Sony12 Posted April 12 Posted April 12 I occasionally watch some catfish shows on YouTube. Anyways the other day a video popped up on my feed and it was about this girl who had been talking to this guy who of course was stationed overseas and she started sending money to him. I have talked to women before who have said they have sent money to men (I have never asked for money) so I know that happens. The thing about these shows (this YouTube channel is called Catfished and is connected to the Social Catfish site) that makes me wonder if the whole thing is staged or not and all these people are just actors getting paid for their participation (isn't difficult to find struggling actors in California looking to get any kind of gig they can) is that they a lot of times show the FaceTime talks they have had with this person and it literally just is a still image of the person who's photo has been stolen and they are using AI to move the lips to make it look like they are actually talking. That's what makes me think no one could really be this dumb. Maybe they could be though.
ExpatInItaly Posted April 12 Posted April 12 I can't speak for this specific show, though most reality shows are heavily produced. However, I actually know 2 women in real life who've gotten themselves wrapped up in situations like this. One has a severe mental illness and is quite vulnerable. The other has developmental dealys and is similarly vulnerable. I tend to think many of those who fall for catfishing situations to this degree are often already emotionally compromised or suffering from other conditions that leave them prime targets for scammers. 2
introverted1 Posted April 12 Posted April 12 My neighbor, who is perhaps gullible but not unintelligent, got engaged to a "general" she met online. He claimed to be stationed overseas in an undisclosed location. She hasn't shared all the details, and I hope she didn't send him money (she doesn't have much), but she clearly believed what was a patently false situation. One day I noticed she was no longer wearing the ring that he ostensibly mailed her. I think it's relatively easy to catfish people who are lonely and/or isolated socially, 1
Author Sony12 Posted April 12 Author Posted April 12 3 hours ago, ExpatInItaly said: I can't speak for this specific show, though most reality shows are heavily produced. However, I actually know 2 women in real life who've gotten themselves wrapped up in situations like this. One has a severe mental illness and is quite vulnerable. The other has developmental dealys and is similarly vulnerable. I tend to think many of those who fall for catfishing situations to this degree are often already emotionally compromised or suffering from other conditions that leave them prime targets for scammers. Yeah if someone has a learning disability then that would be a reasonable explanation for how they could fall for something that most would notice in just a few seconds is likely a scam. I'm still not convinced though that loneliness is a valid explanation for it. I mean if they are going to be scammed by someone online that would often mean they have regular access to the Internet. Which means they would have access to social outlets like Facebook where you can keep in touch with almost anyone you know in real life no matter how far away they physically live from you. If someone has access to the Internet these days there are lots of outlets available to them no matter if they live alone or not.
FredEire Posted April 13 Posted April 13 Sadly there are people who are this gullible, and its probably not as small as you'd like to think. My brother spent a few weeks working as a chatbot basically for a camgirl site. It was a pre-recorded video where the girl would go to the keyboard periodically and "type". Thats where he would jump in and send horny messages to the men. Thankfully his conscience got the better of him and he quit when he saw these guys were offering to send extremely large amounts of money and dump their wives for these girls who weren't even on the stream and didnt even know that they existed. A lot of people are really lonely and really foolish.
Author Sony12 Posted April 13 Author Posted April 13 1 hour ago, FredEire said: Sadly there are people who are this gullible, and its probably not as small as you'd like to think. My brother spent a few weeks working as a chatbot basically for a camgirl site. It was a pre-recorded video where the girl would go to the keyboard periodically and "type". Thats where he would jump in and send horny messages to the men. Thankfully his conscience got the better of him and he quit when he saw these guys were offering to send extremely large amounts of money and dump their wives for these girls who weren't even on the stream and didnt even know that they existed. A lot of people are really lonely and really foolish. The even sadder thing about that is probably the girl/girls in the videos were likely 18 or 19 and a good number of the men watching were in their 40's and 50's.
FredEire Posted April 13 Posted April 13 2 hours ago, Sony12 said: The even sadder thing about that is probably the girl/girls in the videos were likely 18 or 19 and a good number of the men watching were in their 40's and 50's. Indeed. And god knows how they ended up there, most likely coerced into it at the very best. There's a lot thats ugly and sad about the online dating/sex work world. Its good to be grateful that you wouldnt fall for or resort to such things but that doesnt mean that its the same for a very large amount of lonely and desperate people out there.
FredEire Posted April 16 Posted April 16 21 minutes ago, carole360 said: Some of those cases are real, but the shows can make them feel exaggerated. Scammers do use pretty convincing tricks now, so it’s not always as obvious from the outside as it seems. Slightly related, has anyone here heard of trysheba (www.trysheba.app)? I’ve been seeing it mentioned here and there and was wondering what people’s experiences have been. Oh the irony.
RichardGarcia Posted April 17 Posted April 17 Some of it is probably produced, sure, but I also think loneliness plus ego can make otherwise normal people suspend disbelief really fast. Once somebody feels chosen, they start explaining away one red flag after another because they want the story to be true. So I would not frame it as pure stupidity every time. A lot of it is emotional vulnerability mixed with wishful thinking.
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