Catfish

[Jess]

I'm making this in here and not the lounge because it's not really about the TV show, but your experiences!

For those of you who don't know, I'm not talking about a fish with whiskers. A "Catfish" is someone who pretends to be someone they're not using the internet to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances or friendships.

Have you ever had a personal experience with a catfish? What happened?

Are you a catfish? :shifty:

[Sephiroth]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSzOXtXm8p0

[Pike]

Back in the early 2000s I would often pretend I was a guy on video game forums (including some Final Fantasy ones) because why not, all I care about is guy stuff anyway. No one ever knew the wiser! :holmes:

As an aside, I have never heard of this term in this way before!

[Scotty_ffgamer]

The closest I come to this are my ideas for characters I'd write from the perspective of in blogs... but it would be pretty obvious those blogs are meant to be fiction, I think.

Pretending to be something wildly different from who I really am on a forum or something just seems weird to me.

[blackmage_nuke]

I'll use a fake name if for some reason I have to give out a name and fake country/location info if Im signing up for something that insists on a country as well as but I've never done it to get someone emotionally attached to me.

[ScottNUMBERS]

It happened to me once when I was 16. I figured it out when she showed me a picture of her more fuller-figured "friend" on more than one occasion, and asked me what I thought.

[Parker]

not in the romantic sense like in the catfish show but I did speak to a dude for a while who wasn't who he said he was. it wasn't a big deal because I didn't know him that well and he didn't exploit anyone or anything and his lies weren't especially huge but when he died it all came out. pretty strange situation.

[blackmage_nuke]

Also when I was under 18 I'd click the button that asked if I was over 18 and put in birthdays that put me in my 20s when I signed up for things.

[Parker]

you're a badass, blackmage_nuke

[Shorty]

When I joined here at age twelve, I lied and said I was four years older than I actually was because I thought it would help me fit in. I came out to everyone as my actual age three (I think?) years later. Some people were super nasty about it and raked me over the coals in an attempt to humiliate and belittle me, but most were super cool and accepted me and continued to be my friend. I didn't do it because I get off on trickstering people, though, which is how I view people who fit the description of "catfish". I just wanted the cool older kids to be my friend. :(

Trivia: When I approached Daniel to tell him, he thought I was about to tell him I was actually a dude.

Also, I got excited about this thread at first because I really, really love redtail catfish (http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/catfish/images/redtailcat_s.jpg) and think they are beautiful.

[Tigmafuzz]

I like catfish. It hurts when they bite, though :(

[Colonel Angus]

Catfish is good, but has a LOT of little bones.

[Pumpkin]

I lied about my age at first because I wasn't expecting to get super involved with the community and figured no one really cared about my age anyways so might as well say I'm a bit older to get taken more seriously since a forum I used to be on basically told me my opinions were invalid because of my age. But then when I started dating a member, I figured it was time to come clean. No one really cared


except my boyfriend, but we worked that out :greenie:

[Casey]

Never heard the term being used before. I'm not a cat fish. Never had experience with a cat fish before either.

[Quindiana Jones]

Oh shit, they're onto me.

[Calliope]

I used to lie about what timezone I was in, and spell things "The American Way" because I wanted to avoid stranger danger and didn't know about IP addresses xD

[Mercen-X]

I could never understand the severe cases in which people would be fooled into sending these people money and other things. Why would anyone become so attached to someone they've never even met in person? I mean, I've long considered sending money to Jirito, but that has been based on payment for services rendered. Unfortunately, I still can't afford to do it, but I still want to. Anyway, my point is that people shouldn't be so trusting particularly when dealing with the anonymity of the internet.

[Psychotic]

Once I met a girl from EoFF who said she was a geordie but really she sounded like someone from TOWIE. ;)

There have actually been a couple of people at EoFF who I'd describe as Catfish. Cloud No 9 died perhaps five or six times during his EoFF membership, and in those brief periods of life he was in a wheelchair, on a ventilator, or about to have an operation where he had to choose whether to be blind or have his spinal cord severed, or else he'd DIE.

He then had the very clever idea of inviting his real life friends to join EoFF, who were just like "lol no there's nothing wrong with him" when people asked about his health.

[Night Fury]

Hmmm. Not really.

Back when I used to RP and stuff, and I was like 14/15 more people would lie about their age, where they lived and stuff but I didn't ever see it as that big of a deal.

I was once a Catfish though. Again, in my RP days. I had kind of stopped using this one character account so I created a new one as a guy who was a total jackass and a bit of a twat, well lots of people started really liking the guy version of me so I just adopted that persona and it just got dragged out for a very long time xD Nobody was hurt or anything like that as we never openly discussed out real lives all that much. I didn't make up where I lived or my name or anything or age y'know, there was no love involved in it, although this one girl told me she had a crush on me, so I acted like a total smooth criminal and was like 'babe, you live so far away and I don't want to be the one that breaks your heart because of it' or something. She fucking loved it ;)

[Miss Mae]

A friend of mine had a guy flirting with him online once. He pretended to be Gaspard Ulliel. As in, didn't just use his photos, but actually pretended to be him. He was really pretentious. It was quite hilarious.

[Pike]

I knew a guy in an old World of Warcraft guild of mine who told everyone he was a girl for like... I don't even know, a year? Two years? He was huge into roleplaying and, insisting he was a lesbian, he got into all sorts of kinky lesbian roleplay (presumably with other guys who said they were lesbians). We had no idea he was a guy until one day he posted his picture online and we were all completely shocked that he was actually a dude.

Seeing as it was WoW it really shouldn't have surprised us I guess. :|

[Mercen-X]

*coufh*Big Bang Theory reference*cough*

Why do they call'em catfish anyway?

[Loony BoB]

I'm too much of a blabbermouth to keep up such a facade. I've known a dozen or so people who have done it, though.

And Sarah, I don't even remember that. xD Hilarious.

[Jess]

Once I met a girl from EoFF who said she was a geordie but really she sounded like someone from TOWIE. ;)
:mad2:


I'm too much of a blabbermouth to keep up such a facade.
I once met a guy from EoFF who assured me he was pretty cool and then he had me attacked by a million thunderbugs. :colbert:

I don't think I've ever had a friendship with a catfish. The people I've met have been genuine.

However, I have become wary of the internet. I googled my full name once and I found profiles with my name & photograph (but wrong age) on dating sites. I have NEVER registered on a dating site in my life so that is really weird. :|

[Agent Proto]

I've done a few catfishes long ago in the past where I pretended to be someone else only for fun via chats (never Facebook nor any dating sites), but I've never pulled this on anyone from EoFF. I don't really go very far with them as far as I can tell, nor am I very serious with them. I see it kind of like playing a role.

Someone asked about why it's called Catfish. There's a movie called "Catfish" which is about the same subject.

[Loony BoB]

I once met a guy from EoFF who assured me he was pretty cool and then he had me attacked by a million thunderbugs. :colbert:
:jess:

However, I have become wary of the internet. I googled my full name once and I found profiles with my name & photograph (but wrong age) on dating sites. I have NEVER registered on a dating site in my life so that is really weird. :|
I've discovered someone thieving the identity of someone I didn't know until the day earlier. They were on instagram and they were copying the hashtags and everything, so while I searched for something I stumbled across a genuine person and someone who was pretending to be them, but in a very bullying way. It was a bit sad, to be honest, but better that they could deal with it than to find out much later on.

[Shorty]

Re: why we use the term "catfish" (http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/01/why-we-call-fake-people-catfish/)


They used to tank cod from Alaska all the way to China. They’d keep them in vats in the ship. By the time the codfish reached China, the flesh was mush and tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea that if you put these cods in these big vats, put some catfish in with them and the catfish will keep the cod agile. And there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. And I thank god for the catfish because we would be droll, boring and dull if we didn’t have somebody nipping at our fin.

I always thought it was that they shipped catfish and passed them off as cod and it meant that [thing in question] is not actually the [thing in question].

[Mercen-X]

Heh, heh, heh, that quote. Droll means "amusing". I often use that term in my writing to express boredom... then I remember that's not what it means. lol

[Madonna]

I always thought it was that they shipped catfish and passed them off as cod and it meant that [thing in question] is not actually the [thing in question].
If you are talking about fish being misrepresented, escolar being passed off as butterfish is something to watch out for. You can google all the fun and joy about your health being at stake when people sell/serve you the former labeled as the latter.

I am all about protection, and multiple identities can play into that. I am not above separating my life into slices and portioning it out to ID 1, ID 2, ID 3, and me in an effort to keep other people in the dark about aspects of my life. Outside of EoFF, I have not been so very open with others when it comes to who I am, but have largely abstained here, so you need not worry that I am playing you (or am I, internet). The level of complexity differs when it comes to theses identities, with some having a fictitious history, personality, and their own updated social media, while others mostly languish with monthly email checks and the occasional post somewhere.

A lot of people also experiment with different online personalities as a form of self-discovery and -exploration, and this is a good thing. Finding out who you are and how that is best expressed can be a hard thing, and trying new ways of to present one's self and accept that self are important methods in doing just that. So you are important, and finding who you are and how to be that person is important, but other people matter as well, and you have to try to not hurt others in satisfying your needs. So I draw the line with fake personae at relationships.

Relationships, mind you, do not just entail the romantic ones, but also friendly ones, and maybe possibly your persona is an asshole, so you have a few hostile ones as well. In all of these relationships, a person should remember they themselves are fake, and should use that to temper any actions which would hurt others too greatly, and that includes leading someone on or bullying, to look at two parts of the spectrum. I do not care how cool you are or how in love you are with a romantic partner if you are still a fake; you are hurting the other party, with or without knowing it, and that is bad. Sure, you might love your significant other, but who is it they love? It is not you; it is a construct that has no tangibility, and one day, if both parties are in deep, that information is going to come out, and it will be ugly. The same goes for friendships; sure, you can keep some skin-deep friendships, but are they getting to know you (while you learn about them), or are you feeding them the backstory of someone you pretend to be? Would they forgive this betrayal of trust? And back to the hostile side of things: it is not cool to use a facade to attack or belittle others. You can be an adult (or grow to be one if you are younger) by learning how to communicate or learning when not to. There are times when it is okay to not like another person or more than dislike them, but it does not make it okay for you to harass them, be cruel to them, and anything else you can devise while hiding behind a mask. If any of this paragraph pertains to your behavior, reader, I urge you to reconsider who you have become.

tl;dr smurf catfish and escolar

[Chris]

They taste delicious.

[maybee]

I did use to say that I was male, so could feel much more safer online when I was younger, if that counts.

[Parker]

im actually a Shorty alt-account sorry to have lied to you all this time guys

[Jiro]

I inflated my age by a year or two when I joined here because it said you had to be 13 and I was like "no fuck you I wanna talk about Final Fantasy".

I've pretended to be shit I'm not in online games or Omegle or whatever, but it's less me trying to invent a story and more me just fucking around with people who are being dicks. I consistently roleplay as an evangelical female sun worshipper when I play Leona in League of Legends. Of course, because I'm still a filthy man underneath all of that, I hit on the other female champs relentlessly.

[noxious.sunshine]

Back when I was like 12 or 13, I'd go in chat rooms and lie about my age allll the time..

But I never like got close to anyone- it was just total randomness.

Except for back when I used to roleplay regularly (RIP ChatHouse lol). I got super close to a lot of the people who settled into being regulars, but I don't think any of us knew ages of each other for a few years and then it turned out I was the baby of the group. Until 2 newbies popped up that I got to be close friends with, but one of them was an FF fanatic and Cait Sith was her fav. hehe.

It's really not hard to lie about age and make it seem believable though. Esp if pics aren't involved at first. A vast majority of adults are really good at making themselves look really stupid.

Have I ever been catfished? Nahhhh.. I've had people turn out to be complete weirdos after going on a few dates, but that's it.

I mean, I honestly don't get how people can be so dense. if someone isn't willing to video chat with you at some point early on in the "relationship", then that should automatically send up red flags right there. IDK about y'all, but I'm not gonna date a picture and some words.

[Shiny]

Never did a catfish really , but when I was 11 this random girl on Aol chat thought I was in my 20's so I just went along with it. After having a casual conversation she then told me to piss off and go smurf my bf...I was like "ummm". I also remember one time playing halo on xbox live these people thought I was a little boy and asked why I was using the female master chief.

[Shorty]

im actually a Shorty alt-account sorry to have lied to you all this time guys

what

[Parker]

how else would you explain why we get on so well

[Shorty]

~*~chemistry~*~

[Parker]

haha hell yea

[SD]

Are you a catfish? :shifty:
hell no
but those who are... get out
haha i mean..
seriously get out
its not funny to mess with people like that , WITH FEELINGS
omg http://i.imgur.com/jyisgpl.gif

[Lonely Paper Star]

When I was 12, my friend and I would go on the "teenager" AOL chatrooms and pretend we were 16. Lolol.

I often give a fake name to creepy guys who hit on me in clubs/bars.

[Tigmafuzz]

I often give a fake name to creepy guys who hit on me in clubs/bars.

HEY YOUR NAME ISN'T GEORGE, WHAT THE HELL WOMAN

[Lonely Paper Star]

I often give a fake name to creepy guys who hit on me in clubs/bars.

HEY YOUR NAME ISN'T GEORGE, WHAT THE HELL WOMAN

It's hard trusting people, mmk?!?

[~*~Celes~*~]

i have been catfished twice, I was pretty young both times (14-15?) one of the times the guy showed me a picture off of a kenny chesney album and said that was him. I believed him because I didn't listen to kenny chesney so I had no idea lmao

[Shorty]

Oh, jesus, I've just remembered my sister was catfished in real life. She met some dude at a rollerskate rink - I think she was fifteen or sixteen. He told her he was 17 (and he actually smurfing looked it!). They dated and it got pretty serious - she lost her virginity to him, he was at our house all the time, was buddy-buddy with my mom, asked her for rides all the time. She would drop him off at this big fancy mansion in the foothills where the rich people lived.

My boyfriend at the time met him and thought his story didn't quite add up, so he did some investigating. I don't know how but I think through some illicit means, he found out that this dude was not the age he said he was (I think he was twenty-six?), that his name was fake, and that the house he had been having us drop him off at all this time was not his actual address, among some other smaller bulltrout lies. Basically, he was a pedophile who picked up minors at the skating rink and took advantage of the fact that he looked like a skinny, wiry, short little teenage boy to do it.

[Colonel Angus]

Did your parents turn him in to the authoritahs?

[Shorty]

They never knew. We moved away not long after and my sister begged me not to turn him into the police and because I was young and stupid, I listened.

[Parker]

its actually not too late to do something about that btw but its ok if you don't bother i know youre busy

[Shorty]

Maybe you missed the part where it was against the wishes of my sister to press charges!

[Parker]

my sister begged me not to turn him into the police and because I was young and stupid, I listened.

so are you not old and smart yet or

[Shorty]

I don't feel the necessity to further explain myself :jess:

[Parker]

that is a great pity and now i am sad