Have you been CATFISHED?

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Replies

  • jendarlin
    jendarlin Posts: 184 Member
    Met my wife on AOL, 19 years ago, when AOL was about all the Internet ordinary people used.

    We both represented ourselves as kind, reasonable, normal people...double catfish!

    :laugh: ^^ This, only it was 14 yrs ago, and my husband.
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
    bump! More stories please. :)
  • tomomatic
    tomomatic Posts: 1,794 Member
    When I was in college, I got my chat on and this one person kinda stood out. She was a freshman like me so we just started chatting every night. She was a couple hundred miles away but I had no intention of meeting her ... especially after a week. She really started to turn into a level 60 clinger and started to get pissed off when I didn't log in on time.

    So I "reverse catfished" her (i guess). I told her I was actually a married 42 year old dude with two kids. Her response was dead silence. Then I told her I was just kidding. She said she didn't believe me and then logged off forever.
  • Absterdam
    Absterdam Posts: 50
    I used to frequent AOL chatrooms as a kid from age 11 to age 19 in the 90s. There was one guy I was really into who I met in an anime room, we talked in IMs everyday for hours before and after school. We were both young teens and fairly new to the technology thing, and on top of that had strict parents so we never spoke on the phone or webcammed. One day after almost 3 years of daily talking, I told him that when I turned 18 (3 years from then, I was 15 at the time) I wanted to fly out and meet him in person. He dropped off the face of AOL for a week! I was heartbroken, and worried that something happened to him or that he was just avoiding me. Well...after about a week had passed he resurfaced online, and sent me a very long IM saying he had something he needed to confess. He was a SHE. A bi-curious she. And she also wasn't interested in me as anything more than friends "anymore" because she had just started a relationship "IRL". And that was that for 10 years, until one day I signed into my old AOL s/n to check emails and review my old buddylist when someone IM'd me from a s/n I didn't recognize with "OMG you're still here"...Low and behold, it was my friend. We were both 25, hadn't spoken in 10 years, and just got right back into conversation as though we had never stopped talking. That was 3 years ago, we've since exchanged pictures and a few webcam sessions, and still occasionally talk. I don't have any plans on meeting her though , I'm currently happily engaged to a guy I met on AOL almost 5 years ago and ended up moving in with him :]
  • 7bel0
    7bel0 Posts: 192 Member
    I'm bumping this thread to read the stories.

    I have my own "story", but I won't throw anyone under the bus since I actually met him through this site!
  • TropicalFlowerz
    TropicalFlowerz Posts: 1,990 Member
    ChatOnline_zps3574c8d5.jpg

    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
  • Shelgirl001
    Shelgirl001 Posts: 477 Member
    A long time ago before it was easy to send pics that were taken, I chatted with a guy who had only sent me one picture. After we chatted for about a year I finally managed to meet him (had to go all the way from Iowa to South Carolina) and he was much older and heavier than he was in the pictures. We met one time and that was all, because he lied to me. I refused to talk to him again.

    Currently I am actually dating someone who I met on a dating site. He lives only about an hour away from me though, so we met within a couple of weeks of first communicating. We have been dating for about a month now. So far so good, he seems to be just who he says he is. :)
  • ShifuYaku
    ShifuYaku Posts: 504 Member
    Let's see... I've been in lots of situations. I think the best one that i was disappointed in was an Indian-American guy I think I met on Facebook (I can't remember his name right now) a long time ago. Eventually, later when I found out about Skype, we talked, and he didn't really live up to my expectations of who he was. Didn't even have an Indian accent! I think I was put out that he sounded American, which I knew he was anyway. Must have not been a very influential person if I can't remember his name. :D Hope he's happy in life.
  • Ed98043
    Ed98043 Posts: 1,333 Member
    Wayyy back in the 90's I emailed/instant messaged with a guy for a few weeks that finally admitted that he'd been using pictures of some Romanian male model instead of his own. It turns out he had dating ads all over the country as both male and female (always very good-looking)...it was sort of his hobby, I guess. He collected and cataloged the responses and had made up names for the "types" of people who responded to him. For instance, there's a certain type of guy out there that writes to women on dating sites in a story form; he called them "fictioners". He said he'd tried using his own photo to find people to talk to and found that people just weren't as responsive as they were to the model's photos. He tried to say that he did it as a student of human behavior, but I think he was just lonely and bored. And a little crazy.

    That Catfish show is hard to watch. Nowadays I don't understand why anyone wouldn't check a photo recognition site like tineye to see if the pictures of the person they're talking to are stolen. And Google! I guess they're just so blinded by the thought of being with someone beautiful that they switch their brains off rather than ruin the fantasy. I kinda cringe every time they confront the catfish and it turns out to be an obese person, which is almost always. I guess fat doesn't get much play on the ol' innerweb.
  • MamaCatO
    MamaCatO Posts: 100
    I dated a guy for two years that I met online. I didn't have a webcam and he wouldn't hook his up. We fell madly in love. I came to Arizona to meet him, after 2 years. I never left. We moved in together and got married a year later. He was exactly who he said he was. We were honest with each other from day one.

    I admit I like watching Catfish too. But I have 3 successful online relationship stories in my family, so I know it can happen. My sister is currently living with a guy she met about 6 or 7 years ago, online. My dad is engaged to a woman he met about 5 years ago. And I'm married to a man I met playing a video game almost 6 years ago.
  • misskerouac
    misskerouac Posts: 2,242 Member
    I never met anyone that didn't look how I thought they would, but one guy was married and I found out after a few dates when one of his co-workers told me.

    I met my husband online though, I THOUGHT I was going to get Catfished (this was before that term existed) because the pics he sent me were this totally gorgeous guy, but then we skyped and it was him.
  • Kaylee_law_123
    Kaylee_law_123 Posts: 450 Member
    I feel the need to force my father to watch the show. He didn't get the message after his "perfect" russian wife turned out to be a whole lot older than expected, a whole lot meaner than antcipated and after a whole lot of money ... he is now online to a Chinese woman ....

    But apparently this one must be legitimate because when she asked to come and see him she said she would pay him back for the ticket ...

    Hmmmmmmmm !!
  • Kaylee_law_123
    Kaylee_law_123 Posts: 450 Member
    Before I share my story, I want to make two things clear: I am married and intend to stay that way. And NOTHING happened with the guy in the story below.

    Years ago, when I was a senior in high school, I ended up spending the night at the guy's house (he was a junior at the same high school) because of really bad, threatening weather. I didn't like him then, so there was NOTHING between us. It was a safety issue.

    Flash forward 30 years, and out of the blue the guy contacts me and we begin playing catch up. He comes here to my city, and my husband and I BOTH meet him for dinner. While at dinner, he tells me he is not married -- hasn't been for years, has NO children, has even had a vasectomy so he couldn't have any more children. He is "lonely", wants to find the "love of his life" and confesses that he wanted to date me 30 years ago, and is STILL crushing on me.

    A couple years ago, he was in a car accident and suffered a serious injury. He kept telling me that the lawsuit he had was about to settle, and he would be receiving 1.4 million dollars from it. He wanted me to dump my husband (whom he met!), and run off with him to Costa Rica where we would have our "happily ever after" living in the warm sun and drinking margaritas on the beach, blah blah blah. I never agreed to this, I never gave him any idea that I was romantically interested in him (never was, never will be), yet he continued to offer me all sorts of wonderful gifts, and trips, etc., once the lawsuit settled. I found him to be a bit too preoccupied with trying to get me into bed, and started ignoring his texts, emails, etc.

    Long story short -- he is currently married (has been for the last 8 years), and has 5 children. The fact that this douche nozzle could deny his CHILDREN absolutely disgusts me! As for the lawsuit and the big settlement? 75,000, and the insurance company is fighting it all the way to court. How do I know all this? His wife called me, after she found his email to me. She told me he has done this before to a variety of women, and has about 3 mistresses currently. Apparently, he has BPD and has relapsed into some fantasy world where he believes he's God's gift to women. What a SICK f*k.

    CLARIFICATION: I DID NOT reciprocate those weird emails.

    Ummmm yeah, no words on this one.

    I may show my Dad this post tho lol!
  • EDesq
    EDesq Posts: 1,527 Member
    I don't really know if this counts as catfishing, but was talking to a girl on a dating website who used 5 year old pictures of herself when she was skinnier (she was 100 pounds heavier) and adopted a different personality so I'd like her. I met her three times before bailing on her for her best friend (who was letting me in on her real personality) at the time who actually acted like she was pretending to be. It all worked out in the end, because I later found out she was using me to make him jealous enough to want to date her again.


    I'm confused as heyall!
  • raychulj
    raychulj Posts: 458 Member
    When I was 16 I talked to a 24 year old dude named Johnny on Myspace. He never had new pictures up and he told me that due to his tramatic childhood, he was mute. So he would call me and I'd talk for hours while he texted me back. We never met in person. He would talk about flying out to see me (He lived in TN and I lived in AZ) but it never happened. Our online break up was super dramatic too. Years later I had an account on a different website and one of his "friends" sent me a message saying he remembered me and that Johnny had killed himself days after we broke up. I don't know what really happened with all that. All I know, is it telling the story makes me feel stupid lol
  • Fithealthyforlife
    Fithealthyforlife Posts: 866 Member
    When I was 16 I talked to a 24 year old dude named Johnny on Myspace. He never had new pictures up and he told me that due to his tramatic childhood, he was mute. So he would call me and I'd talk for hours while he texted me back. We never met in person. He would talk about flying out to see me (He lived in TN and I lived in AZ) but it never happened. Our online break up was super dramatic too. Years later I had an account on a different website and one of his "friends" sent me a message saying he remembered me and that Johnny had killed himself days after we broke up. I don't know what really happened with all that. All I know, is it telling the story makes me feel stupid lol

    Wow! That is beyond crazy, but from what I've heard, it fits the mold perfectly...that's exactly what happened to Manti Te'o, and it was all over the news a few months ago. That's the first time I had heard about catfishing. I'm actually super scared to try online dating...I don't know if I'd be any less likely to get scammed being a guy to be honest.
  • ButYouGotMySoul
    ButYouGotMySoul Posts: 44 Member
    I met my soon-to-be husband online. He was EXACTLY what he said he was. I am exactly who I say I am. I've had a lot of successful online relationships. All it takes is common sense, really.
  • vtmoon
    vtmoon Posts: 3,436 Member
    I was happy to see he was who he said he was for a change. And, that cannot be the worst MTV show produced.... Also, thankfully its never happened to me.

    Geordie shore the best!

    what is Geordie shore? Jersey Shore?

    It is the U.K. version of the Jersey shore but it is much more ridiculous and in a whole new level that actually makes it somewhat entertaining. My friends in London were trying to show me that they got cool shows like us Yanks, I told them we hate the Jersey shore in the U.S.

    Also, I'm not sure if British people can understand them because I had a hard time understanding their English.
  • raychulj
    raychulj Posts: 458 Member
    When I was 16 I talked to a 24 year old dude named Johnny on Myspace. He never had new pictures up and he told me that due to his tramatic childhood, he was mute. So he would call me and I'd talk for hours while he texted me back. We never met in person. He would talk about flying out to see me (He lived in TN and I lived in AZ) but it never happened. Our online break up was super dramatic too. Years later I had an account on a different website and one of his "friends" sent me a message saying he remembered me and that Johnny had killed himself days after we broke up. I don't know what really happened with all that. All I know, is it telling the story makes me feel stupid lol

    Wow! That is beyond crazy, but from what I've heard, it fits the mold perfectly...that's exactly what happened to Manti Te'o, and it was all over the news a few months ago. That's the first time I had heard about catfishing. I'm actually super scared to try online dating...I don't know if I'd be any less likely to get scammed being a guy to be honest.
    Oh yea, girls make fake accounts too.
  • Iron_Lotus
    Iron_Lotus Posts: 2,295 Member
    I'm a french model
    Ménage à trois?
  • vtmoon
    vtmoon Posts: 3,436 Member
    When I was 16 I talked to a 24 year old dude named Johnny on Myspace. He never had new pictures up and he told me that due to his tramatic childhood, he was mute. So he would call me and I'd talk for hours while he texted me back. We never met in person. He would talk about flying out to see me (He lived in TN and I lived in AZ) but it never happened. Our online break up was super dramatic too. Years later I had an account on a different website and one of his "friends" sent me a message saying he remembered me and that Johnny had killed himself days after we broke up. I don't know what really happened with all that. All I know, is it telling the story makes me feel stupid lol

    Very possible the friend was Johnny and he was just trying to get an extra "eff you" after the fact. Why would the friend remember the account at all.
  • raychulj
    raychulj Posts: 458 Member
    When I was 16 I talked to a 24 year old dude named Johnny on Myspace. He never had new pictures up and he told me that due to his tramatic childhood, he was mute. So he would call me and I'd talk for hours while he texted me back. We never met in person. He would talk about flying out to see me (He lived in TN and I lived in AZ) but it never happened. Our online break up was super dramatic too. Years later I had an account on a different website and one of his "friends" sent me a message saying he remembered me and that Johnny had killed himself days after we broke up. I don't know what really happened with all that. All I know, is it telling the story makes me feel stupid lol

    Very possible the friend was Johnny and he was just trying to get an extra "eff you" after the fact. Why would the friend remember the account at all.
    I thought about that possibility too. But the way we started talking, was through a friend of his messaging me with a link to Johnny's account saying, "He thinks you're beautiful". I was like "oh, he's cute"and I started talking to him. So who knows. There were many times that he said he had friends over reading over his shoulder. And during our "break up fight" I had all my sisters and a couple of my friends gathered around the computer laughing and telling me to write come backs and he said he had the same. (before I told him what was going on at my house). LOL so ridiculous

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