We live in a time where it’s normal to build online networks that include personal connections. But in today’s social strategy, how do we know that anyone is who they claim to be?
And most importantly, are we able to catch a catfish if one swam into our network?
Businessman holding white mask in his hand/ Pixabay
Brenton Shea is currently the director of the Campus Community Police Services at Western University.
He says “Catfishing is generally when people create fake identities generally to use for luring people into relationships or trying to gather information about somebody. It is a concern, obviously these people will copy somebody else’s identity. It’s not just necessarily making up an identity, they may even copy an existing like a real person’s identity and use a real person’s photo placing it as themselves.”
One of the main reasons people will catfish others is due to their insecurities.
If people aren’t happy with themselves, they feel that by being someone more attractive, they are able to express themselves better.
David Redekop is the co-founder for Nerds on Site. He says “The world of the internet and identities and how they’re maintained makes it so easy for the weakness in the systems to be abused for any personal gain. In some cases, it’s where people simply have had difficulty dating or don’t think of themselves as attractive. If they take on the identity of someone else who is attractive, then they might at least engage in an online dialogue and build an online only relationship as fake and shallow as that might be with no real positive end in sight.”
Love trap and online dating fraud concept / Pixabay
Even though the signs you might be getting catfished can be different for each situation, most include trying to receive money from you.
Jeff Thomson is the Senior RCMP analyst for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. He says “The big red flag is always, you know, somebody’s asking you to send money that you’ve never met. It’s really difficult to pick up on that red flag if you’re emotionally invested. So scams today are designed to play on victims emotions to get people emotionally invested. Behavioral science studies that show once they’re most invested, people won’t think straight, they’re more likely to react to urgent demands or situations sort of playing on these emotions.
He then shares what you need to do immediately if you’ve been a victim of catfishing. He says “You really need to report to help reduce the fraud. It’s not just reporting to police, it’s reporting to the Anti-Fraud Centre and reporting to anywhere you’ve sent money from bank to bank wire transfer and going to your bank to see if you can recall that money. It also involves reporting to the dating or social media websites where you came involved in the relationship so they can identify the fraud profiles and take those down to help prevent future victimization.”
While catfishing was previously seen more among the older generation using social media sites, it has now become a more widespread issue with adults and teenagers.
We all need to be more aware of catfishers. Catfishing can happen to anyone and it’s important to recognize whatever we post, it does come with risks and anyone can take advantage of them.
Comments