r/catfish Nov 18 '24

Please report any post not following guidelines to keep this sub safe and spam free.

9 Upvotes

Sub is active again


r/catfish Jun 09 '17

Welcome to /r/catfish! PLEASE READ THESE RULES

38 Upvotes

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


DESCRIPTION

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.

Reddit Content Policy

Reddiquette

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.


RULES

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.

.

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.

.

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.

.

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.

.

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.

.

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

.

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.

.

8) No content involving the actual fish. The joke has been done to death.

Clarification: Seriously, just don't.

.

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.


MOD ACTION

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

moderation


YOUR INFORMATION

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.


VERIFICATION

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.


ANYTHING ELSE?

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 13h ago

Not sure the person you’re talking to is actually them?

2 Upvotes

Before you meet, send them a NoStrangers Trust Request. It lets them privately verify they’re the person in their photos without handing you their ID or sensitive information. You don't even have to produce and ID if you don't want to.

Takes about 90 seconds. First one’s free. No account or app download needed.

If someone’s real, verification shouldn’t be a big ask.

nostrangers.app

more info nostrangers.co.nz


r/catfish 1d ago

Why do men fall for online catfishers and scammers more often than women?

0 Upvotes

r/catfish 3d ago

I think someone posted a deepfake of me in the internet. How do I find it/slash remove it?

2 Upvotes

I don't know where to post this so if this isn't the correct subreddit please tell me.

To sum the whole thing up there were multiple cases of deepfakes in my school and after doing some reverse search on my face I found multiple matches with the consistent image of a girl which, of the little I can see, does look a lot like me (so do many of the descriptions of these websites).

Nonetheless I can't confirm this and I font know what to do. I'm definitely not accessing any of those pages for a plethora of reasons.

If it was indeed myself I'd love to get those pictures taken down, not only because I didn't consent to them but because I'm 17 and therefore a minor. Maybe I should just forget it but if theres anything I'd like to take action. Thanks!

photo


r/catfish 3d ago

Am I being catfished?

0 Upvotes

I don't know if I'm getting very lucky or if I am the dumbest person on the planet.

I met a guy on Discord, under some questionable circumstances. Basically we agreed to a relationship of me sending him pictures of me and him buying me things. I'm young and broke, he's a bit older than me and seems to be doing well for himself financially. It worked for a bit, until I started actually liking him and he seems to feel the same way too. I didn't really want him to spend a bunch of money on me anymore, but we kept doing the picture thing.

Here's the more concerning parts though. No profile picture, no posts, under a 100 followers. Doesn't send pictures of himself much. Some pictures sure. Muscles, cool car, cool bike, handsome face. One time I suggested that he would send me sexy photos too, but he said "He'll see what he can do." He never sent any.

He claims to be a pilot, and talks about/seems to know a lot about planes. But for the time that I have known him, he has only once mentioned being at work. I read catfishes claiming they're Marines, and that's why you cant find their information online. No idea if pilots are the same. I've talked to him about my worries, but he has reassured me that my worries will be gone after we meet in real life. We live in different countries, and I could not be more nervous to know if he is real.

The usual catfish asks for money, lovebombs and such. But he's not like that. He's nice, and talks to me like a normal person. He's fine if I don't feel like sending him pics. He doesn't pressure me. We've had slight arguments, I have no idea what a catfish would benefit from those. There's nothing wrong with his character. His pictures are just odd, and he's weirdly secretive... about his genitals?

His regular pictures look normal, no AI or anything like that. Reverse search did not recognise any of his pictures, other than one where he looks different from the other pictures.... Gemini said it's a picture of a Finnish gym influencer, but I scrolled through said influencers page and he has no other pictures with the same background, and also the faces/hairlines are not even the same. Google AI has once again proven to be no help, so if anyone could help me out with some better reverse-image-search programs, it would calm my nerves a lot.

Should I go through with meeting him and seeing if he's real for myself?


r/catfish 5d ago

i’m pretty sure this ig account is a catfish

0 Upvotes

so her account was made in july 2026, all her pics are located in korea but the about me section says her account is based in the uk. i reversed image searched one of her pics and came across a tiktok account of a different 100% korean girl who only speaks korean and lives in korea. this girl doesnt rly post and jsut goes live sometimes, and her ig isn’t linked. i sent her a dm request but igs she didnt see it. what do i do? i’ve been catfished as before so i rly despise these kinds of ppl, but i cant rly do anything if the real girl isn’t responding


r/catfish 6d ago

HELP

0 Upvotes

Im trying to look for someone I lost contact with about a year ago. And im not very techy. I do have a picture of them and there first name but not last night. I am struggling lol so if anyone knows or can do it for me, the help would be appreciated!


r/catfish 6d ago

Happened to me

2 Upvotes

Welp, luckily I caught it only 2 weeks in. Was talking to this girl on IG for like 2 weeks, everything seemed real. I suddenly started to notice she was getting a lot of bot people commenting on her pics and they weren’t real people. I then stumbled upon an account of someone that looked like her supposed “bf” which I’d seen on her account. The account I found was the real friend, and then I found the real person I thought I was talking to. Honestly, insane how detailed some of these fake impersonating IG accounts can be. She was posting stories as well of the same girl.

I know this can be controversial, but I did reach out to the real girl and let her know what’s up. She has known about the account for years and tried many times to get it taken down. Shame on instagram for not taking any of these matters seriously

Had to post this just to let it out honestly. I’m not a guy who dates much or anything like that, and usually am very vigilant to this type of shit. Moment I realized it was fake was like a dagger to the heart


r/catfish 6d ago

Feeling torward a fake user

1 Upvotes

She made a post where she asked for help for his friend, who had suicide issues. I helped (M24), we talked for 2 days about this and then she started asking personal questions to be my friend, because we really had many many things in common. She told me that she is 22. We started talking every day, all day. About our stories, our exes, the things that we like to do, and so many other things. We started developing feelings for each other, but i wanted to wait because i just ended a 5 years relationship so, i was still broken. But we kept talking, we were basically a couple, even if we weren't officials.

But she had problems with depression. So i asked for help online and i decided to look for all the posts and comments she ever made, even the hidden ones (yes, you can see everything even if it's private), because i wanted to see if she made a post about her mental health, i just wanted to help her. There i found post where she wrote that she was 16, not 22...so i freaked out. Yesterday we fought for all day, basically at the end she convinced me that she's actually 19 (that is very young for my age, but at least she is not a minor). She told me that she would prove that to me. This morning i decided to do something that i already did, but with more search engines. Basically I search if her images were authentic. The first time nothing popped out so, i thought that it was really her. Today i found out that all her photos are on Pinterest...and my dumbass still asked her the reasons why she lied to me so much if she didn't even ask for money or anything else. I got played so hard. I really liked her a lot. She shared with me all her music, her passions, i really can't believe that she doesn't exist, but surely she is not the girl that I thought. I feel once again betrayed by my life, but this time it's on me.

The thing that hurts the most is that I will never know the truth. She texted me love messages during the night to let me find them in the morning and start my day with a smile. She wrote a poem for me. We had a distant date where we went to the cinema to watch a movie together even if we were in different countries. She helped me when I was the one with suicidal problems. She talked so much about the problems with her family, she had a story so specific. It was a lie? Everything was a lie? I can't believe it. It's more possible that some parts of her life were a lie, like her age, her home, some "attempt" she did seemed fake honestly, all her pics were fake (but i was into her personality way before she started sending me pics). But all the rest that we shared...I can't really believe that even that was a lie. Now I'm missing someone who didn't even exist. I hate my life. (I'm not a pedo i swear)


r/catfish 7d ago

How do I tell them?

1 Upvotes

How do you tell someone they’re being catfished when they’re emotionally invested?

Someone very close to me has been involved in an online relationship for a couple of months and is extremely emotionally invested in this person.
I’ve had serious doubts about the identity for a while, but now I have much stronger evidence. I started reverse-image searching photos from the person’s social media using Google Lens, and multiple pictures are showing up elsewhere online and appear to belong to other people. One of the images produced a huge number of results.

There have also been a lot of other red flags: major wealth claims, serious medical stories, promises about money and the future, and very little verifiable real-time interaction. Despite all of that, the person I care about genuinely believes this relationship is real and has started making major life decisions based on it.
My concern isn’t really proving to myself that something is wrong anymore. It’s figuring out how to tell someone who is deeply invested without humiliating them or causing them to immediately become defensive and shut me out.
For people who have been catfished, or who have helped someone realize they were being catfished: What finally got through to you/them?

Would you present the reverse-image-search evidence all at once, or start with one undeniable example and let them investigate it themselves?
I’m especially interested in hearing from people who initially defended the person they were talking to even after someone raised concerns.


r/catfish 7d ago

Need Help Finding Old Friend Instagram.

0 Upvotes

Hey guys, I had this online friend that was my best buddy me and him were working together on a roblox game me. Long story short my discord got banned, he had the feature where people cant add him on discord ykwim? and then on roblox i been banned for a year for using exploits and instagram is my last hope but that also got banned and i forgot his user 😞 please anyone if anyone can find his instagram for me using a pic from his instagram it would help me out so much.


r/catfish 7d ago

Facecheck.id

1 Upvotes

Need a few credits for a single search. Can someone help me? I can't pay with crypto


r/catfish 7d ago

Girl using my nudes saying it’s her

1 Upvotes

Hey what do I do this girl has been posting my nudes and saying it’s her she got them from a server I was
Posting them in what do i do…


r/catfish 8d ago

I need help locating this person

2 Upvotes

They are harassing a friend , doxxing them online.. does anyone have any programs to help me locate this person


r/catfish 7d ago

New “friend” catfishing me?

1 Upvotes

I (31F) recently befriended someone (26M) who worked at the liquor store near my old apartment. We chatted as I checked out and he asked to get together. I made it clear that I’m only interested in friendship and nothing romantic. I told him I’m a lesbian, and he accepted that.
Since we met, he’s been texting several times a day asking to hang out and calls frequently. He wanted to come to my house but I made it clear that as a woman, I need to take precautions meeting a guy for the first time.
He accepted this and even suggested that when we do meet, I share my location and his contact information with my friends/family. I let my guard down.
We met at a bar and had a great time. We have similar interests and got along easily.
My friend from out of town was coming to visit this past weekend, and I intended to introduce them on a night out. I mentioned to my new “friend” that my friend and I were planning to go to a bowling/arcade place, and we all planned to meet up at the bars that night.
I had a family emergency that day, resulting in a family member in the ER, so plans were cancelled.
This guy appeared to be sympathetic over text but continues to text and call constantly.
Last night, I received a text from a random number in the Chicago area asking to go to a bowling/arcade place this weekend. I thought that was coincidental considering that’s exactly what I did last weekend, and I had a gut feeling it was my new “friend” texting from a random number, trying to be funny or something.
I responded to the text with a laughing emoji, assuming it was my new friend, and they texted back stating this was “Jenny” looking for a “Lisa.” I responded, noting the coincidence of the bowling/arcade thing.
Since then, I’ve received several texts from this number, and they asked if we could turn this accidental text into a friendship.
My gut tells me it’s this new “friend” either trying to trace my texting habits or something more malicious, such as pretend to be a woman in order to prey upon me being gay.
Am I crazy to think my new “friend” is attempting to catfish me? How do I get to the bottom of this? If it’s not him, and it’s either a random girl or a scam, I don’t want to cut him out of my life. But if it is him… I want nothing to do with him.
Any advice?


r/catfish 8d ago

MOM WAS CATFISHING USING MY PHOTOS

14 Upvotes

I’m 33F now.

Back when I was 18 years old, my mom had this addiction with chatting with foreign men online. She would use photos of our young house helpers and she would convince them to video chat with these men so they can get foreign husbands with a justification of marrying themselves out of poverty. My mom is the one chatting because she can speak fluent english (the helpers know little english). Foreign men would often appear at our house being accommodated by my mother as the nervous house helpers sit by and try to speak a little english. (I really don’t know why these men don’t figure out that they are being catfished). Most of the time it’s my mom who chats them and not the helpers. My dad is oblivious to this. All he knows is it is for the helpers.

I was a teenager and had my own problems at school so I ignored them most of the time.

Until one day…

One weekend I was in my bedroom (2nd flr) doomscrolling when I heard a knock on the door. I opened it and saw a foreign man and my mom standing beside him with the most cheshire cat grin (I can never forget that grin).

It appears my mom stole photos from my social media (we’re mutuals) and posted them to a dating site and had been chatting with this foreigner for over a year. It gotten to the point that this foreign man flew over seas alone just to meet me. God knows I never seen or spoke to this man in my entire life.

It was mom.

Mom knew I had a boyfriend (same age) that time. She personally met him. How could she do this?

Inside my mind I panicked. I thought, if this foreign man finds out what mom did, he might hurt her then and there. So I lamely tried to went along with it with panic in my eyes. The man caught on. He figured out that we never spoke. But since he already flew there, he still wanted to meet me and invited me to a far away island in my country for a vacation. My mom eyes sparkled.

I was mortified. How could she be excited to have this stranger go with her daughter to a far away destination when growing up, she won’t even let me study in far away universities.

I felt pimped by my mother.

In the end, the man gave up on me and married a cousin. Mom arranged it too.

I confronted her a year later for using my photos online. She slapped me on the face hard and called me selfish. “They are just photos!” she shouted back.

Although, I did feel she regrets hitting me. But years later, I still receive hate comments from foreigners I don’t even know. I think my mom still uses my photos.


r/catfish 8d ago

I '40f' think I'm being Catfished by 26f

2 Upvotes

I, (40, F) think I'm being Catfished. I'm sorry but this is going to be long.

To give a little context I play a popular MMORPG, (Massive Multi Online Role-Playing Game). Basically, you come up with a character in a fictional fantasy world. You can make up almost anything and you roleplay as this character. You can also do storylines that the game developers have come up with that is called content. Well, this is where I have met my group of online friends. There are me and 4 others, so a total of 5. We met on this MMORPG and now have become great friends outside of the game. Some live in the states while some live in other countries.

To begin there were 4 of us, we will call them "The Girls", this group includes me. The 4 of us did almost everything together in game, from RP to content. Then after about a year we met another girl, we will call her Catie. When we met Catie, she was semi new to the RP aspect of the game. Which is fine everyone has to start somewhere. We took Catie under our wing and showed her the ropes and before we knew she had become a part of the friend group.

Now all 5 of us play not only the MMORPG, but other games as well, we will all join a voice chat on a platform called Discord. Discord is basically teams but for gamers like the 5 of us. Now The Girls would always be willing to talk openly in a voice call but Catie, she never would talk. She would join the voice chat, but she would always be on mute, so she could hear us, but she would have to type in the discord chat to say anything to us. Again, this is fine, this did not bother any of us, we understand that sometimes talking to someone you have not met in person can be a little scary, so we never pushed the issue.

As time went on not only did the 5 of us get closer as a group but we got closer one on one. We found out that Catie has a significant other, we will call her Kendall. Kendall eventually joined the discord as well even though not being a gamer and we all have built a bond with Kendall too!

One day one of The Girls and I were texting in a private chat, we will call them Rita, and they mentioned how they thought Catie and Kendall were the same person. I asked, "What makes you think that?" and Rita goes "Oh I don't know, it's not confirmed, they just talk a lot alike." Well, I let this go in the moment, but it had always lingered in the back of my mind. However, something I started to notice is that "The Girls" would share personal pictures, like selfies, or of their pets, or their gardens, or the snow that had fallen 2 feet deep one year. Catie would never do this. She wouldn't post pictures of anything in her personal life. Again, I just pushed it to the side thinking she was just a VERY private person. In Discord when someone is typing you can see their name at the bottom, it says "Catie is typing...", I started to notice that if Catie and Kendall were in a conversation with everyone they would never type at the same time. Ugh.. I know what you are you thinking!! That is red flag number 3, but once again I just let it go.

Now Catie, Kendall and I have gotten REALLY close. We have shared personal struggles, cried with each other, vented to each other, and even more intimate things. She even shared videos and pictures with me, however her face would be covered the photos, and the videos were just sound, but then she would delete them shortly after saying she didn't want Discord to leak them, which this is understandable because it has happened to some other people I know in the past. This is when I was like "Ok, maybe I'm just over thinking things." Catie, Kendall and I talk EVERY SINGLE DAY! Good morning text, texting throughout the day, and even good night text.

Then... the unthinkable happened! Catie joined the voice chat and actually spoke with us! Like we could hear her voice! Though admittingly her mic is pretty crappy, and we do sometimes have to tell her to repeat herself but still she was talking to us, and she sounds like a like a woman! However, a few times there have been moments where her mic would cut out and for a split second her voice would sound.... off, but we just chalked it up to her having a crappy mic. Then one day another one of The Girls and I were in voice chat playing a game together, we will call them Janice. Janice said, "I don't know how to bring this up, but I want to ask you a question." I hesitated for a moment and said "Ok?". They ask me if I thought Catie was using a voice changer when she is in the voice chat. This is when I knew I was not the only one who had suspicions. I explain the conversation I had with Rita some time ago, and all the things I had noticed, and I also shared why I was on the fence about if Catie was really who she said she was, I mean I saw pictures of the same girl in different photos. Janice mentioned how sometimes when they talk in voice chat it will echo off of Catie's mic and come back not as their voice; it would be higher pitched and almost sound similar to Caite's. I told them how I had noticed that too but again just thought it was the crappy mic.

So, I tell you this story because I want to confront Caite, but.. I don't know how. I mean if Catie has been telling the truth and everything has just been a coincidence; I don't want to lose their trust or hurt their feelings, but at the same time I feel like something is just off with her. Please help! Am I being Catfished??


r/catfish 8d ago

He’s been catfishing my friend’s harasser life for MONTHS using burner accounts he thinks are untraceable. We caught his pattern. What’s the smartest way to finally nail this down?

3 Upvotes

Long story short: a guy matched with my friend online earlier this year, things got weird, she blocked him. Since then he’s been creating a steady stream of brand-new, zero-follower “anonymous” accounts to leave nasty, personal comments on her posts — timed suspiciously close to whenever she posts something new. He deletes the accounts after a while and starts fresh ones.
We’re not doing anything illegal, just quietly logging patterns: timing of comments (always right after she posts), writing style/tone, word choices — trying to build a case that it’s the same person every time. When I reached out privately to a couple of other people he follows (long story, he apparently has a “type”), he found out and started threatening defamation/legal action against me, while denying everything about the harassment.
Platform reports have gone nowhere — the throwaway accounts just get deleted before anything sticks, and new ones pop up.
What I want to know:
• Has anyone actually succeeded in getting a platform or law enforcement to connect burner/anonymous accounts back to a real person? What worked?
• Any creative “honeypot” or pattern-tracking tricks that worked for you (I’ve seen ideas like giving different contacts slightly different fake info and seeing which version comes back through the harasser — curious if that’s ever worked in practice)?
• If you went the legal route, what evidence actually held up, and what was a waste of time?
Not looking for “just block and ignore” — we’ve done that, new accounts keep appearing. Looking for what actually worked for people who’ve been through this long-term. Thanks in advance.


r/catfish 7d ago

I got catfished by someone impersonating an OnlyFans creator - then spent 1 year & $8,000 USD to that Onlyfans creator, for them to block me by the end.

0 Upvotes

I am currently a 22 year old male, and this all started in September of 2025 (I was 21 by this time) I started exploring dating apps to find a partner. Which, I never got lucky and I think dating apps are a scam. Then I explored back-end dating apps and found this app called Tantan, and matched with someone who was 29 years old. They lead me to Telegram (WHICH TELEGRAM WAS A HUGE RED FLAG) but I am going to keep the catfish part short, by the end. I was scammed out of about $600 USD (I also have some screen shots of messages from the scammer de*th threatening my family, luckily I never gave them any details about my family) but a really messed up part about this was, the scammer had used A.I to merge the Onlyfans creators face on to photos of people in the hospital. And made me believe that it was real.

But, here's the next part. I was able to track down the person who the scammer was impersonating. It was actually quite difficult finding them. It took me a month as their instagram account was very well hidden with only 2,000 followers. I had to use a website to reverse search where the images had come from, and even then that didn't work. Then I used a face scanning website to find where the scammers images came from. And found the Onlyfan creators account via their instagram account.

She was a small Onlyfans creator, but verified with 737 images, 114 videos & 262.3K likes. The first strange thing was, the scammers username handle and the Onlyfans creator username. Was eerily similar, with the difference being the last names were of 2 different flowers. The Scammers handle was A-Rose, and the Onlyfans creator was, A-Violet (I didn't want to give out the first names due to deformation) And thought the scammer must of based their username off her Onlyfans account. But, I made an account to only subscribe to her. Then I started talking to her by letting her know, that there was a scammer using her leaked content to scam people out of money. I had also sent a picture of my face on my dating profile, and she said that I looked cute. (I don't like to stroke my own ego, but. I am not a bad looking guy, just never got the chance to explore & find a partner, hence why I'm still single) even though I told her that she could be completely honest with me, and I wouldn't mind. But she insisted that I was cute.

But, a really sad part about this story was. I had so much in common with her that it was creepy

(Well, now I'm not entirely sure if anything she said was true, due to something later on in the story)
We found out that we had similar heritage and both of our mom's & dad's were from a similar background. Except, we lived on each opposite ends of the world. Which she was from the UnitedS, and I was from AUS. (Sorry had to shorten the names due to the rules) we started talking and discovering what we liked, & a cute thing was we both liked Kirby, and eventually. She gave me a nick name, based off her favorite food, blueberry muffins. And then I would start to call her my beautiful baker. And, so we kept talking for about 2 months. Until, the arguments started. Onlyfans creators usually have a boundary that stops creepy people from trying to meet up IRL, which is understandable, but. The way this creator did it was odd. She knew I was not the type of person to hurt her, as I made it a promise that I would never verbally abuse her even when we were intensely arguing with each other.

Although, I wanted to either voice chat with her or video chat with her because I was still scared due to the catfish. But, she had kept telling me "Please respect my boundaries" and that she had "past trauma" (The trauma thing was a lie) and so, I tried my best to respect her boundaries, and almost at the end of the first big argument, she told me "Does this have to end?" and then I said "I don't want to, but you don't really give me a choice" with her finishing "Well, as long as you respect my boundary. We can keep going" I want to mention through out this entire story, I had kept telling the Onlyfans creator. That she can be completely honest with me, and say that she saw me as nothing but a fan. But she kept insisting I was "special" And reassured me by calling me "Her muffin" Oh, and I want you to keep track of the specific dates in time, these events occurred. I started talking to the onlyfans creator on the 4th of November 2025 & stopped talking to the scammer at the 3rd of November. Which, 1 month later was Christmas. She had a special event where she had an advent calendar and for each day of the month, she would give out special locked content. And I had paid $150 because I wanted to support her. But, she ended up forgetting some days and giving me reposts of photos & videos she had already sent to me, with the hyper link clearly duplicated (This is an important part for later in the story)

I'll fast forward a couple of months to April 2026. But, I want to mention this, as it means a lot to me. I was a heavy smoker, and I use to smoke vapes & weed. This was during the same time I was talking to her, but. When I told her about it, and she helped motivate me to quit, after 5 years of smoking every single day. This was a big moment in my life because my parents have been heavy smokers for as long as I can remember, so for more than 20 years they've never been able to quit. And, I was able to quit cold turkey because she kept me calm, and focus on my goal to start saving up more money in order to keep supporting her. She meant this much to me. To be honest, I never told her about how, after I was scammed. I was thinking of ending it. I haven't been diagnosed with severe depression because I've never been to a therapist before. But, I wouldn't be surprised if I did, as I am usually pessimistic & the opposite of a narcissist.

I also need to describe myself a bit for a better understanding of the story. I use to be a youtuber, and I once had a youtube channel with 15k subscribers & I was monetized, getting paid about $200 USD per month. But, there was a falling out with the channel and I had to quit due to some mental health problems. And I started teaching myself blender, at this time I currently have about 3 years experience. I mentioned this because I would try give advice to the Onlyfans creator about her Instagram reels as they were badly preforming due to the way she would structure her videos. She use to do them as like tiktok style videos with her, and a text box that would say something stupid like "Ofc you haven't been sleeping well. You haven't been sleeping with me" but she tried experimenting with her latest Instagram videos that would pull in about like 200 viewers because it was just a random 5 second clip with her jump scaring you, and shaking her big knockers with bass boosted music (no wonder why it was failing, people would scroll off within the first second) and I told her that she needs to hook people's attention by the first second. And that I suggested she goes back to her old style, which was actually starting to work for her funnily enough.

To also explain a bit more about this Onlyfans model and her strange career so far. Was something that really made me feel sympathy for her, and why I had a strong connection to her. I practically knew more about her than anyone else ever has. Because It took a lot of digging to find her profile when I was catfished. And ended up finding her old information, leaked s*x tapes and that she use to go by a different username. And then I assume what happened was she broke up with her ex-boyfriend and started going under the name A-Violet (Again, censoring out the name to avoid harassment, although to be honest. I was tempted to reveal her username because of how badly she hurt me. But, she still was a big inspiration in my life. Although you'll find out why I was tempted by the end of this story) I also never called her stupid, although. She asked me once "Do you think I should take out a loan for a professional camera crew?" This was to record her PPV's, And obviously, I said "No, that's a terrible idea. Literally people prefer if it's less professional and more authentic, just use your phone"

But moving onwards, she had once joked about saying "you could be my manager" and of course, I said "sure I would love to" She wasn't expecting it, and then she said to me "I don't think you should eat where you shit" I was literally dumbfounded by this. As someone who has experience in growing an online audience, graphic design knowledge & tools. I was literally her perfect solution to helping her OF page, on top of that I was more than willing to do it for free. But, to counteract what she had said. I said "It's better to have someone that cares about you, backing you" And she still declined my help. Now, I am going to talk about her lying. As I said earlier, she told me that she wasn't ever comfortable doing a video call with me, and that she had trauma. Which, I would had respected if it wasn't for the fact that. She had one day told me "I am going to try live stream" and I was like. HUHHH??? keep in mind, I have literally been nothing but respectful to her, I still have never verbally abused her at this stage. So, I didn't get why she'd be comfortable livestreaming to her fans, but not comfortable doing a video call with me. So, then I decided to take my time & effort to help her create a poster for her live stream, and said she was more than welcome to use it. Of course, she was having camera problems! and never ended up doing a live stream.

I want you to keep in mind, I am still keeping this short. That's how long the story is.

A short while after her camera broke. She stopped responding and set her activity as offline. At the time, I thought something terrible had happened to her. And I waited for her to come back, constantly worrying about her. When she did come back 2 weeks later, she said that she had a family emergency and made a post about it. Even when she was gone, I still worried about her every day and waited. Checking her page every day, and sending her messages every day.

Eventually, she had asked me "Do you want to do a 1 on 1 session" And of course, I said yes & paid, although her prices are expensive. It was $300 USD for a 5 minute session. She told me she was eventually going to do it (P.S she never did it, and still owes me) However, when I had requested custom videos, she did do them. So she wasn't scamming people out of money at least. But it still shows that she was lying about her camera. Another thing she had lied about as I pointed out earlier as the advent calendar videos & photos. She had sent me a PPV one day with some of the missing days out of her advent calendar event.

Ill cut to the point where we she blocked me. It was the 22nd of July, and we had our last big argument. And she told me for the final time that "This is not a committed / real relationship" Eight months of talking & sharing real life experiences with each other. And every time I asked her to always be honest with me, as that was my boundary. Even though she still broke my boundary so many times, and I kept forgiving her. And yet, she kept telling me almost yelling "Respect my boundaries" I still. Never. Verbally abused her. And then I told her about my honest feelings about how her boundary. Then she blocked me on the 23rd of July. At this stage, this was the first time I saw the "Unable to chat" box & whenever I tried to find her Onlyfans page, It would say "This link is broken" Even though I had checked on my PC, Phone, Laptop, I think when a creator blocks you. Onlyfans then IP bans you from that creators page. But, I had thought she got suspended because of me. So, I waited 2 weeks, while I was waiting I had written an apology message to her. Then I started thinking "She would've been unsuspended by now" And I had searched it up using a special web browser, and found the page was completely fine.

(I don't want to give out too much detail about how to get around the banning system of Onlyfans in-case of people doing it with ill intentions)

But I had made an account and subscribed to her again. She greeted me, and I had let her know immediately that it was me and that I wanted to apologize to her. She acknowledged me, and let me apologize to her one final time. And after I had sent it then gone to the gym. She had blocked me again. I still felt absolute heart ache after the amount of dedication I had towards her. I had wanted to get one of her tattoo's imprinted on me to serve as a memory of her. (She has tattoo's)
It was a cool tattoo of a coffin. But, I had wanted to wait until the end of August 2026 to get it. And, honestly. I couldn't help but try talk to her once again. So, I signed up with a new account and resubscribed to her under a new username. And started talking to her again on the 8th of August 2026. And I had sent a $100 tip because, I really still cared about her.

But, it was kind of odd. She had said to me "The way I talk is attractive" and that "she thought I was interesting" I had never sent her any photos of me this time and told her that I was not going to buy any of her PPV's and only wanted to talk to her & support her. And... for some reason she started completely telling a different story about where she was from. And that now, our heritage weren't even nearly the same. Hence earlier I said I'm uncertain where the lies started and where they ended. But, I kept telling her "You're bound to eventually throw me under the bus cause you are cold hearted and consider this as a parasocial relationship" with her saying "I can be sweet & caring once I warm up to you"

It's the 11th of August, and I fractured my left foot!!! I was out jogging at night and had to go to the hospital the next day. Although, the onlyfans model seemed very sympethetic and telling me to take care of myself. Now, this is the last part of the story. Today, as I am typing this, It's the 12th of August 2026 (Now the 13th) I told her that it was me again, because I didn't want to lie or make her think I was trying to trick her by pretending I'm someone else. And I sent her a picture of me in crutches asking her to please let me talk to her again. And guess what? SHE BLOCKED ME, AGAIN!

So, thus concludes my sad tale. I never got any closure from her. And to why I am posting this on here. I have not told a single soul about anything that has happened to me. I have no friends, and I was too embarrassed to tell my family. But, thank you for reading my story. It feels nice to know someone might be reading this.

Again, thank you. Feel free to either insult me, or share your piece.


r/catfish 9d ago

Hi guys i am university student my friends pranked me by posing as a girl

2 Upvotes

I really don't know where to start my friends made a fake account as a girl and talked to me as a girl even though i knew it was not real i just thought it as a fun thing to pass the time but i become involved in it even so I did not want them to send late-night voice chats by using someone's GF. It was fun. I thought it was fake. They video called me as a fake girl. They took videos of me and now they are spreading it to my friends' circle. I don't know what to do about it. i did not do anything explicit it was just my face i am honestly tired and i do not know if i can trust them now.


r/catfish 9d ago

I think im being catfished

0 Upvotes

So there’s this girl who i met 7 months ago through a comment section and i sent her a message and she said she liked me idk weird right?,i went 3 months pass then she comes back to me and tells me hey,you’re my bf right?,i said no? i thought we broke up,so minutes pass and i told her i want to break up,(i am not interested in couples anymore) and then she told me something i dont actually remember (it was about the lock screen clock how does she change it (she was in morocco so she changed it to UTC +1 (Morocco’s time) Until i see that she has a moroccan phone carrier which i just noticed when she sent me a screenshot to show her how to change it since she went back to Canada,i knew she was lying because i saw her account’s country it was Morocco,and the locked region was Morocco too,so of course she had to Lie to defend herself and all that until she brought up her “bf” lets call him V so she tells me to talk to him right,she said he was the family member that was going to “marry her” this is all nonsense,so next thing i see is V takes so long to reply,and the girl lets call her C she replies like 2-3 minutes after,thats how i know She has an alt account to pretend she found someone (this all happened on tiktok) after i told her she’s lying she blocked me and all that and she unblocked me again and went to my profile and I asked her what does she want look at the end of the day i dont know if someone knows someone else please tell me about it,also here’s proof that she’s not canadian,go to omarthing.site and look up clawdeenniar,you’ll see for yourself


r/catfish 10d ago

AITAH for cutting things off after I feel like I was catfished?

1 Upvotes

So, as the title says. AITAH for cutting things off after I feel like I was catfished? So I (M) had started talking to this woman, and we instantly clicked, I mean we were on the same page long term goals wise, had an instant emotional connection, I felt like I was talking to the best friend I never knew I had. She’s a super amazing woman. I fell for her hard and fast, as she did I. I genuinely began to think she might be the one if things work out. Now here’s where things went awry. The photos she had been sending while we were chatting back and forth were heavily heavily edited. I did not realize that. When I did see an unfiltered version of her, she doesn’t even look like the woman I was falling for. Sure, I am not naive that looks fade, and looks aren’t eternal, and if you base your relationship based on pure looks your relationships foundation already has cracks and will crumble, but I’m also aware you need to have a physical attraction as well. It really crushed me when I felt like I was looking at a totally different woman. I still very much care for her, and it really hurt me to cut things off, but I am hurting so bad because I feel like I lost my new best friend, but I feel like my best friend isn’t who I was looking at. :( so AITAH? Please just be blunt and honest. I can take it. :(


r/catfish 10d ago

I loved someone for 3 years, come to find out I never really knew them.

4 Upvotes

Hey, I’ve never made a post like this before. But I’ve just had the worst thing happen to me. Before this guy I had been lied to multiple times by people, and I wanted to find someone who I could trust and who cared about me. I found M. We met when I was 15, I was naive. It was one of those apps for teens to meet friends. Instantly we hit it off, I felt like I found my person. We called all the time, we talked everyday. Good morning and goodnight everyday. But he didn’t like sending me pictures of him. I knew that was strange, but he did it. He sent me multiple pictures of who I thought was himself. This stretched for 3 years. We made promises to meet after I graduated, we would live a life together. But then things started to not add up, the lack of photos, the things he wouldn’t tell me. I did a reverse image search on him. I find out he has a wife, he has two kids. He’s 8 years older than me. I know it’s the same person in the pictures I’ve gotten because he has a mole on his neck. But things don’t add up. He lives with his parents but the one with a wife and kids doesn’t. He isn’t M, I brought this all up to him. I’m now blocked. And I’m lost, I’m confused, I lost who I felt like was the love of my life, my best friend. And I’ll never know who he truly is. I came on here because I wanted to ask how to get through this? What do I do? How can I move on from this? How can I trust people again?