I recently discovered I'm harboring a lot of trauma from being catfished as a teenager. I've developed suicidal tendencies, an inability to trust people and all sorts of other attachment issues over the years and only recently discovered my experience from when I was 13 was the inciting incident for it all.

This discovery alone only helps me to some extent. I'm medicated and doing DBT, but even after all these years I still have a very unstable sense of self and low self-worth. I even broke up with my fiance recently because things got too overwhelming for me again.

I'd really love it if I could hear from someone in the same boat as me. Feel free to DM me if you don't want to share your experience in the comments.

Also, if there is any literature on this topic you can recommend I'd love to know about it too.

Thank you!

I recently discovered I'm harboring a lot of trauma from being catfished as a teenager. I've developed suicidal tendencies, an inability to trust people and all sorts of other attachment issues over the years and only recently discovered my experience from when I was 13 was the inciting incident for it all.

This discovery alone only helps me to some extent. I'm medicated and doing DBT, but even after all these years I still have a very unstable sense of self and low self-worth. I even broke up with my fiance recently because things got too overwhelming for me again.

I'd really love it if I could hear from someone in the same boat as me. Feel free to DM me if you don't want to share your experience in the comments.

Also, if there is any literature on this topic you can recommend I'd love to know about it too.

Thank you!

I recently discovered I'm harboring a lot of trauma from being catfished as a teenager. I've developed suicidal tendencies, an inability to trust people and all sorts of other attachment issues over the years and only recently discovered my experience from when I was 13 was the inciting incident for it all.

This discovery alone only helps me to some extent. I'm medicated and doing DBT, but even after all these years I still have a very unstable sense of self and low self-worth. I even broke up with my fiance recently because things got too overwhelming for me again.

I'd really love it if I could hear from someone in the same boat as me. Feel free to DM me if you don't want to share your experience in the comments.

Also, if there is any literature on this topic you can recommend I'd love to know about it too. Thank you!

I recently discovered I'm harboring a lot of trauma from being catfished as a teenager. I've developed suicidal tendencies, an inability to trust people and all sorts of other attachment issues over the years and only recently discovered my experience from when I was 13 was the inciting incident for it all.

This discovery alone only helps me to some extent. I'm medicated and doing DBT, but even after all these years I still have a very unstable sense of self and low self-worth. I even broke up with my fiance recently because things got too overwhelming for me again.

I'd really love it if I could hear from someone in the same boat as me. Feel free to DM me if you don't want to share your experience in the comments.

Also, if there is any literature on this topic you can recommend I'd love to know about it too. Thank you!

I’ve debating posting this for an hour bc I’m so embarrassed and maybe scared of the truth??

Just joined this group because I truly have no clue if I’m being catfished or not…I matched with this guy (29) about a year ago on tinder. We immediately hit it off and he asked for my number which I gladly gave after a few days. We texted for around 3 months almost every day but live 4 hours away from each other so seeing each other soon was not an option. We talked about everything in detail: intimacy, day to day life, family/how we were raised. The convo stayed SO GOOD to the point I told him I wanted to come visit him. The kicker…we never FaceTimed and I only got pictures of his lower portion (which were all very consistent). No socials because he “had a shitty past with shitty people” who he didn’t want knowing his whereabouts.

Well I made plans to go to him and told all my friends and shared my location, the full shabang. He bailed last minute for a stupid reason so I cut him off because the voice in the back of my head said this was super weird. He never asked for money or anything, just wanted to know about my day and such.

We would randomly text for a day or so maybe a few times in between then and now. Well I got wine drunk about 2 weeks ago and drunk texted him. We immediately hit it off again. All of his stories are consistent with what they were a year ago and all the photos of him I have gotten since (19 selfies) don’t show up in reverse image search. However I looked up his number and it came up as owned by a 30 year old woman….am I being an idiot?? He will dodge FaceTiming me but sends me voice memos which i know can’t be reliable.

Please ask questions if you need clarification on anything….I’ve never been in a situation like this before and want to save myself the heartache if possible bc damn is the conversation good and we have plans to meet but I’ve stated that will not be happening unless we FaceTime first to which he agrees??? Main thing is the phone number being registered to a married woman in the same state he said he lives in…..and dodging FaceTiming me obviously.

There is an account on Instagram that I am 95% positive is a catfish. However, they are verified on Instagram and I am unsure what the verification process on this platform is like. Don’t you need to supply government-issued ID? Or are they very lax with checking?

My friend and I have been in contact with this guy since 2020. He goes by the name 'Adam the snail' and has only ever used this single picture. He has sent us many deeply disturbing and inappropriate messages over the years, and this is the only photo we have of him.

We want to find out the real identity of the person in the photo, as we know the account is fake. He has repeatedly lied about his age, giving completely different numbers to each of us. We simply want to confirm that this profile is a catfish and hopefully identify the real person in the picture to finally get some peace of mind.

https://ibb.co/9msfP6b5

Someone messaged me on Reddit claiming to be a 34 year old US Army sergeant deployed in Syria. We barely know each other, but he quickly started talking about finding a soulmate and eventually relocating to be with me.

A few things have made me suspicious. His deployment story seems inconsistent with what I found online, and I have questions about the military uniform in his photo. He also called me by the wrong name once and avoided giving a clear explanation when I questioned these details.

Since then, he has told me that his ex stole money from his bank account and that he often gets sick because of the food where he is deployed. He has not asked me for money, but the combination of stories feels suspicious.

I have not established whether his photos are stolen, AI generated, or genuinely his.

For those familiar with catfishing, what would be the best way to assess whether his photos and claimed identity are genuine, beyond a basic reverse image search?

Apparently I'm on a dating app I've never even downloaded. Great.

A woman messaged me on Instagram yesterday asking why I'd stopped replying to her on Bumble. Thought she had the wrong guy until she sent me screenshots.

It's my face, my first name and three photos from my Instagram. Whoever made the account changed my age and put a different city.

The really uncomfortable part is that they'd been talking for almost two weeks. She sent me some of the messages and this person was making plans to meet her.

I reported the profile but now I'm wondering if it's the only one. I've never used Bumble, so I can't exactly log in and see what's going on.

Anyone dealt with their photos being stolen for dating profiles? How did you check if there were more accounts, and did reporting them get anywhere?

There are dozens of scamming women who follow me then ask me how I am doing. They always follow the same pattern. Some appear to be AI bots.

I still don’t know the persons real face or even name. They messaged me on a local app asking about single parent dating advice and I had responded. We’ve been talking and he’s sent me pictures but I got the feeling something was off. Sure enough I finally found a picture just like his but with a different face. He’s since ghosted after I confronted him but it just hurts because we talked about marriage, children, ect.

Anyone ever been catfished by this Turkish guy who uses AI photos 100%?
Met on Facebook in a New Age Cult group.

Masati Xi Code Community

she messaged me after i posted a friend ad and just happened to live 45 minutes away from me, which is when the alarm bells went off.

i asked "her" to facetime after she sent me a photo that looked like it was from 2015, and of course she couldn't. then i asked her to hold three fingers up in a photo after telling me a weird, explicit story and she blocked me right away. her username is r/giant-mantis-37. she's commenting thirsty things on women's photos. beware!

Can anybody help me with finding a girl she posted her birthday photos with her friend her user name was uselessbitch982 but now the account is suspended does anybody have any info. I think I kinda liked her help

Found out I got catfished. Cant believe this happened to me. I have nobody to talk to about all this🥲 if there is someone in the same situation who wants to talk DM me!!

So, I have the friend I’ve been talking to for months now. It’s all well until I feel like I have been possibly lied to.

First 🚩 they will not speak on the phone with me. I understand now wanting to be on the phone so much but the reason for it is because they aren’t a talker. But we literally text 24/7. So clearly they are a talker just avoiding being on the phone.

Second 🚩 I have gotten pictures of the person but literally only 2?? And if I have asked for more phones it’s just “I don’t really take phones” or it’s avoided.

I know first and middle name, not the last. Birthday. Location that’s I’ve at-least been told where they live. It’s just really frustrating to not know exactly. And I have brought it up before. But then things kinda got awkward. So really this is all for my sanity of who I have been talking to. I’ve tried to look myself but with the information I have it’s minimal of what I can do. The only thing we talk on is Instagram we used to talk on discord as well but not really anymore. I’m just really looking for any help I can get because I’m not a tech person.

Online. I can't say too much or this post will be deleted as I type. But when I talk to people close to me they say, yeah but that's because ur crazy. I have anxiety and depression, and when stressed can get worse. But I'm not making this up. My name is Ashley from Texas

Does anyone know if this is a catfish? We’ve been talking for 4 days (hasn’t asked for money or anything) and apparently he’s the same age as me but he’s in psu and I’m still finishing up college and we honestly get along well and he seems way out of my league so that’s why I have a suspicion about it even though he sent me a live picture of his cat before but I wanted a second opinion before continuing to speak but I’m not sure if it’s truly him or not does anyone know? This is his profile and where we met https://www.tiktok.com/@uptowndonkyfunk

Ich schreibe seit einiger Zeit mit einem Mann. Aber mittlerweile zweifle ich an seiner Aufrichtigkeit bzw. Vielleicht ist er auch ein Catfish. Kann mir hier jemand helfen diese Person zu finden? Ich hab Bilder /Selfies.

Edit-: matter resolved. Post up for a while for awareness. Excuse my long story but i dont find any other way to sort this.

So this lady contacted me through Signal. I immediately asked her how she got my number and she told me somewhere in Telegram groups which she cant remember. When i had Telegram initially, my number was visible before i changed the settings, i just am not that sure as I'm not the type to drop messages in a group. There's a very tiny chance i might have done it around March/April. So, she had taken the contact and saved it to contact me later? Messaged me on Signal in August. I didn't first accept her request until the beginning of September. I just accepted the request, sent no messages. Next day or two she introduced herself.

Now, i have had my fair share of catfishing, scamming and i was in another online talking stage with another person who i wasnt able to verify till the end of August. She was very expensive(you know what i mean) and the last straw was she said she will come meet me this one day and she had gone back to her place without saying anything, and I broke it off immediately, no matter whether she's real or not i dont want someone like her. I told all of this to this new person. She said she understands, that she wont try to be expensive, 'we build together' sort of stuff and she knows I'm in a career crossroads, job hunting as I'm moving back to my country and not much good financially.

Then i told her to move forward i need to verify her, she was initially upset why i ask her to do things like a schoolgirl, writing the name and date on a paper. Then she later revealed she had bought a used phone, mic and camera broken, hence cant take any type of calls. I once called her and i dont think it even showed ringing to her because she was messaging to me normally. I used one service which shows the number is registered and the carrier. It showed the correct network carrier for mine but nothing on hers. She did immediately send me a screenshot of the camera app opened when i explained to her what i need to see and it was black screen. I quick checked with chatgpt if that app looks like the same phone she described she uses(am not an iphone user) to which it responded positively.

I asked her she must have any id in the phone already or e visa, she told she has nothing of those as those were being handled by the lawyer. She had lost both her parents in the same year, moved from US and been living in Wales,UK since. Lawyer is in charge of legal matters and holds her legal stuff. Where is his contact? Zangi....that raised my concerns a lot...okay i messaged him. His english was not that professional at all. He was saying Zangi is another messaging app, nothing wrong about that. Told him as i cant find a way to verify her i need to verify him at least. He cant take calls saying very busy. I asked for the lawyer details, there was no one matching his name with the registered state and firm he sent (had spelling mistake in the firm name he sent too). He didnt send the bar number or anything. He was mad why I'm asking these details, questioning whether I'm stealing his identity. He usually messages with her through his private email or whatsapp. I asked her for the email address which she was saying it's his personal one, just ask him.

The main issue happened when i arranged for us to meet before i left the UK. Everything was confirmed and set, i even sent some money for transport. Then suddenly she was not responding or online. After a while lawyer messaged me saying she was inmeeting with him and she left vomitting. Later that day she messaged me saying she got vomit and had her period blood severely, sent some photos of her holding the pad or something i guess and blood too. She sent without me asking. I was mkre furious about the fact she didnt even mention she's going to meet lawyer. She told earlier that he was calling her to come and she said no she is coming to meet me. They both knew this was the last chance we had to meet. I didnt want to blame her as i felt bad for what happened but i did scold her for not telling me earlier. Later in when i asked she said yes she was planning to come to me afterwards. I can't really believe, she doesnt have enough money, she earns being an intermediaty for agricultural product sales. Only gets commission when a sale happens. I asked for more details of that, didnt get any photo. Doesnt have a bank account. Uses paypal and crypto wallet only. Enough red flags popping up. So after that incident i deleted our messaages in telegram and chat too but not the signal one. She immediately reached out again and explained everything. Many times we had these arguments, and she cooperated with whatever she has(based on her story of limited access to everything) the convincing part was that she would immediately send any screenshot i ask, sent all the photos she had in her gallery. She doesnt earn that much. Hence, she had gone some months without much mobile data and not enough money to fix the broken phone.

There's more but I'll cut short and this gives enough context. My friend also suggested and i kind of agree that she might be a real person, even a girl at most but not the same person in the photos. If her end goal is taking my money, which i dont have much lol, it's not much, yes she managed to get around £200 in total over 7weeks. Now if shes doing this 10 other people only will it be worth it for her. Wales might not have huge cost of living like London but UK generally you'll need 2k minimum if living minimally. Her story does match, she eats only fruits and milk sometimes pasta. Everything is message so. She does reply to me immediately when shes awake and the rest of the day. She is as real as it could get. I'm kind if getting attached and having feelings which is why this.

Last time we had an argument few weeks ago, i told her to go find the right person for her, we have our differences. She didnt want to let go, apologised to me. Corrected the way she messages me. We agreed that day no more money involvement. I will help her with fixing phone only if i can. Today is her birthday and she is begging this will be the last time she wants something from me. There are enough moments which feels she is real. She does seem like a person i like, she is nice when those money is not involved. There was a time she would lash out strong insult when arguing now has stopped after i pointed out. There red flags, and good signs too. She came to me the same time i was deciding not to talk to anyone online 😭. What do i do?

This nostrangers verify service i came across few days ago, needs one to upload id too right? I didnt still use that or send her(it's going to be another argument now). I'm thinking of sending that but is there anything else I'm missing. I have tried to look at this from an outside angle. Any help please urgently

UPDATE- I sent her the verifiy link and stood my ground saying no I'm not sending any money. Initially, she pretended that she's doing something by showing me the website but never verified. Then she started lashing out because i was staying on no and tried threatening me using one of the photos (which doesnt identify me) which would never work. I already had good doubts, I just wanted to get this confirmation and that was enough for me to move on. Blocked and deleted from all channels. Keeping the post up for a while so it might be helpful for others. I rather should have blocked and moved on from the very first red flag. Unless i need to have fun messaging and playing around lol (anyone who's good in that should completely ruin their time). And thank you everyone who replied for reassuring me and telling me what i needed to hear. Thank you so much!!

Hey everyone!

Someone on facebook is using my photos under a different name to impersonate me. In the last month they have posted 5 times but I cannot see it, does anyone have any advice on what I should do? I have made multiple reports and they all immediately come back denied, even when I appeal. I have gotten more than 10 of my friends to report it and still nothing. A big issue is that they are taking my photos from instagram, I am not very active on facebook. Please if anyone has any advice I’d be so grateful. Thank you!

let me say this as I’ve been reading these stories stop saying you’ve been dating this supposedly person if you’ve never seen them in person. the problem I’ve been seeing with alot of people on here is that they’ll meet someone online and drag the e dating out so far to the point where they get emotionally attached to a random over the internet they’ve never met. which gives them the illusion they’re dating. I’ve seen someone on here say they were dating someone but has never heard their voice seen their face on call nothing. that’s not dating that’s called being delusional. if you wanna e date and get ur feelings hurt either way the least you could do is ask for a live video chat. anyone that sees this as dating needs serious therapy and social skills.