Stranger Danger: Catfishing

Catfishing refers to creating a fake identity online by posting false information, often having the purpose of befriending or chatting with someone online. Hence, people tend to misuse the anonymity of the virtual world and use it for malicious reasons - namely, catfishing can be a way for online predators to target/befriend children and teens.

There have been reported cases of human traffickers tracking the concerning persons’ profile on a regular basis in order to gain information about their whereabouts and also of their friend groups. Over time, the person’s online activity becomes sufficiently enough to be used against them.

The consequences of this problem are widespread - predators often follow children and teens on the Internet, taking advantage of their innocence and lack of adult supervision. This can draw youngsters into dangerous personal encounters in real life (e.g. abduction). The online world facilitates the process of forming and developing relationships as it takes no extra effort to ‘pretend to be someone-else’. Online interactions are fast-paced as they do not involve the awkwardness of meeting someone in real life, due to these factors, people may prefer bonding virtually than in real life. Eventually resulting in one being out of touch with reality. This detachment makes it easier for the predator to lie and for the victims to open up to them. This becomes the driving force for predators to utilize hyper-personalization as their main tool towards their goal.

In cases where one is emotionally invested into a relationship, catfishing can have a significant negative impact on one’s mental health – victims can find themselves having extreme trust issues after their experience, thus affecting both personal and professional relationships. In addition, they may feel embarrassed for believing and regret ‘falling for’ a completely non-existent person.

Therefore, it is advised to conduct background checks when engaging in online conversations with new people in order to remain on the safe side.