My friend, LA at
https://wakinguponthewrongsideof50.wordpress.com
recently wrote about catfishing attempts on her Instagram page. For those not in the know, Urban Dictionary defines “catfish” as “someone who pretends to be someone they’re not, using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances.”
I don’t have an Instagram account, yet, but I’ve collected a variety of would be catfishers on Twitter. They’re kind of amusing in their attempts to woo me, a 63-year-old grandmother. Just for grins, I took a couple of screen shots of some of my potential “beaux.”
There’s a bit of overlap in the photos, but I think you can see that these seemingly earnest men are just what any woman dreams of. The pictures posted are likely borrowed from some poor unsuspecting schmuck’s social media profile. I do like how “Scott Tyler” praised the simplicity of my own profile. Surely I was looking for someone just like him to rescue me from my dreary life.
It’s easy for us to laugh, but if you’ve ever watched Dr. Phil you’ll know that a good many people, men and women, fall for online catfishing scams. It’s not unusual for a victim to spend thousands of dollars trying to help out or connect with someone they only know from a social media platform.
So, before you fall for some hunky looking guy or gorgeous gal who’s coming on strong on social media, read this piece about spotting someone who isn’t on the up and up:
https://whatismyipaddress.com/catfish
Peace, people!
Praying for Eyebrowz 
Ug I knew Instagram and FB were like this but Twitter, too? Honestly I tweeted once 12 years ago then closed my account.
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Twitter is a battlefield. I’m mostly on it for the politics— I know that makes me a bit of a masochist, but I like having a limit to the number of words I can use. I was kind of angry when they doubled the allowable number.
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Oh good lord, did they really up the character amount?? 😂😂 That’s just asking fot trouble!!
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Yes, now the trolls have way more opportunities to insult their opposition.
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Blech. Gross. That makes me anxious just thinking about it.
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There are a lot of really funny people on Twitter, though.
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People do fall for these things, all the time. I admit that it’s very hard to imagine myself ever getting caught in this sort of trap, and wonder at the hard, sad, lonely, disturbed, crazy life a person must be experiencing to get caught in this and respond, let along begin a relationship 😦
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Some of the folks I’ve seen on Dr. Phil (my occasional guilty pleasure) who’ve fallen for a catfish scheme have been well-educated people. They’re just lonely and need to feel needed and loved. I’m such a skeptic that I can’t see myself falling for anything like that, but who knows????
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A good name – catfish.
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I just love this. Yep, these fishers are too funny for words. I get a crop of ‘god fearing’ men and I just think …fellahs you just have no idea….
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Lol! Yeah, I get that a lot, too. They have no idea that I’m almost a heathen these days.
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yeah they espouse all these ‘decent, caring’ values I cannae STAND!!!!! Also when you ignore one, another pops up, some are granddaddies, some are young enough for me to be their grandma. It’s a daily giggle in terms of some eedjit trying to figure out when it clearly states on my profile happily married. So in other words naff off. But eedjits like them don’t read. Too busy trying to get to the scam.
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I love the word eedjit! It fits these folks so well.
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Braw Scot’s word thon x
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Being Dundonian, my nan used to preface it with the word stupit ….. eedjit.
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Even better.
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To this day if I want to be really…cutting…stupit is the word I use.
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Omg I love this!!! Best post ever!
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You were the catalyst! Thanks!
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💗💗
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It almost makes me want to twitter just so I can mock them
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There are some weird people on Twitter. It’s a pretty angry venue.
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I haven’t ventured there yet….
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I swear the only reason I’m there is so I can post my blog, but sometimes I’ve found myself in discussions that aren’t healthy. The trolls are ugly.
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Ahhh….explains why I hesitate…
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It’s toxic.
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I’m still a little floored that I have yet to get these kinds of things on my Twitter account. I have wondered if it is the fact that I don’t have a person as my profile image.
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That is most likely the reason.
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My favorite is Barry, who’s posing with his wife or girlfriend. 🙂 – Marty
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Isn’t that a stitch?
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This is so true! I have had a similar experience, I wrote about it here : https://www.soormanish.com/post/25-park-avenue
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