Catfish

[Johnny Rebel]

So, I'm completely facisnated by people and relationships. This whole deal with Manti Teo just has me dumfounded how somebody can get so intimate with other people without physically meeting them first.

I've been watching Catfish on MTV and some of these stories are unreal! This 18 year old girl posed as a male model on Facebook and befriended a 21 year old female named Sunny. They were basically having discussions about getting married after 8 months of online interaction.

So, these guys take her to meet this dude, and turns out she's been faking the whole time.

Is this serious? Do people really meet other people online and have passionate/intimate discussions about dating, marriage and family?

[Jason Cashe]

Yeah it happens alot. They have a Match.com for everything now. BlackPeopleMeet.com, ChristianMingle.com, They even have a site DEDICATED TO HELPING YOU HAVE AN AFFAIR!! It is bonkers how the Internet has become a twisted match maker for all the weirdos and lonely people out there.

Sometimes I've seen cool stories of it working out. Like a chick from Houston who has been playing over 1000 hours of Online Halo with a guy in all of the Halo Games. They met in part one and have played and pumped TONS of hours into playing these games. He flew to Houston to meet her and they recorded it and posted it online somewhere. They ended up married 6 months later and he moved his business here to Houston JUST to be with her. So there are good spots to this overly misused tool.

[The Soul Of Philly]

Sleepless in Seattle.

That's the reason why catfishing is so "common" now. It has become extremely easy to pretend to be someone else, i mean, look at us, we all pretend to be someone else when we write a promo. But these people take it to another extreme.

Then you have the combination of stupid people breeding with other stupid people making stupid babies who grow up in a world where how many retweets you get is more important than how many scholarships you get, that plus people being lonely because all they see in the media is COUPLES!

My buddy just got catfished actually, he's actually pretty smart when it comes to this, so when it happened, he felt like shit for a bit. He had just broken up with his girlfriend of a year after a picture of her with another guy was sent to him by one of his friends. THen another pic of his gf with a different guy than the first was sent. then another, I was hanging with him at the time and it was fucking surreal.

So he breaks up, he has quite the facebook following due to his "Not Listening to Lil Wayne" page on Facebook, and this girl comforts him and shit and that was about it. They would say hi how are ya how ya been over FB because she lived in California. They do this for about 3 months, and then they get a bit more serious talking and consider themselves a thing but not really a thing. A month later, he wants to skype with her and her camera wasn't working, it had just broke and he was unemployeed at the time so getting a new one would be difficult. Another month later and she still doesn't have a camera and he goes, look if you want to tkae this any further, you need to get a camera, I can be involved with someone I've never seen is a real person. She then says she'll ask her dad for some money to get a new one.

They skype the next night and boom turns out it's not the girl on her facebook page, but a different girl he was quite shocked and upset, but not as much as she was. He said she was in tears because she felt so bad.

I mean, in a world where you can video chat who is on the other side of the world with just a internet connection, it's amazing that people go on that long. I don't accept anyone on Facebook who I never met in person. That's how you avoid getting catfished,

[Level-Two]

I don't feel sorry for anyone who falls for this scam. Honestly, it's equivalent for falling for an email scam. There are exceptions to every rule however - but 99.9% it's just because you're a horny idiot.

YOU ARE BEING FOOLED WHEN:

- The girl is extremely attractive. If she's a perfect ten, she probably won't be dating random men online. No, this isn't going to ALWAYS be the case but it's the first red flag.

- Her ''web'' camera is broken. If her webcam is broken, you can just about guarantee it's a fake. Even if she telephone chats you there are voice changing programs to mask a persons voice. I have heard them and I can tell it airs on the side of a non human but a person unfamiliar with it can easily fall for the trick.

- Speech. Text speech. Males pretending to be females on the internet will often over compensate by writing like a twelve year old girl. The same goes when they use a voice changer.

Here is an example. This a YouTube video gaming commentator who has hundreds of subscribers fooled into thinking she's actually a girl - scamming many of them to boost on leader boards. I found ''her'' video and realized something was up, so I dug for some added information for the hell of it. In short, it's a dude with a voice changer.



Creepy as fuck, man.

All in all, I know how the game works because I used to play a few pranks like these when I was like 13. Usually on people I knew in real life. Only, I didn't use fake pictures, voice changers and usually ended the prank within a few days before I got bored and decided to do something else.

[Reaver]

yes reb, in fact my last 6 gfs were all met online. we talked, we met up, we hung out, then they would usually dump me for somebody else :/

basically yes L-O speaks the truth which is y i always kept my standards slightly low. its alot easier to weed out the bullshit when u talk to girls who r not perfect 10's but rather 5/6's. u also tend to meet somebody thats in the same position u r, lonly and looking for love or arguably just horny

im not a club hopper, or a bar go'er. i usually spend my free time trying to relax at home so needless to say, my social skills r far from up to par. i recently went on a dating site (i usually avoid these since im broke but i got lucky here) and found a few reasonable people to date and its not so bad.

maybe someday.......ill get lucky and find that hot model i always wanted.

[Michael Callahan]

Dating Sites, scarily, are becoming increasingly seen as a viable alternative to going out and getting drunk and waking up next to a horror like my parents generation used to do.

For years it was considered indicative of a social pariah if you had a dating website profile, even as recently as the 2010's people would be reluctant to talk about their dating profiles. One of the people in our social group at college last year who was a weird fat guy with a potato head and a really poor, obnoxious attitude towards life, one of our friends found his OKCupid profile and we proceeded to tear him apart mercilessly for all his time spent bragging about his career as a ladies man.

Yet nowadays, especially within the last year or so there's been a change in attitudes as people start to realise that if 95% of our population died today, the world would be a better place and that only 5% who live on this planet are people worth dealing with. With the internet making this world and even smaller planet, you can increase your available talent pool of "5%ers" by checking these online profiles and seeing who's out there that you might get on (or off) with and it's becoming an increasingly attractive option to some lonelier people even at my age of the late teens and early 20's.

For me personally, I'd consider it the nail in my coffin of being a socially healthy person if I'm starting to try and get lucky online. I'm completely adversed to online dating, although I will admit that when I was younger I had two "relationships" before the age of 15 with girls I met online that for the large part went reasonably okay. I was an overweight, unattractive, low self-esteem kid who no girl would go near so the internet was the only real outlet I had for that at the time.

Yet, what continues to amaze me is that people now can still fall for "cat-fish" schemes (God I hate that term) when even my early teen years I was smart enough to know the signs that someone isn't who they say they are on the internet. The major give-away of course is like L1 said, the broken camera/microphone BS. I was immediately wary of anyone I spoke to online who tried to pull that one on me and using my detective skills actually blew the cover of a girl I was in the same corporation in on EVE Online.

Furthermore, if you're looking at stuff like Facebook or MySpace profiles or whatever and it's all solo photo's and a limited number of friends (and none of them in pictures) then odds are you're getting lied to.

Finally, sometimes you can just tell. If they seem that little bit too keen, attractive yet utterly low self-esteem then there's a good chance you're getting fucked with.

Yet, brag as I will that I was smart enough to know I will admit that I did get caught out once but in a way that I completely wasn't expecting. I was talking to a very effeminate Night Elf Druid (female avatar) on WoW who I got on well with and decided to add to MSN. When she popped up on my contact list though, it said her name was Daniel so I asked and he told me that he was a man. I just thought he was gay or very effeminate so I put my shields down and talked to him like I would any ordinary guy friend and that was the end of it.

I got to see a picture or two of him, he showed me the MySpace of this girl he was trying to dig out and just generally we treated each other like bro's. It was a really cool friendship.

... until about three months later when he dropped a bomb on me that would shatter my world forever.

He turned around to me, told me he was apologising profusely because he'd been lying to me this whole time. His name wasn't Daniel, but Tabita and he actually turned out to be a cute as fuck Danish chick that I still speak to. She told me she was going to be honest with me, but when I asked her if her name was Daniel she saw it as a great opportunity to fuck with me for lols so she just went with it and let it go too far.

And I was like "Well, what about that picture you sent me? Who the Hell was that?" and she told me that it was her, but she'd tied her hair back, was wearing thick framed specs and was in a dark room so it looked like she had stubble.

Because I just thought it was a camp guy and not a woman, I totally dropped my shields and she nailed me for it like an absolute pro in a weird kind of Mulan way. It's probably one of the few examples where getting tricked like that actually turned out for the better. Yet even now, four years later I still talk to her and I'm planning to go see her this year.

ANYWAY;

To summarize, don't trust anyone.

[Jason Cashe]

It's funny because if I was at a Zoo and the Keeper said I could get in and pet or play with a Full Grown Lion/Tiger/Bear I would without question fall for that KNOWING the potential outcome wouldn't be very good. That would still get me because I love animals. I also love females but I'd fall for that before I'd fall for "Love" being found online. Appearance means too much to too many people and while I've never been a "STUD" I've also never been uncomfortable with who I am. I've always have confidence even being overweight and with a 80 pound Head (My brothers/friends words not mine). I've never had issues working over girls in school, getting to let them let me "Pet" them and be seen with them in public.

I went to one school dance my entire life. My date? I had 3 girls, all fine willing to go but I decided to borrow my brother's Blow Up Doll. She had a dress, make up and she was my date. Best date I ever had, never talked too much and she let my friends have a dance or two. Life is just too short to take things so seriously and if someone if that lonely, that desperate to find love then do it up however. Your choices, your world to live and die in. Knuckles is a weirdo so him dating online somehow doesn't surprise me...Hahaha!

[Nathanial Strong]

Nowadays, Wal-mart is the place to go lol.... And bookstores...

[Jason Cashe]

I met my fiance the old school way...In SCHOOL. High School Swee..Well she is sweet anyways!

[Nathaniel Havok]

When Brittni and I split up for those 2 months... I got on OkCupid as well as Plenty of Fish... And got laid by 6 different chicks.

Although in high school, 6 chicks in 2 months was a dry spell for me. I partied... A LOT.

[Jules]

If it's genuine from all parties, it's just another way of meeting somebody. I tried online dating for a few months several years ago, went on a few dates, spent time with some nice women, but nothing ever came of it. Ironically, every relationship I've had has come by traditional means, guess I've just been fortunate that way.

However, I see no harm in it if there is no deception. It's just cruel and ignorant to disparage someone for trying to meet somebody. Not everyone in this world is a social Don Juan, so if it works for those people where is the problem?

Not everyone in these communities is being dishonest, there are plenty of vampires who 'date' according to the 'accepted' means. There are conmen coming into people's lives 'by chance' and ruining lives without using the internet. There are scores of men (and women) scouring bars every night for women (or men) to 'score' with. How is sleeping with someone after a night in a bar only to give the cold shoulder the next day any better than doing it via the internet?

Ask you yourselves fellas, how many times have you gone out with a woman and built a not entirely true picture of yourself to get laid? Think how when you start a relationship you're always the best boyfriend in the world, then when things get comfortable you start to slack. There is dishonesty in many relationships, irrespective of their source.

The problem is not so much internet dating, which is basically just a vehicle for cutting out the bullshit of smalltalk and the x amount of drinks it takes to have the courage to talk to someone, but the social naivety or immaturity of some. It's no coincidence most of these horror cases happen either to teenagers, people who may be a bit overly keen to find love, or are vulnerable in some other way. These same horrors would happen to these people in 'ordinary' life.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm married; I was never into dating, always found it a bit shallow, annoying and pointless once the novelty wore off.

[Jules]

Incidentally, there was a recent high profile case in the UK of this kind of online deception, a documentary on it airing last year.

www.channel4.com/programmes/the-girl-who-became-three-boys

It was fascinating, but at the same time the victims were unworldly teenagers; I find it hard to believe some possessed with maturity, common sense and some life experience could fall for this.

[Level-Two]

Just for the record my problem isn't really with online dating as a whole. It's the type of online dating cat fish is about, really.

Where two parties meet and neither one has the means, nor is prepared to actually meet in real life. I mean take Manti for example - dude couldn't even get her with a skype chat first to see she was a real person? Come on, bare minimum. There's no reason you should be caught with your pants down, unless you're a horny idiot with no sense of self control.

Sites like Plenty of Fish which an old friend of mine insisted I tried out (he had dates like every other night, apparently) are a bit different because it's for meet up.

Essentially what I am saying if you're going to do it... MEET UP! Motherfuckers gettin' off on dirty chat logs and shit... the fuck is wrong with you?

[Trevor Hyatt]

Feb 9, 2013 13:19:37 GMT -4 Level-Two said:

Just for the record my problem isn't really with online dating as a whole. It's the type of online dating cat fish is about, really.

Where two parties meet and neither one has the means, nor is prepared to actually meet in real life. I mean take Manti for example - dude couldn't even get her with a skype chat first to see she was a real person? Come on, bare minimum. There's no reason you should be caught with your pants down, unless you're a horny idiot with no sense of self control.

Sites like Plenty of Fish which an old friend of mine insisted I tried out (he had dates like every other night, apparently) are a bit different because it's for meet up.

Essentially what I am saying if you're going to do it... MEET UP! Motherfuckers gettin' off on dirty chat logs and shit... the fuck is wrong with you?

That Indian guy from The big Bang Theory would find that comment offensive....

[warrenpeace]

I dig the catfish show because I was a fan of the movie. I thought the film itself was really creepy and polarizing. The term catfish wasn't originally meant to be used for internet goofballs, rather a random thing a slow man said in the documentary. something about how there are some people, like catfish who try to get you, and it's good cause they keep you on your toes.

Feb 8, 2013 6:25:21 GMT -4 Nathaniel Havok said:

When Brittni and I split up for those 2 months... I got on OkCupid as well as Plenty of Fish... And got laid by 6 different chicks.

Although in high school, 6 chicks in 2 months was a dry spell for me. I partied... A LOT.

When I moved to Indiana PA for college, it was over the summer break and the place was dead. So I got on Plenty of fish and just started hooking up. Like 7 or 8 girls in the span of 20 days.

I moved in on the 6th of June. ran through a bunch, even had a girl bring of her friends over. On the 26th I met a girl who I actually didn't sleep with on the first night and she ended up being my wife. So in a matter of 20 days on an online "dating site" in a new town I hooked up a shit ton and met an amazing woman who really has changed my life. lol all because the usually happening college town I lived is was dead as fuck socially.

Plenty of fish is a straight up poon pond for one night stands.

[Jason Cashe]

I almost had a threesome but my girlfriend wasn't as drunk as I had thought.

[warrenpeace]

It was in between relationships. have to say glad the friend was there cause she was wayyy more attractive and fun.

[Jason Cashe]

I like Catfish...the food...I also like Trout but Salmon is ehhh...I tried smoked Octopus once...Not my thing.

[Cid Phoenix 2013]

I had wild times in the 90's and early 2000's. I haven't been "catfished", but I have been smacked by 3 women in the same night at a party. Fun Times, LOL

[Jason Cashe]

This chick in High School was CLEARLY on her period. She was bitchy all day long. In 5th period (Haha period) she was rubbing her breasts saying they hurt and itched. I raised my hand (We're standing btw) and asked her if my mouth could be of some service. I got kicked to the balls and the teacher laughed...I felt wronged. Bitches Be Trippin!

[The Soul Of Philly]

Be lucky that was back then, that's considered sexual harresment now.