishing it's just creative angles or misleading at worst.

 

[Militaratus]

This guy was harassing a female guild member in FFXIV, and she asked me for help. So, I pretended to be her gay lover and convinced the harasser that she was totally a dude and I described our hypothetical gay sex life. I don't know if that counts as catfishing, but the utter disgust and disappointment of the guy made the ruse very worth it

 

[Alice]

This guy was harassing a female guild member in FFXIV, and she asked me for help. So, I pretended to be her gay lover and convinced the harasser that she was totally a dude and I described our hypothetical gay sex life. I don't know if that counts as catfishing, but the utter disgust and disappointment of the guy made the ruse very worth it

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Oh God, the FFXIV stories to tell about these kinds of things... We once had someone drunkenly declare his love to someone who was playing a female character, but is actually a guy who never spoke about anything gender related.

I think the poor guy was so embarassed he never logged in again.

 

[tintskuecha]

Not yet. I have met 4 people from tinder. All were who they said they were.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

Yes.

Messaged a girl on Okcupid and when we met in person she was about 50lbs heavier than what her pictures showed and what her profile said.

Click to shrink...

Yep, back in the early days of online dating.

Someone I met on Match.com.

I showed up to her house to pick her up. We were going to go to a club and I was picking her up at 8:30. Lie #1 - she still lived at home, her angry dad answered the door. Not a dealbreaker but she made herself out to be single successful and had her own money. Lie #2 - she comes out of her room and she wasn't ready - just a pet peeve of mine. If I'm picking up at 8:30, that means I'm ready to go at 8:30. She was still working on her hair and was in a bathrobe with green cream all over her face. I had to sit there until 9:15 waiting on her to finish while trying to have uncomfortable conversation with her dad and fighting off her weiner dog continuously trying to have sex with my right leg. Lie #3 - she was at least 50-100 lbs heavier than any picture she displayed publicly. Didn't look anything like what she portrayed herself to be.

When we were finally ready to go, I told her we needed to drive separate because I had something come up from work I had to be there early the next morning and was not going to stay out late. My lie #1. I told her I wasn't familiar with the area of the club and I would need to follow her in her car. My lie #2. I pretty much knew I was going to bail at that point so I waited for an opportunity. We came to a 4-way stop and she went straight through. I took a hard right and kept on going, never answered her calls or texts after that.

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Neither of these are catfishing

 

[DirtyLarry]

I am old enough to have participated in AOL chat.
The term had not yet existed, but I was duped multiple times.

 

[Coyote Starrk]

Actually I wish I could change my vote. I forgot I was catfished in Highschool. I met a girl through facebook and her pictures made her look great. Only to find out when I met her for a date they were heavily shopped and she lied about her height and weight as well.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

Back in my AOL Instant Messenger days as a pre-teen, I had managed to get the user name "Sion Barzahd," the main character from The Bouncer. Out of the blue, I got a message from like, SionBarzahd612 (I forget exactly what the number in his username was) in a friendly manner expressing his jealousy, but he and I also became chat friends for a few months. Being that I was young and stupid, I shared a bunch of personal details about my real life with him, and he used that to eventually pose as a girl I liked at school, linked me to a fake AOL login portal to allegedly fill out a questionnaire/poll thing, but it was just to get my AOL password so he could login and steal the Sion Barzahd username. He completely ignored me while logged onto the username.

Meh. Thought I had a new online buddy that bonded with me over our misguided love for The Bouncer, but it felt like he was just going for the unique user name steal all along.

First and only time I've been catfished, though I guess this is perhaps more in line with regular old "phishing?"

 

[Gugi40]

Most of the people I have met looked like their photos but act very different in person. I get catfished sometimes though, the people always look younger and healthier in the photo and then you meet them and they are old, overweight (which is fine for me), and extremely poorly taken care of. It is the lie that turns me off more than the change in looks.

 

[Razmos]

I started talking to a guy through a dating site, we talked for at least a month or two, talking all day every day, we exchanged pictures and made plans to meet up. I asked him to prove it was him a few times but he always had a convenient excuse and I was young and stupid and I really liked him so I would just let it go.

Then one day on a whim I decided to Google image search some of his pictures and saw that they belonged to a reddit account of a straight guy. Some of the pictures weren't on there but I assume that the guy I was speaking to had catfished him as well.

I was devastated and confronted him about it, he promised he would take a picture and prove it was him, and then he disappeared off the face of the earth.

He contacted me again several months later stating that he was really sorry he disappeared, his sister and mother had died in a car accident. I told him that I didn't believe him and he could go fuck himself. And that was the end of that

 

[daveo42]

I was on both ends back when I played FFXI over a decade ago.

 

[somedaythefire]

Someone catfished other people as me.

 

[Kthulhu]

Someone catfished other people as me.

Click to shrink...

How'd you find out?

 

[a916]

This story makes you sound like an absolute dick. So what she wasn't ready when you got there? Have you not dated many women before? My girl would be late to her own funeral. The weight thing isn't catfishing it's just creative angles or misleading at worst.

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Being 100 pounds heavier than your pictures isn't being catfished? I feel like that one qualifies since it's grossly misleading someone.

 

[Woolley]

Being 100 pounds heavier than your pictures isn't being catfished? I feel like that one qualifies since it's grossly misleading someone.

Click to shrink...

No its deceptive but catfishing is pretending to be a whole different person/identity.

 

[Host Samurai]

I have on Tinder a few times. One time I was talking to this girl and got her number. I looked up the number and it was the name of another person. I then looked on Facebook and she was a completely different looking person. It's no wonder why she wouldn't send me pics.

Another time I got catfished on Tinder was when I was having a good conversation and got her number. Once we started texting, she kept asking me if I found her attractive and why. Turned out she was using her pics of someone she knows and that she sent me real pics of her which I did not find attractive.

Here is another. Tinder again and I matched with a woman that wanted to hook up. Everything was all good but then she asked if I wanted to have a 3some with her and her friend that came in on vacation. I said I am down but would need to see a pic of her friend. She uploaded the pic on Tinder and she wasn't really my type, but I was still game because the woman I was talking to was hot. 1st she refused to get me her number and said only when we meet. 2nd she kept talking more about her friend than her. This was clear to me that this woman was using her friend's pics on her profile. She ended up refusing to show me proof that she was the woman in the pictures. Good thing I dodged a bullet with that one.

 

[Z-Beat]

Back in my AOL Instant Messenger days as a pre-teen, I had managed to get the user name "Sion Barzahd," the main character from The Bouncer. Out of the blue, I got a message from like, SionBarzahd612 (I forget exactly what the number in his username was) in a friendly manner expressing his jealousy, but he and I also became chat friends for a few months. Being that I was young and stupid, I shared a bunch of personal details about my real life with him, and he used that to eventually pose as a girl I liked at school, linked me to a fake AOL login portal to allegedly fill out a questionnaire/poll thing, but it was just to get my AOL password so he could login and steal the Sion Barzahd username. He completely ignored me while logged onto the username.

Meh. Thought I had a new online buddy that bonded with me over our misguided love for The Bouncer, but it felt like he was just going for the unique user name steal all along.

First and only time I've been catfished, though I guess this is perhaps more in line with regular old "phishing?"

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That's hilarious in how convoluted that plan was just to get a username

 

[Gloomz]

Yep, back in the early days of online dating.

Someone I met on Match.com.

I showed up to her house to pick her up. We were going to go to a club and I was picking her up at 8:30. Lie #1 - she still lived at home, her angry dad answered the door. Not a dealbreaker but she made herself out to be single successful and had her own money. Lie #2 - she comes out of her room and she wasn't ready - just a pet peeve of mine. If I'm picking up at 8:30, that means I'm ready to go at 8:30. She was still working on her hair and was in a bathrobe with green cream all over her face. I had to sit there until 9:15 waiting on her to finish while trying to have uncomfortable conversation with her dad and fighting off her weiner dog continuously trying to have sex with my right leg. Lie #3 - she was at least 50-100 lbs heavier than any picture she displayed publicly. Didn't look anything like what she portrayed herself to be.

When we were finally ready to go, I told her we needed to drive separate because I had something come up from work I had to be there early the next morning and was not going to stay out late. My lie #1. I told her I wasn't familiar with the area of the club and I would need to follow her in her car. My lie #2. I pretty much knew I was going to bail at that point so I waited for an opportunity. We came to a 4-way stop and she went straight through. I took a hard right and kept on going, never answered her calls or texts after that.

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I'm always curious about things like this.

1) If you're online dating and you lie, it's 100% going to get found out eventually.

but 2) So you ghosted her? Wouldn't it have been easier to just tell her that she wasn't honest and you weren't interested any longer?

 

[Shatty McKracken]

I'm always curious about things like this.

1) If you're online dating and you lie, it's 100% going to get found out eventually.

but 2) So you ghosted her? Wouldn't it have been easier to just tell her that she wasn't honest and you weren't interested any longer?

Click to shrink...

I was a lot younger and immature. The right thing to do would have me being honest and tell her I didn't feel like she looked anything like her pictures, and that I was really annoyed by her not being prompt for our date. 5 minutes I can overlook but not being ready for 45 minutes until after I arrived is just unacceptable to me.

 

[Mesoian]

Nope.

edit: I don't really count people using old pictures of themselves to seem thinner as catfishing. It's not like they're using pictures of their sister or something.