Don’t Get Fooled | How to Avoid Catfish Scams

True love may exist on the other side of your computer screen. But beware of catfish scams, they are prevalent as well.

Have you ever heard of the Nigerian prince scam? If you haven’t, it goes like this: a high-ranking government official whose country is going through a coup needs to escape, but he can’t access his offshore funds. So he sends a message to a random person, desperately asking for a loan so he can leave. He promises to pay back that loan with a generous interest once he is out of the country.

Except that, of course, none of that is true and the “Nigerian prince” is really just a scammer out to fleece innocent yet gullible persons out of their hard-earned money.

There’s a variation of this popular scam but with a romantic twist: a guy falls in love with a beautiful foreign woman, but they can’t be together because she needs money to bribe her way out of her country, or to get out of an abusive marriage, or to make sure her family is taken care of before she leaves and so on and so forth. So, out of love for his newfound girlfriend, he wires her the cash.

In both of the above cases, they’re not getting anything back. Not a financial windfall or a dream girl because there’s no government official or dream girl. Neither of them really existed. The only thing they’re walking away with is a bank account with fewer zeroes than there used to be.

What happened? They both got catfished. Catfish scams on the Internet are when a scammer uses a fake online persona to deceive people into doing things for the scammer’s personal gain, whether it’s by giving out sensitive information, sending them money, or doing any action that serves the scammer’s agenda.

Unfortunately, catfishing has become a prevalent issue in the world of online dating. If you are a person looking for real and genuine love on the Internet, it’s best to know how to identify and avoid potential catfishing scams, as well as identify users who are legitimate potential matches as well.

Is Catfishing Illegal?

Can you go to jail for scamming online? That’s hard to say. First, it’s hard to track scammers. Many of them aren’t even in the same country as their victims and they use methods to obfuscate their real locations.

Second, catfishing is not illegal. Using someone else’s name and image on the Internet isn’t illegal in and of itself. However, it’s often a precursor to illegal activities such as impersonation, fraud, and identity theft and may violate a website’s internal terms of service.

What about all that catfishing on social media? While it is morally and ethically questionable, as long as they don’t use it to officially impersonate another person or solicit money, it isn’t something you can go to jail for.

Catfishing isn’t in itself illegal. But it’s usually a prelude to criminal activity.

Third, some romance scams aren’t illegal. For example, if a person on a dating site is who they say they are and they convince someone they match with to send them money and gifts with the implication that they’ll be rewarded with romantic affection, that’s not illegal. Encouraging someone’s infatuation may not be ethical, but it is perfectly legal.

Spotting Catfish Scams

What are the signs that someone is catfishing you? What are catfish flags that you need to look out for?

Here are a few indicators that can help you identify a catfisher:

1. A lack of online presence - Not everyone uses social media and that’s fine. But if the only digital footprint you can find on a person is a dating profile, then that’s a really good sign that the profile is a catfish.

2. Photos are always perfect - People who catfish, especially if they’re doing so on a dating site, are going to use really good photos on their profiles. With romance scam pics, the photos will be perfect. The people in the photos won’t just look good, they’ll look flawless, almost like models.

   That’s because romance scammer photos are sometimes sourced from professional portfolios.

3. They communicate through text only - So, text-based messaging goes all the way back to writing letters and it’s a perfectly valid form of communication. But it’s not the only form out there, but it’s one that many scammers take advantage of.

   With text-based communication, you don’t see their face or hear their voice, so they could be anyone. You think you’re exchanging messages with a hot girl from Colombia, but you’re actually talking to a middle-aged man on the other side of the world.

4. They don’t want to meet - In line with the above, if they don’t want to meet, then they’re likely a scammer. Catfishing scams rely on illusions, they need to project that they’re someone they’re not. A face to face meeting breaks that illusion completely. So they’ll be resistant to it.

   In the context of a romance scam, this means they’ll resist your attempts to take them out on a date. They’ll be busy that night. Their family wouldn’t approve of you. There’ll be a litany of excuses as to why they can’t see you.

A romance scammer is normally out to get your money. But when you know what to avoid, you can keep your hard-earned cash safe.

Avoiding Catfish Scams

Now that you know a few ways to spot catfish scams, how do you protect yourself from them? What are the questions to ask a romance scammer to get them to trip up?

Don’t worry. There are a few things that you can do to make sure you avoid being catfished on the Internet, particularly when it comes to online dating.

1. Use reputable dating sites - There are a lot of online dating sites out there that have incredibly low barriers to entry. With them, all you need is a smartphone and an Internet connection. Instead, try to find sites that verify their users so as to avoid catfishing.

2. Make sure their story is consistent - Scammers don’t often create thorough backstories for their personas. They’ll have a general outline, like a name, a hometown, an occupation, and maybe even a school. But that’s all. It’ll just be names.

There’ll be no details, no personal anecdotes. It’ll basically be a résumé. So ask them questions about their backstories. Eventually, you will find holes in their story. If they’re evasive, then they’re probably scammers.

3. Do a reverse image search - Because many scammers source their photos online, a reverse image search should lead to their sources. So if you suspect that you’re being catfished, reverse image search their profile picture and that will tell you if you’re dealing with a falsified profile or not.

4. Trust your gut - You know what a gut feeling is? It’s when your mind subconsciously picks up on details that your conscious mind misses. So if you’ve got a bad feeling about someone, then trust what your gut tells you.

Catfish scams aren’t going to go away. That’s just reality. As long as the Internet has a low barrier of entry, anyone can get on it and that includes people with ill intent. You can’t do anything about their proliferation. What you can do is be on the lookout for them and protect yourself when you see them.