r/catfish • u/wofwinter • Nov 18 '24
Sub is active again
r/catfish • u/NotAFamousActor • Jun 09 '17
Hello everybody.
The mods received a message from an admin recently. Another 6/20/17.
The sub had been due for a revamp of the rules and a stickie post concerning such for some time now, so this is as good a prompt as any to follow through.
New sidebar: http://imgur.com/a/aAbC7
This subreddit is meant for any and all discussion, story-telling, or information sharing (within the rules) concerning catfish and catfishing (no, not the actual fish). If you choose to participate in this community, you must adhere to all reddit and subreddit rules. The stance of this subreddit is one of anti-catfishing.
Clarification: Anything to do with catfishing can be posted here. That can be linked posts (pictures, articles, etc) or self posts (text). Content can come from catfish, victims of catfishing, catfish-hunters, or really just anybody curious about or have information/questions on catfish/catfishing. This sub is NOT pro-catfishing. It is anti-catfishing. That being said, catfish can still come here seeking help with their problem or to tell their story.
What is catfishing?
to lure (someone) into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona.
1) Treat each other with respect. Just be friendly and helpful.
Clarification: No name-calling, grating sarcasm, being generally annoying, derailing threads, trolling, or anything else that lowers the value of or redirects the focus from a serious discussion. Letting a catfish know that they're an asshole is probably fine here and there, but if it's all the time or no other constructive feedback is given, then the rule will be enforced.
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2) No sharing of contact/identifying information, whether your own or somebody else's. That includes phone numbers, email addresses, online profiles, usernames, real full names, physical addresses, etc. Exceptions may be made for fake personas.
Clarification: Nobody is allowed to reveal contact information, online profiles, or any other identifying information on a real person, or to provide enough bits of vague/broad information that a real identity could be determined through doxxing. However, fake identities, profiles, and usernames that are used by catfish for their deeds can be revealed. THERE IS A FINE LINE!!! Fake profiles may include pictures of real people (besides celebrities and pornstars or other public figures), real contact information, or real identifying information. So when thinking about posting catfish information and leads, please always check to see if anybody's actual identity will be compromised, or keep in mind this possibility.
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3) No catfishing (obviously). Also no doxxing, stalking, harassing, brigading, or any other obnoxious/malicious behavior.
Clarification: Basically, don't follow people around or exert effort into making their online or real lives harder.
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4) No pro-catfishing sentiment or promotion of catfishing strategies/tactics.
Clarification: Catfishing is a waste of a person's time at best and a detriment to a person's mental state or livelihood at worst. Catfishing is obnoxious, dangerous, and pathetic. This is a place to spread information on catfishing so that there can be fewer victims in the future, or so that victimhood could be made shorter and/or less severe.
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5) No advertising/commerce. This is not a subreddit to buy/sell/trade products or services, nor to drive traffic to a profile/website. Exceptions may be made if the content is still catfish-related.
Clarification: Only exception made thus far (that I'm aware of) has been for the Catfish TV show: https://redd.it/4w6ikj. If you'd like to do any kind of catfish-related promotion, please send modmail.
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6) No low-quality posts or comments, aka "shitposts." Content must be clear, detailed, and easy to read. Format as necessary.
Clarification: There needs to be enough detail for the community to know what you're talking about, and the information needs to be formatted well enough to be readable. Please use proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting. The wall of text can get really bad here.
Even further elaboration:
No More Pictures With No/Insignificant Context, Follow Rule 6
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7) Mark all NSFW content as "NSFW," whether they be posts or comments, pictures or text.
Clarification: "NSFW" stands for "Not Safe For Work" and denotes some form of sexual, overly profane, or grotesque content. All images and text containing NSFW content must be marked "NSFW." If the post is already marked NSFW, it should be assumed that all comments may also be NSFW.
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8) No content involving the actual fish. The joke has been done to death.
Clarification: Seriously, just don't.
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9) Report all rule-breaking. Use the report button and/or send modmail.
Clarification: It's the community's responsibility and in the community's best interest to keep this place on the level. The community at large has more visibility and is quicker to respond than any one mod; therefore, it's best if everybody were proactive in reporting rule-breaking and suspicious activity. This way, we can do anything from reduce the damage of a Rule 2 violation to preventing the sub from getting shut down by the admins for negligence.
A mod reserves the right to, when dealing with rule-breaking or suspicious behavior:
remove content
ban users
question users
request verification
lock threads
report content/users to the admins
A mod may also participate as a normal community member.
Clarification: A mod can do several things to better the community. But while a mod is not performing those actions, they are just a regular community member like everybody else. They are allowed to post and comment as normal.
Moderator Guidelines for Healthy Communities
If you see content on this subreddit that is clearly referencing you, whether it's misrepresenting you, revealing your identity, stealing your content, showing pictures of you, etc, and you need it removed, please send modmail including links and/or screenshots of the offending activity.
Clarification: Pretty simple. /r/catfish should be a place to help the online community prevent or reduce catfishing and other harmful activities rather than promote them. So if you see anything of yours being mishandled here, please let the mods know immediately.
If you would like to submit verification, or have been requested to, you must send modmail containing 2 clearly non-identical photos of just yourself (selfies) that contain the following elements:
your username
the current date
this subreddit's name
your face and/or torso
The message must be hand-written on something within the pictures. The pictures must also be decently lit and non-blurry. Obviously, the pictures cannot be manipulated in any way.
Clarification: This process establishes a real-life physical identity, which is important in some situations. It DOES NOT establish a real-life personal/lifestyle/livelihood identity. That means verification can be used to match a body to a body somebody is claiming to be, but it can't match a personality/lifestyle/livelihood somebody is claiming to have. Since most catfish build a different body into their fake identity, this process can assist with revealing those catfish, but it can't assist with revealing only those catfish that are pathological liars.
If there's anything else that should be addressed or clarified, you can leave comments on this post or send modmail.
6/9/17 6:40PM CST GMT-5
r/catfish • u/zantovenya • 6h ago
Eso presisamente es lo que me das más coraje que el sabe y yo sé que no es totalmente sincero, no tiene ni siquiera el valor y el coraje de hacerme una simple pregunta que hubiera podido evitar tanto mal entendido, es cuestión de comunicación y confianza claro que si
r/catfish • u/Current-Tangerine813 • 12h ago
Hello. If you've seen my previous posts, you'll know what's happened so far. Well, over the past few weeks, a whole lot more has happened. If I omit any details, it is because I am extremely tired, my apologies.
I know I said my previous post would be my last but I figured that I might as well make a final post.
For anyone that hasn't seen my previous posts, it's under "I think my online friend is catfishing me" if you search it up you'll find it. Here's the TL;DR, though:
My online friend of 2+ years, Jane, catfished my entire friend group for over a year. She lied about their face and sent somebody else's videos pretending they were hers. After I confronted her, she blocked us all. Then I found the person she was pretending to be (ill call her Alice since I forgot what I called her in the other post). Alice was actually Jane's best friend. Alice was understandably upset and we made a plan to confront Jane & inform Jane's other best friend, K, of the situation.
After telling K he agreed to help us. However, before anything happened, Jane realised K found out and she blocked us again.
Now, here comes the new bit.
A few days ago, I noticed suspicious activity surrounding an account on tiktok that was stalking me and my best friends. I immediately realised this was Jane's alt and she was trying to become friends with us again pretending to be someone else. Upon further investigation, my suspicions were basically confirmed. There were too many similarities for it to be a coincidence.
I asked my friend she followed to follow her back so we could reel her in, essentially. Anyway, it worked. A few hours ago, we had our last conversation. she confessed to everything, apologised profusely and we asked her questions.
Q: why did you block us the first time
A: I know you said you weren't gonna be mad but I was too scared to face you guys
Q: why did you steal Alice's videos?
A: I always admired her style but when I tried to do it myself I failed and I felt terrible. I thought it would've been easier to pretend to be better than I actually was.
Q: what else have you lied about?
A: my age (not an adult, actually a minor), being trans, skin colour, having a bf etc...
Anyway, long story short, me and my other friends are moving on. I chose to forgive her after I made her confess to her other online friends what she did as well. I hope she can grow from this, even if that's too much to hope for.
I'm glad I confronted her. I feel a sense of closure. And to be honest, this conversation made me realise how pointless it is to hold grudges against people. I'm grateful for the time she spent with me even if she lied and while I did hate her a bit for lying, I'm choosing to no longer be resentful for my own sake. Thank you for whoever has given me advice and kept up with my journey so far ❤️.
r/catfish • u/Cosmic_sneeze10 • 12h ago
When I was 15, a guy named Kyle and his friends bullied me after I rejected him, so I created a fake Instagram account named Seirra to defend myself. I'd switch accounts and argue with them, and somehow, Kyle's friends even started hitting on her. 💀 Over time, I invented an entire backstory for Seirra, including a computer science degree and a brother named Sid. Neither exists. Now, years later, Kyle's sister goes to my university and keeps asking about Seirra. Everyone wants to meet her someday. GIRL, SHE DOESN'T EXIST. 😭
r/catfish • u/Electrical_Hat_8303 • 23h ago
I'm talking to someone and I recently facetimed them, and they looked like the pictures, but something just felt...off. They looked real, but their connection was kind of bad/laggy, and it was almost like they took a few seconds to react or respond to what I said. Is this even possible?
r/catfish • u/nycsesyness • 20h ago
r/catfish • u/I_like_burger07 • 1d ago
There's this one girl who followed me on instagram who lives literally 1880km away from my house she says she's finding an old classmate of her with the same name her profile is legit too what do I do ?
r/catfish • u/One-Hurry6840 • 22h ago
I got cat fishes few times by trans women pretending to be women on hinge and bumble is that normal? Because now they can fully transform makes harder to tell. It’s super annoying 😤
r/catfish • u/Infinite_Weather_523 • 1d ago
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!
r/catfish • u/Infinite_Weather_523 • 1d ago
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!
r/catfish • u/Infinite_Weather_523 • 1d ago
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!
r/catfish • u/Infinite_Weather_523 • 1d ago
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!
r/catfish • u/Warm_Bag_8804 • 1d ago
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.
r/catfish • u/Resident-Dog2422 • 2d ago
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?
r/catfish • u/MaddieZahol • 3d ago
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.
r/catfish • u/hellnohell • 3d ago
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?
r/catfish • u/happleb • 4d ago
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?
r/catfish • u/Cool_Worldliness1312 • 4d ago
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.
r/catfish • u/Ok-Kale-1070 • 5d ago
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.
r/catfish • u/Minningfortruth • 5d ago
Anyone ever been catfished by this Turkish guy who uses AI photos 100%?
Met on Facebook in a New Age Cult group.
r/catfish • u/cicadaearrings • 6d ago
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!
r/catfish • u/Massive_Radish_2988 • 6d ago
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
r/catfish • u/EuphoricPeak8748 • 7d ago
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!!
r/catfish • u/[deleted] • 7d ago
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
