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Senior Lecturer in Psychology, The University of Queensland
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When you yourself have involved with internet tradition at all in the past few years, you’ve got most likely run into the definition of “catfish”, first coined in the 2010 documentary of the identical title.
A catfish is an individual who makes use of information that is false develop a persona online that will not represent their real identification. This commonly involves utilizing taken or modified pictures, often obtained from an unwitting 3rd party.
Catfish will make use of this information to create an even more attractive form of on their own, then take part in continued private interactions with another individual (or individuals) who will be unacquainted with the deception.
Falling victim to catfish
Within the 2010 documentary, Nev Schulman learns that a female with who he’s got developed an on-line relationship over nine months is obviously fake. Another married girl (whom initially stated to be her mom) has utilized pictures from the model’s account to generate the complicated, phoney relationship.
There were a few high-profile situations of catfishing reported in the media since that time.
Singer Casey Donovan, inside her 2014 memoir, composed about a six-year relationship that ended up being fake – inside her case, the catfish even lied about her sex.
Read moreIt is maybe perhaps not about money: we asked catfish why they fool people online