Most of us harbor a prejudice against almost every stranger we meet on social media. In fact, this prejudice, if used correctly, is the most important weapon that can protect us from a danger like Catfishing.
Today, we are examining the Catfishing file, which is a trap that everyone can fall into, regardless of male or female. If you are ready; keep your eyes peeled, here we go!
Catfishing origin story and general description
- A poster of Catfish production on MTV
Catfishing , with its most general definition; It is the name given to the deception of the person or persons chosen as the victim by creating an imaginary, fake or copy profile and character on social media in a way that may provide material or moral benefits.
The origin of the word Catfishing is based on the production of Catfish, which was published in the USA in 2010. Thanks to the worldwide popularity of the production of Catfish, the type of fraud that fits the scenario in the production began to be called Catfishing.
The event that caused Catfishing to settle in our lives
- Manti Te’o
Catfishing, theoretically, actually It was a term that has existed in our lives since the birth of social media, but it would be more accurate to say that the definition process originally started with the production of Catfish and the Catfishing case involving American football player Manti Te’o.
From this point of view, Catfishing is not only used with today’s social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook or Twitter; We can even associate it with older social media platforms like Msn and Yahoo.
In recent years, we have started to hear about Catfishing more frequently, especially with the exposure of some celebrities to Catfishing, the treatment of this subject in various television productions, and the researches of major media organs such as the BBC, and no doubt people are more and more on this subject. We think that they are taking care to be cautious, but unfortunately we still encounter new catfishing cases almost every day.
Catfishing symptoms
Catfishing person; usually instead of using a very attractive photo of a woman or a man, he uses an ordinary photo of a woman or a man. In most cases, he does not know the original owner of the photo he uses, even if he does, he creates a new name for himself and uploads characters other than himself to this profile.
There is usually a disconnect between the stories he tells you or after a certain time, contradictions begin.
A catfishing person will naturally never be able to make a video call with you. In fact, most of the time, he cannot make a voice call, but the fact that the person has made a voice video does not mean that he is not doing Catfishing.
Purposes of Catfishing and the most common misconception
Catfishing generally has 2 main purposes. These two purposes are to gain material or moral gain from the other party. With the fake profile he created, the person first instills some confidence in the other party, and when he feels ready, he starts to make material or moral demands from the other party.
One of the rare causes of catfishing is lack of self-confidence. Perhaps we can say that this is the most innocent of Catfishing. Here, the person does not have any material or spiritual expectation from the person in front of him. Just because of a lack of self-confidence, he takes on another character and profile instead of his own. It is generally harmless.
Catfishing example that made America stand up: Alicia
- Alicia, 13 years old
. There are many Catfishing stories that have been the subject of movies, TV series and documentaries, but we would like to share only 2 examples with you due to the concept of our content. The first of these stories is the example of Alicia, which happened in America and really lifted America up.
When Alicia realizes she’s been duped, it’s too late
- Alicia’s missing notice
Alicia Kozakiewicz, An American woman born in 1988. The difference that makes Alicia stand out in our content is; He has perhaps the scariest story of all the Catfishing instances, of which he fell victim at the age of 13.
Alicia was 13 years old in 2001; She met a person named Scoot Tyree through Yahoo, a popular social network at the time. They chatted with Scoot, who is 13 years old just like him, for about a year.
After a year of friendship, Scoot persuaded Alicia to meet face to face on New Year’s Eve 2002, and they decided to meet. When Alicia went on a date, she met a 38-year-old man instead of a 14-year-old, she knew at that moment that she had been tricked. When she wanted to escape, Scoot put her in his car and poor Alicia couldn’t resist.
A nightmare for Alicia that lasted for 4 days and being a light to society after treatment
- Alicia and her social responsibility project today
Scoot, who held Alicia captive in the basement for 4 days after abducting her, raped and tortured Alicia for 4 days and even shared these moments on the internet. With the involvement of the FBI, Alicia was rescued at the end of the 4th day on January 4, 2002.
Alicia’s incident had great repercussions in the USA and laws were enacted to prevent such an incident from happening again. The enacted law was also named after Alicia. Alicia received psychological support due to the trauma she experienced, and with the support she received, she stood up even stronger.
An initiative under the name of Alicia Project was launched to prevent such cases from happening again, and with this initiative, many missing children are still found and handed over to their families, and children and families are informed about Catfishing.
They even catfished the terrorist organization
- Valene Kane
as Amy Whittaker in Profile (2018) which tells a similar story
When we think of catfishing, we may think of innocent women, naive men or children who have not yet met the realities of life. These natural but well-planned Catfishing plans can sometimes even ensnare terrorist organizations.
In 2015, 3 women contacted the radical Islamic terrorist organization ISIS over the internet and stated that they wanted to join the organization. After speaking for a while, they gained the trust of the organization and received approval for participation from the organization.
After obtaining approval, women had a problem. They did not have enough money to spend on transportation in order to go to Syria, and they conveyed this situation to the organization. Thereupon, the organization paid the women a total of 3300 dollars, from 1100 dollars per person. After the payment is received, as you can imagine, there were neither 3 women, nor anyone who wanted to join the organization, nor the internet accounts they used…
If used correctly, things could benefit society
Although we have only described the negative aspects of catfishing so far, it is also known that it is sometimes used by law enforcement units to catch criminals.
The most effective way to catch people who sell drugs and commit pedophilia crimes over the internet is known as catching them red-handed with the Catfishing method. In fact, it is seen that NBC’s Dateline program also includes the story of the criminals caught by the Catfishing method.
For weird Catfishing stories…
There are many Catfishing stories in the world that are as sad as Alicia’s experience, and as strange as the example of ISIS. Would you like us to share with you many remarkable Catfishing stories such as the murders of Kaice Woody and Carly Ryan, and the suicide case of Megan Meier?
If you want to know more and weird Catfishing stories, let us know in the comments. By the way, if you have a Catfishing experience, you can share it with us in the comments.
Sources: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 /
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