Hey everyone, my name is Aya, and I’m going to show you how to spot a catfish when online dating. I was recently catfished on a dating app. Now, that’s a sentence I never thought I’d say! I’ve heard similar stories, we all have, but you never think something like that would actually happen to you.
I matched with this gorgeous piece of man on Ukraine Date, a popular dating app from where I’m from. A lot of people I knew used it so I figured it must be legit, right? But when we matched my intuition quickly jumped in and was like “girl, this is too good to be true!” However, I couldn’t shrug off how fine he was so I thought let me at least Google his profile picture first.
Rule number one on how to spot a catfish when online dating
If a guy seems too good to be true, especially if he says that he doesn’t have any social media accounts, always Google his pictures! I did but couldn’t find any results so I thought, maybe he is real? We started talking but I couldn’t stop just there.
Rule number two on spotting a catfish when online dating
If you have any doubts, ask! I questioned this guy three times if his profile picture was really him. He wiggled out of it twice (red flag), but I’m real pushy so on the third-leg he assured me it was him. My match then started to send other pictures of what appeared to be him so I figured this must be genuine, right?
Rule number three on catching that fish out
If you’re still getting suspicions, there’s a good reason why. Trust them! Our conversations were alright, apart from when he started to have a go at women for giving his “hot self” too much attention. It was a bit much but I reckoned a little confidence never hurt anybody. Yet, it wasn’t until he began to step on my self-confidence that I knew something wasn’t right. He tried to prove to me that embracing my insecurities and working on them daily was something bad that would scare real men away. Say what?
Now, he could have just been a prick but my intuition never really turned off in regards to if this person was who he said he was. So I got my friend involved to see if she could find his photos online (girls are the best detectives!). Low and behold, she found the real him right away! It turned out he had a different name, was married and lived in a location far, far away. I took several screenshots and sent it straight to the impostor. And of course, he ghosted!
Rule number four, reel in your catch
Make sure you block and report everywhere. Help a sister out and stop it from happening to anyone else!
The thing that confused me the most was what would have happened if we’d continued to talk online and eventually decided to meet up in person? Would he have made excuses on the day we were supposed to meet, knowing he wasn’t who he said he was, or would the real guy turn up and expect me to be happy? It baffles me.
So, as you can see, it’s a lot easier to get catfished online dating than you’d think. But if you know deep down that something isn’t right, trust your gut so you’ll know how to spot a catfish.
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Written by Aya Lisch
Illustrated by Josh Agamlong
