How to recognise cat­fish­ing

Cat­fish­ing refers to the act of setting up a fake identity online. Depending on the intention, this may be a harmless attempt to move around an­onym­ously online or a de­lib­er­ate attempt to defraud another in­di­vidu­al. To protect yourself against malicious cat­fish­ing, it’s best not to share con­fid­en­tial in­form­a­tion with unknown online contacts and to check profiles for au­then­ti­city.

Cat­fish­ing doesn’t just refer to catching catfish. This is a commonly used term among young people and those who are active online. It has been suggested that the term ‘cat­fish­ing’ comes from the world of fishing, where catfish were once used to keep cod active and fresh in con­tain­ers during transport. While the ety­mo­lo­gic­al origin of this word has yet to be verified, cat­fish­ing on the internet is anything but a myth. It refers to the act of de­lib­er­ately creating fake online iden­tit­ies in the form of fake profiles. Cat­fish­ing entered the ver­nacu­lar in 2010 with the release of the US doc­u­ment­ary ‘Catfish’, which was produced by cat­fish­ing victim Nev Schulman.

The deceptive act is usually carried out by a person who wants to cover their online tracks, however, there can be various other reasons as well. Cat­fish­ing can involve profiles with false profile details, a false profile picture or pictures taken from another person’s profile. These attempts at deception can lead to a network of fake profiles, fake friends and fake bio­graph­ies.

Cat­fish­ing is par­tic­u­larly common on social media and on dating sites such as Tinder. Before this term became popular, such profiles were referred to as ‘realfakes’, i.e., fake online iden­tit­ies which seem real. Cat­fish­ing is also closely related to a deception method called deepfakes, in which computers use deep learning, machine learning and computer-generated imagery (CGI) to embed people’s faces into fake video re­cord­ings.

Cat­fish­ing can occur in a variety of forms that differ in scope and intent. Cat­fish­ing can manifest itself in the following ways:

This type of cat­fish­ing is an attempt to establish a re­la­tion­ship with potential victims using fake profiles on online dating sites or apps. Cat­fish­ing is not only carried out by in­di­vidu­al users, but also by dating platforms. For example, shady providers can charge for VIP features using at­tract­ive cat­fish­ing profiles.

People who want to pressure, blackmail, stalk or force someone to do something without being detected can use cat­fish­ing tactics to conceal their identity.

Trolling can be carried out by in­di­vidu­als acting alone as well as by elaborate state-funded troll farms. Trolling profiles are created to harass, threaten and pressure users to leave a social media platform. Trolling profiles using false iden­tit­ies will sometimes or­ches­trate a PR nightmare with the goal of damaging a company’s image or in­flu­en­cing public opinion.

Grooming involves predators using fake profiles with a fake age and personal in­form­a­tion to contact minors. This helps them to establish trusting re­la­tion­ships for their own motives.

Fake online profiles may even be im­it­a­tions of real people such as celebrit­ies, ac­quaint­ances, relatives or official or­gan­isa­tions. These profiles can be used for phishing and online fraud. Such profiles are used to steal sensitive data, scam money transfers or spread malware.

There is not always malicious intent behind fake profiles and cat­fish­ing. Sometimes, users may just want to remain un­re­cog­nised and anonymous on social media and dating sites. However, it should be noted that most platforms require genuine profile in­form­a­tion to use their site. A violation of these terms and con­di­tions is seen as an attempt to deceive and defraud, even if it is without malicious intent.

There can be several motives for cat­fish­ing. One possible mo­tiv­a­tion is the desire not to disclose private data to social media companies, with users instead providing false profile names and false date of birth in­form­a­tion. Malicious motives, however, include:

• Targeting employees of a specific company to steal sensitive data through social en­gin­eer­ing or phishing attacks
• Tracking a person’s where­abouts and daily habits
• Blackmail through staged and ma­nip­u­lat­ive flir­ta­tions on dating platforms
• Stalking or even kid­nap­ping
• Anonymous affairs on dating apps
• Re­la­tion­ship reasons (jealousy or stalking after a breakup)
• Pre­tend­ing to have a false career to conduct shady deals
• An idealised, un­real­ist­ic self-present­a­tion on social media for image reasons or a desire for val­id­a­tion and empathy

It’s difficult to prove someone’s identity online. Age queries or spe­cific­a­tions in the terms and con­di­tions are not reliable methods for pre­vent­ing cat­fish­ing. Therefore, it’s good to keep an eye out for the following red flags:

• The profile picture or other pictures in the profile can be found through a Google image search.
• The profile picture or other pictures in the profile can be found on several different profiles.
• The profiles of the alleged person differ greatly on different platforms.
• The profile imitates prominent per­son­al­it­ies.
• A catfish avoids face-to-face meetings or video chats.
• A catfish tries to build a close friendly or romantic re­la­tion­ship after a short time and insists on meeting.
• Profiles of friends or families post unusual content or suddenly write to you in unusual ways.
• The catfish is par­tic­u­larly in­ter­ested in private in­form­a­tion about you, such as your pro­fes­sion, your address or even sensitive payment data.
• The catfish tries to persuade or urge you to take certain actions, such as sub­scrib­ing, clicking on a link, filling out a form, sending private photos, trans­fer­ring money or arranging a meeting.

Cat­fish­ing is often difficult to detect. This is because it is difficult to confirm who we are talking to when we are online. In general, it is important to share as little private and sensitive in­form­a­tion as possible with complete strangers or people you have just started talking to.

Follow these tips to prevent cat­fish­ing:

• Break off contact with online contacts who try to “ask you out” or persuade you to do certain things, such as making payments or donations, or meeting in isolated places.
• Block unknown profiles to prevent a catfish from ap­proach­ing you with new profiles after you break off contact.
• Report fake profiles to the social media site or dating platform you are using, or in serious cases, to law en­force­ment.
• Follow the tips in our article on how to recognise phishing mails.