How to Know If You Be Catfished When you get a Twitter Dm Facebook message or other unsolicited contact from someone who tells how “beautiful” or “beautiful” you are then you should have big red flags right off the bat. Many catfishes (catfishers?) are waiting for people to take the bait but many are aggressively pursuing their targets. This is a catfish’s most clear sign and it’s easy to dismiss these ham-handed attempts unless you’re a total narcissist.
They are interested in Everything
One good trick is to take your “shared” interests and quiz them on those subjects a little. If it is clear that the person on the other end does not actually know anything about the subject you are dealing with at best with a liar and at worst with a catfish.
Suspicious Images
.049 Although there are no reverse image search hits, there are other warning signs that you can also use. For starters, are all their pictures taken in such a way that you really can’t make our face? Do they all look fired professional? Contrast them to most other people’s profiles and see if they look “wrong.” You can always ask the person to give them a photo holding a picture of you, or something similar. If you really want to be sure that that person is involved in the picture.
No Live Communications
.050 If you always come up with a reason to do something like Skype, you’re probably catfished.
You want money
.051 No matter how much you promote a story like a sick cat or a lost job, you don’t give that person any money. Even if the individual is not a catfish, that is a good rule. This degree of familiarity does not justify an online-only relationship.
They Have Too Many Reasons for Not Meeting
If the person is in a position to meet you on paper but always seems to have a reason, it can’t be on your watch. Typically it’s kind of a career where they have to fly all the time. It may be something else that makes meetings difficult. If you have reached the point where you want to talk before moving on with things then only take things further if a meeting will actually take place.
.053 If the profile of the person indicates that he / she is a native English (or whatever his / her language) speaker but his / her actual contact is broken and you have a problem clearly in the second or worse language.
It’s really going too fast! The last major sign is one that you can only pick up by taking into consideration all your experiences with that person. Were they getting things pushed to be more serious? Are they too quick to declare how much a person they have never met cares about you? When you feel things move too fast and the other person moves then you might have a catfish on your hands too.
What can’t be cured …
… must be maintained. Let’s just face it. Online dating is here to stay and it’s actually good enough for us. Thanks to the power of the internet you’re much more likely to meet your match. Rather than the wasteful scene of old-school dating. It is likely in that sense that certain jerks will use online dating as a way to target men. Just for some twisted reasons of their own.