I am being catfished right now!

I had one of the car accident ones, they actually used a real name of a solicitor in Manchester.
I called this company to let them know their name was being used in a scam. They told me they don't do business that way, they couldn't understand I was trying to help them, they just wouldn't listen to what I was actually telling them.

Really keen to meet up with you but damn it! every time they make arrangements to meet you their leg gets blown off by the Taliban

😂

Interesting- always had Auntie in my family (as a term for mother's or father's sister, not just one ancient relative handed down through generations). We're all in the UK and have been for at least two centuries*

*The families, not individuals. We're not vampires.

A bad catfish thread is just what I need 😆

They really all use versions of the same story don't they?

1. Surgeon or military man (occasionally a spy)
2. Widowed
3. Are millionaires but boo hoo the money is tied up for some inexplicable reason so could you just help them out with plane tickets and they'll pay you back when the money is "released"
4. Children who have either died or are critically ill
5. Cheesy profile pic - either grinning silver fox or handsome man in military uniform (usually cuddling a dog or other pet in the photo)
6. Fall in love with you super quickly- after only exchanging a few sentences, they quickly ascertain you are the true love of their life
7. Are in a war zone, or conducting multiple and complex heart surgeries but still manage to message you 700 times a day
8. Really keen to meet up with you but damn it! every time they make arrangements to meet you their leg gets blown off by the Taliban or they get paged into theatre to conduct emergency surgery (or for the spy, they have to suddenly disappear as their cover has been blown and their life is in danger)

They get everywhere. I play a scrabble game and they are even in there messaging
it’s got ridiculous.
I miss the one guy who was a Nigerian millionaire in my email

I have strong suspicions that a distant relative of mine has started a catfishing scheme using her dead mother's Facebook account.

I am Fb friends with her mum, lets call her Mary Lastname. One day I get on my Facebook feed that Alice Fakename has changed her profile pic. Never heard of Alice before and I didn't recognise her face either. I was so confused on why Alice is on my friend's list. After clicking on her profile and scrolling through I realise it's Mary's account.

Reverse search image revealed that the beautiful woman on the profile pic is an Instagram influencer whose name is most definitely not Alice Fakename.

Currently considering whether I should contact the Instagram influencer or not. I don't even know if she will care.

Loving this thread slightly gutted I've not been catfished when i was on Twitter someone tried now i wish I'd played along 😂

An old friend sent me a post Christmas message asking how we all were etc. this happens occasionally, so I wasn't concerned. I replied telling him about a close relative who died the previous year, so it was quite sad the first Christmas without them. His reply was Sorry for your loss, I am having trouble buying Amazon gift cards could you buy £100 and send me photos of the scratched off strip on the back.
I played along all afternoon, DD was in fits initially. Eventually I said I hoped his family were ashamed of him. DD then got worried they would track me down. I assured her they were only interested in trying to scam money.

If we're being pedantic, isn't it pidgin English?
(Waits to discover I'm an idiot...)

Mine ask constantly if I’ve done it again and give me lines or quotes to get in they all want more so I guess they are or in the very least doing a good impression

I was contacted by a paediatric surgeon based in Afghanistan who had a sick son back home, who he missed terribly.

He’d relay stories of armed raids and dying children.

He needed a holiday to help with the trauma but his captain couldn’t process his forms so I needed to send flight details.

He was madly in love with me, and I was the only person who kept him going. When the Taliban attacked the camp (18 months ago), and things were critical, I was the only thing which gave him hope to survive.

This is the short version, and I didn’t even engage just bland one line responses out of morbid curiosity as the dying son story was a new level of manipulation, but I can see how someone who is lonely can get sucked into this nonsense.

Predators are the worst kind of people.

Oh oh what is it you do for a job? Are you a catfish hunter? Is that you Nev?

🙄

I just tell them I'm going to look for documents and leave them hanging on as long as possible, put my feet up with a cuppa and watch something on TV.!!

had a call the other day from someone who wanted to talk about the accident I had just been in..

without missing a beat I said I think we both know there was no accident and they hung up 😂

I like to tell the loft insulation people that our current loft is insulated with a 6inch layer of human fat. They hang up after that.

My DP played along with his as well. The scammer got very excited when DP agreed that they should meet up. "She" became less enthusiastic about the whole thing, however, when DP said that he would need to get a divorce from his "wife" and could the scammer please send £1000 so that he could pay for the "divorce" and they would be free to be together.

I was way back in the Albert Hall but must have made an impression

This really tickled me😂

The only victims here are the people being scammed. Nobody else

Yes, and even if they have been forced into it, what the heck can I do about it? I cant extract them from it from the end of a telephone can I? I also think its very dangerous to portray scammers as "victims"- it engenders sympathy for them and they don't deserve that, they are already trying to get sympathy out of people by preying on their emotions. The more sympathy people give them, the more they will flourish and the more the scams will work. The more the scams work, the more people will be trafficked. I can imagine scams now whereby someone tells you they have been trafficked and they only need 20k to start a new life for themselves and to get to a safe place.

He probably hasn't heard of ABBA. He'll just say That's Nice Dear. Will accept me as your husband?

My DH got catfished once and went along with it on purpose, responding, pretending he believed catfisher was genuine.
OMG, we never laughed so much, sitting on sofa, reading responses as the cat fish story played out.
The expressions of love, the language alone 😂, think copied from a Barbara Cartland novel.
The plot thickening ...to needy relatives, dying relatives, other money needed scenarios, the unfolding dramas were gripping !! The all sit in a call centre somewhere, working to a script !!!!
In his case he "agreed" to go to Russia to rescue/marry/ whisk away to safety the " damsel in distress "iso
of sending the money to ( catfish account ) .
Then he was going to turn up in person, the hero of the day 🦹.
Their last exchange was something like DH ( at home on sofa ) : " Honey I am waiting at xyz car rental in Moscow airport , I can't see you ? Where are you , I'm here to rescue you ! " .
Never heard from " her " again.
Days of entertainment, we still laugh about it now.
Beat them at their own game !!

@mynameiscalypso · you seem to be going out of your way to make these perpetrators out to be some kind of victims. They’re not.

There are whole call centres in India and Africa and Pakistan dedicated to scamming the public in one way shape or form. These people know what they’re doing. All of them, even the puppets who act in the name of the alleged company/service/romance scammer.

The only victims here are the people being scammed. Nobody else.

I play a game called dice world and i am frequently being messaged by engineers working off shore. Sometimes I play for a bit. The last one though when he asked what job I did I told him I worked for action fraud and that I frequently looked into scams. He disappeared after that.