Catfish and How to Spot Them...

By popular demand, I am going to share my #catfish spotting tips. I'm always happy to share these on an individual basis, by private message, but I thought, owing to the volume of requests I'm now getting, it might be worthwhile to put some thoughts down, so everybody can access them...

What is a catfish?

What is a catfish?

Catfishing is a type of deceptive activity where a person creates a sock puppet social networking presence, or fake identity on a social network account, for attention seeking, bullying or as a romance scam.

So, it's not just a guy pretending to be a girl, which is, I think, its most common use in G@G parlance... instead, it's anybody who creates a fake persona, for the purposes of deception, which is rather broader than many people tend to think...

Why does it matter?

Fundamentally, G@G is a Questions and Answers site. So what is the use of getting the opinion of a 39 year old man, who is pretending to be a 17 year old girl. Absolutely none whatsoever.

You can ignore them, assuming you can spot them, but what if you can't spot them, as many people clearly cannot? Then they're fed an entirely warped version of what a 17 year old girl is actually like.

If they're from a part of the world where interaction between the genders is highly regulated, then they think it's OK to ask real teenagers to send them intimate pictures or chat to them about sexual subjects.

If they're a single father, raising a daughter on his own, how the hell is that fair on either him or the daughter?

Just two examples, but I'm sure you can understand my position here.

How can you spot them?

1. Their pictures.

Reverse search any images of 'themselves' they may have up. Some of them think they've been clever by using those of celebrities who are unknowns in the English-speaking world, but this one will catch them out nearly every time.

2. Their G@G personality.

Generally, a catfish will only post in Sexual Behaviour, and this is normally the only topic they ask about, too. Once in a blue moon, you might get one who will answer in other categories, to try and 'flesh out' the fake persona, but their answers in such categories tend to lack depth, and feel somehow "one dimensional"? They'll certainly lack insight, if they try and do something which requires a greater degree of knowledge about a non-Sexual Behaviour subject, as a rule of thumb.

They also never seem to have much of a backstory, and are often very guarded about giving anything away about these sorts of subjects. Watch them fuck this kind of thing up, because once a person starts lying, they tend to forget precisely which bullshit they've told to which person. They almost inevitably get themselves into a mess, like this.

3. Their followers.

A G@G profile that is female, but which follows hundreds of other female profiles, and no male ones, is highly unlikely to be a real girl. In order to appear 'popular' a catfish profile tends to amass hordes of Level 1 and Level 2 followers, who then quickly lose interest in the site, never to be seen again. These followers tend to, once again, be people who are only interested in Sexual Behaviour questions and answers, and rarely, if ever, post elsewhere.

4. Their blunders.

If attempting to portray a female persona, a man will typically fuck up in any number of the following ways. He will not understand basic female anatomy, or be unable to accurately answer questions about 'female' subjects, such as bra sizing, or menstruation. Some of his attempts to do so will be hilariously off the mark.

He will also screw up by talking about sexual subjects in what is, to my mind at least, a transparently 'male' way. It's all about gang bangs, lesbianism, bisexuality, anal sex etc. I'm not claiming that women who are interested in such things do not exist, but they do not talk about them in the same way that a man does.

Conclusion

Most catfish aren't very good at what they do. Occasionally, you'll find one that's the exception to this rule, but it's pretty uncommon. Always trust your gut.

If you've got any catfish spotting tips that you think I've not covered off in this Take, please feel free to share them, too. As @ThePundertaker would say "It's a public service".

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Most Helpful Guys

  • Good take. Some people are so damn gullible. When people thought I was cat fishing on my old accounts, I’d add them on snapchat and just video chat for a second or take a selfie. A catfish will avoid all of that. Someone who isn’t willling to take that minimal effort to show you otherwise is most likely hiding something. Although it can get annoying when you’re just automatically accused all the time.

  • @Pamina

    • lolz

    • Lolz indeed 😝

    • Damn @JimRSmith he called it

Most Helpful Girls

  • Yes I've been caught out once or twice by men posing as women because they seemed so normal.
    I think heaps of guys on here get caught up with them because they start thinking with the wrong head 🍆.

  • Excellent points. The fake female accounts also insist for others to message them which is something usually mostly guys do.

    • Very good point, yes. You're 100% right about that.

    • Thanks

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What Girls & Guys Said

14 14
  • This is really interesting! I get told every now and then that I'm a catfish lol.

    • We're both catfish

    • @CarpetDenim but you succeeded in trapping Weeb 😂

    • True, and I've developed a unique skill of altering my gruff, deep, scratchy, old man voice enough to sound exactly like a teenage girl. He doesn't suspect a thing.

    • Show All
  • well i'm a girl, but i'm not 21, hee hee.

  • Great mytake, but can't all of you, like, just watch an episode of Catfish.

  • Good take. There's one person on here now who I'm certain is a catfish, as they meet at least 2 of those criteria.

    Were you here when the whole SandPlanet fiasco went down?

    • Yes, indeed. That person is back again. I'll send you a pm.

  • Im a catfish

    • imma have to eat you too

    • @Toad-1 i like being fried

    • perfect!

  • Thankfully I'm a guy so most felineaquarians are not interested in me.

  • I'm a catfish

  • Why you reveal our tricks? Meanie!!! 😭

    • i didn't need this guide to figure you out

    • @your_ego you're more of a catfish than I am

    • Catfish fight

  • Great mytake and great tips 😊

  • Oh. I thought you meant an actual catfish.
    I’m such an idiot. 😂😂😂

    • Really funny

  • lmao I remember a while back there was this catfish guy who was catfishing people here for like 2-3 years straight. he pretended to be a girl and I believe he was using pictures of his sister as his profile avatar. speaking of sister this individual was one incestuous, not even gonna get into any more detail about it cause it was pretty disturbing. anyways luckily an old user caught his ass with the help of a few other and put an to all his sickness.

    anyways kick ass article bro, it could become very handy at any given moment!

    • Yeah, that one you're referring to is currently back on the site, unfortunately...

    • Who is it?

    • yea what s/n is he under this time?

    • Show All
  • My hero

    Catfish and How to Spot Them...
    • You can reverse image search all mine😀

  • I gave a mytake on the exact same thing. it got promoted. Skadouchebag's Guide to Spotting a Catfish: Never Get Fooled Again! ↗

    • And a good one it was, too!

    • Just once I want to see a horny girl catfishing as a male playboy.

    • Hahahahaha, it must happen sometimes, lmao

    • Show All
  • Number 5. The profile is from India

    • Hmmm... often, but not always. I think those ones can be some of the most transparent of all, though, because they try to pass off being an Indian girl, behaving as they believe a slutty western girl would behave. Clearly bullshit. I find they mainly default to being American, though, even when they're not.

    • Lmao. Yeah, I'm catfishing you Zeuss

    • don't have anything against indian people who use this site but I think I agree. I remember somed asked a question about porn and some girl from india answered it and a bunch of dudes started commenting on it and I remember I asked her how is she able to watch porn if its illegal in india? (which is what her profile clearly said.) I think she made a comment about that and then went anonymous and never responded back since then despite the fact that the other dudes kept commenting. after I got a gut feeling right away that she could of been a dude for sure.

    • Show All
  • That's a wonderful myTake! I wish to have read it sooner .. I already was caught in these psycho traps

    • If you want to know more, send me a private message. There are things that are against the rules to post in public like the names of the current worst catfish offenders...

  • when i first saw the picture I thought it was a seal.

  • Thank you for this insight.

  • Treat everyone as if they are just a username and an avatar and nothing else because you never know who you are talking to online really. If people had to prove their identities it would most likely send half of internet users running.

  • Excellent take

  • I thought you were going to talk in the general sense and not just about catfishes on this site.

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