Have you ever been catfished?

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I am wondering if any of you have ever been catfished. If you have, what happened? When did you find out that they weren't who they said they were.

I was a catfish target the began in the early part of September, which was when I began receiving emails from someone who likely hacked into my personal email account. Thankfully, the emails stopped after a few weeks and I've never been contacted since.

They had nothing written on their profile (online dating). They said they wanted to text rather. They changed their age on texts and then I started suspecting that I was dealing with a teenager pretending to be an adult. I asked the person to do a personality test to which the person became "afraid" and blamed me for being weird.

I've come to learn that I am just who I am and if they cannot handle it then they are the ones with the problem. Not always me being the problem.

With me, I began suspecting that I was dealing with someone who was likely a prostitute looking to get someone into trouble for soliciting prostitution. Her English was bad enough to the point where I had to ignore her emails.

I was once messaged by a girl who claimed to be Nigerian yet blonde and blue eyed in the pic, I knew it right away .

Some dude contacted me trough a dating site (PoF, to be exact), claiming that his "female friend" was interested in me, but didn't want to send me a message herself.
The fact that i didn't get any visitors outside of that guy for over a week made this highly suspicious, and him stating that "she didn't have an account on this site" confirmed it: the guy was a pimp trying to get more clients for "his girls".

needless to say; i broke contact

I once got catfished by an online friend. She lied about her age. I found out when I saw her post on other forums. I actually had the opposite thing happen. I thought someone was a catfish because she had two dating profiles in different cities. Turns out she just made mistakes with her location. I've actually seen her before.

I'm kind of glad I didn't date her because I found out through internet research that she has a "severe mental disorder". I have no clue what that's supposed to mean, but I assume I can't deal with it. I'm guessing it's borderline or schizophrenia. She ended up on thedirty and a bunch of people accused her of being a sociopath.

No, I don't put myself out there like that and I'd probably be more apt to think I was being catfished when I wasn't than it actually happening to me.

Other than WP and using the internet to get information, I don't use the internet much, so no, I don't think so.

what is "cat-fished"

After the movie of that name- an interesting documentary about a guy who had an online relationship with a women who was not who she claimed, and how the guy and his roomate buddies teamed up to track her down in real life, and finally met her face to face.

I encountered what I suspect was a would be "cat fish" here on WP years ago once. Someone PM'd me claiming to be a woman who was so taken by my profile that she was eager to start a relationship with me. There wasnt much in my profile, and I just assumed that "she" was a gang of guys in Nigeria, and just ignored "her". Never got around to reporting it though.

I think it came into common usage at least in the US when Notre Dame and now NFL linebacker for the San Diego Chargers player Manti Te'o was exposed as the victim of a cruel catfishing where his alleged girlfriend died during Heisman trophy campaign which was widely reported. Eventually it was exposed as a big hoax and this girlfriend never really existed, a lot of people blamed Te'o at first but I guess apparently it turned out to be his friend who did it him and even used female impersonators apparently to speak with him on the phone on occasion.

Come to think of it, when I first joined WP, a 'woman' claiming to be from Liberia P.M.ed me. I just ignored it.
Makes you wonder what is going on.

so its a verb now? okay got it... can't say enough has even happened on a a dating site for that to happen

I feel like you have to have been in communication with someone for a while and actually have been tricked for it to be a catfish. Just getting a standard scammer email doesn't really qualify. I think we've all gotten those before.

Being "catfished" seems more to involve the "fisher" presenting a false identity while expressing romantic intentions, and with the very real intention of coaxing money or favors from the "fished" person.

Example: Emails from a young woman expressing (1) her love for the male recipient, and (2) her need of financial help in emigrating to the recipient's country. She always needs "just a little more help" due to bribes, an injured or sick relative, more fees, or some other unforeseen expense. The young woman may be courting several men at once, and living tidily off of their gift. She may even send a few "racy" images to keep her victims interested with the promise of sexual bliss once she finally arrives.

She may also turn out to be a man.