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Glossary

What Is Catfishing? Meaning, Signs and What to Do

Also called: catfish, catfished

Catfishing is deceiving someone online with a false identity, usually a fake profile built from another person's photos, a made-up name or an invented life. Merriam-Webster defines a catfish as a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes. The aim, as Dictionary.com puts it, can be to deceive, manipulate or swindle, and fake profiles are a common way into romance scams.

The word comes from Catfish, a 2010 documentary about an online relationship with a woman who pretended to be someone else.

How catfishing shows up

Scamwatch and the FTC describe much the same pattern:

  • Photos that look too professional, or blurry and unclear.
  • A new account with little personal information and few comments, likes or connections from other people.
  • A profile that doesn't match what they tell you about themselves.
  • Strong feelings very early, with constant messages and calls (love-bombing).
  • A quick push to leave the app for WhatsApp, LINE or another private chat.
  • Always a reason they can't meet or video chat: they're overseas, somewhere remote, or their camera isn't working.
  • Requests to keep the relationship secret, for intimate photos, or for money.

An example of catfishing

This is an invented example. You match with "Daniel", whose six photos all look like a magazine shoot. Within a week he says he's never felt this way, asks to move to WhatsApp and explains that video calls won't work from the offshore rig where he's posted. A reverse image search finds the same face on a fitness model's account under another name.

Catfishing or just a flattering profile?

Filters, good lighting and photos that are a few years old aren't catfishing. Catfishing is about a false identity: someone else's face, a name that isn't theirs or a life that doesn't exist.

What to do if you think you're being catfished

  1. Reverse image search their photos with Google Lens, Bing Visual Search or TinEye. The FTC and the UK's Report Fraud both suggest checking profile pictures this way, and our guide on how to reverse image search a person shows the steps.
  2. Search their name with the word "scam", as Scamwatch suggests, or the job they claim plus "scammer", as the FTC does.
  3. Don't treat no match as proof. The FBI warns that criminals use AI to create realistic images for fake social media profiles, and those faces belong to no one.
  4. Never send money, gift cards, crypto, ID documents or intimate photos to someone you only know online, however long you've been talking.
  5. Don't confront them. Keep screenshots, stop replying, block them and report the profile to the app.
  6. If you've paid or shared personal details, call your bank or card provider, then report it: in the US at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to the FBI at ic3.gov; in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to Report Fraud or on 0300 123 2040 (in Scotland, call Police Scotland on 101); in Australia to Scamwatch.

Mirabu's Face Search also shows where a photo appears online and its oldest copy, as a signal rather than proof. More in how to tell if someone is catfishing you and how to spot a fake account.

Sources

Related terms: Love-bombing · Pig butchering

Guides on this

  1. Face Search How to Tell If Someone Is Catfishing You: 9 Signs Nine warning signs, a five-minute check you can run on any profile, and what to do if the story falls apart. · 5 min read
  2. Face Search How to Reverse Image Search a Person, Step by Step Step-by-step reverse image search with Google Lens, Bing and TinEye, how to read the results, and why no match doesn't prove a photo is real. · 6 min read
  3. Profile Analyzer How to Spot a Fake Account or Bot on Social Media The giveaway signs of fake accounts and bots, what Instagram, X and Facebook now show about an account's history, and how to report one. · 5 min read
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