虽然社交媒体(social media)的公众形象都是温暖而模糊的，但它是一类具有严重阴暗面的互联网服务。社交媒体不仅会破坏您的工作效率、损害您的隐私并产生负面的心理健康影响，而且您还可能成为诈骗或欺凌的目标。鲶鱼可以做到所有这些。
鲶鱼(Catfishing)是一种很难发现的复杂现象。这是一种身份欺诈(identity fraud)形式，一个人（或一群人）创建一个虚假的在线角色，然后针对个人，试图与他们建立（通常）浪漫的在线关系。
鲶鱼骗局的结果可能是毁灭性的，但如果你知道这些迹象，你可以为自己省去很多心痛。
什么是“鲶鱼”？
描述这种独特类型的互联网欺诈的“catfishing”一词的起源似乎最初来自一部名为Catfish的纪录片。在那部电影中，我们看到一个年轻人与Facebook 上(Facebook)的一个女人建立了在线关系，结果证明这个女人完全是虚构的。
标题来自电影中讲述的一个故事，该故事描述了如何通过将大桶中的鳕鱼与鲶鱼配对来保持其活性。这里的类比是，从事鲶鱼捕捞的人让我们所有人都保持警惕。
该术语随后被名为Catfish: The TV Show的MTV(MTV)节目推广。这是像骗子(Cheaters)一样的真人秀节目，鲶鱼的受害者在节目的帮助下与施害者对峙。这就是我们今天称之为鲶鱼的原因。
钓鲶鱼期间会发生什么？
虽然并非总是如此，但首先对受害者采取行动的主要是鲶鱼。他们通常会收到带有某种开场白的直接或私人消息。“嘿(Hey)，帅哥。” 或“我无法停止查看您的个人资料照片。” 可以是例子。
如果受害者与他们接触，鲶鱼将开始编织他们的网。鲶鱼玩长线游戏的情况并不少见。骗局可能会在很长一段时间内进行，从而与受害者建立信任。
鲶鱼者可以成为操纵和利用他们所针对的人的个人弱点的专家。例如孤独、失去配偶或其他易受伤害的人。
为什么会发生鲶鱼？
钓鲶鱼的一个比较棘手的方面是，做这件事的人可能有许多不同的动机。最直接的就是钱。有一个蓬勃发展的在线鲶鱼行业，每年都会骗走数千人的钱。然后是鲶鱼作为一种纯粹和虐待狂的网络欺凌行为。这样做的目的是羞辱受害者，并在精神上折磨他们。
最后，catfishing 可能不是故意的恶意。相反(Rather)，有些人利用互联网提供的匿名性来创造虚构的角色，帮助他们实现幻想或探索自己的浪漫或性本性。
例如，已婚人士可能会在网上与某人进行虚拟约会，同时躲在他们为此目的创建的虚假帐户后面。尽管这种类型的鲶鱼没有恶意，但它对受害者的破坏性同样不小。
如何发现鲶鱼尝试？
发现鲶鱼尝试可能非常棘手。首先(First)，并非所有警告标志都适用于每种类型的鲶鱼。鲶鱼的动机决定了对你的攻击类型。尽管如此，当您的新在线朋友开始做出浪漫的提议时，还是需要注意一些常见的事情。
假头像(Fake Profile Pictures)
鲶鱼使用的关键策略之一是窃取其他人的个人资料。他们的头像可能来自任何地方。虽然它不是 100% 万无一失，但检测虚假个人资料图片或发布到其个人资料的其他照片的好方法是使用反向图像搜索(reverse image search)。
查看什么是反向图像搜索以及如何使用它(What Reverse Image Search Is & How To Use It)，了解如何将图像追溯到其来源的快速课程。
完全避免视频通话或现实生活中的会议(Complete Avoidance of Video Calls or Real-life Meetings)
由于鲶鱼可能看起来不像他们的个人资料照片，你会认为他们不想展示他们的真实面孔。这(Which)就是为什么您还会收到一个借口，说明为什么无法进行视频通话或现实生活中的会议。如果此人与虚假帐户的性别不同或口音与预期完全不同，他们也可能会对语音通话说不。
如果鲶鱼正在推动建立认真的关系，但不会做一些简单的事情，比如在Zoom上与你聊天，那是一个很大的危险信号。
语言能力差(Poor Language Skills)
这不是骗局的普遍迹象，但您应该怀疑与您交流时拼写和语法不佳的人。高级鲶鱼当然可以通过创建一个说第二语言的人的虚假个人资料来解释这一点。
他们是不切实际的完美(They are Unrealistically Perfect)
我们不想暗示你，亲爱的读者，不是一个绝对的人，也无法抓住你梦想中的人。然而，catfishers 倾向于创建过于完美的虚假配置文件。他们可能很漂亮、聪明、有资格、擅长每一个爱好，并且会检查你可能想到的伴侣的所有其他勾选框。
问问(Ask)自己，这样一个人的存在有多现实，而且他们特别痴迷地以你为目标。
他们没有朋友网络(They Have No Network of Friends)
鲶鱼的假个人资料可以很好地包含关于他们虚构生活的细节，但要伪造一个真实的社交网络要困难得多。他们还有其他朋友吗？他们所有的联系人是否都像假账户一样可疑？他们是否与其他人互动？相信(Trust)你的直觉并判断帐户的真实性。
啜泣的故事和要钱的请求(Sob Stories and Requests for Money)
在与您建立一定程度的信任并确保有一些浪漫的兴趣之后，您可能会收到要钱的要求。通常有“医疗紧急情况”或该人声称他们即将被驱逐。
无论具体情况如何，对金钱的需求都是紧迫的，而您新发现的感情被用作获得金钱的一种方式，而无需您进行过多的批判性思考。
不同的鲶鱼从受害者那里骗取钱财的方式不同。随着“紧急情况”在消失之前变得越来越糟，有些人可能会将单个事件升级为更大的金额。其他人可能会在很长一段时间内收取少量资金，尽可能长时间地保持骗局。
请记住，并非所有鲶鱼事件都涉及金钱。所以仅仅因为这种行为没有发生并不意味着你是自由和清晰的。
如果您是受害者，在哪里寻求帮助(Help)
如果您怀疑自己被钓鱼，最重要的事情就是阻止该帐户。不要继续与此人交流并将其帐户报告给社交媒体平台。
在某些情况下，您可能还想联系警方。如今，许多警察部队都有专门的单位来处理鲶鱼等犯罪。他们可以帮助追踪真人并提供其他形式的支持。特别是如果你被骗了钱。
您还应该注意考虑可能对您造成的任何心理伤害。检查是否有任何网络欺凌支持组织可以联系以获得支持和更多信息。当然，如果需要，您还应该向可信赖的朋友和家人寻求支持。永远不要为鲶鱼骗了你而感到尴尬。这真的可能发生在任何人身上！
What Is Catfishing and How to Recognize It on Social Media
While the public face of social media is all warm and fuzzy, it’s a class of internet service that has a serious dark side. Not only can social media destroy your productivity, damage your privacy and have negative mental health effects, but you can also become the target of scams or bullying. Catfishing can do all of these.
Catfishing is a complex phenomenon that can be hard to spot. It’s a form of identity fraud where a person (or group of people) create a fake online persona and then target individuals, trying to start a (usually) romantic online relationship with them.
The results of a catfishing scam can be devastating, but if you know the signs you could save yourself a lot of heartache.
What Is “Catfishing”?
It seems that the origin of the word “catfishing” to describe this unique type of internet fraud originally comes from a documentary titled Catfish. In that film, we see a young man who develops an online relationship with a woman on Facebook who turns out to be completely made up.
The title came from a story told within the film describing how cod shipped in vats are kept active by pairing them with catfish. The analogy here is that the people who perpetrate catfishing keep us all on our toes.
The term was then popularized by an MTV show titled Catfish: The TV Show. This was reality TV like Cheaters, where victims of catfishing confront their victimizers with the help of the show. That’s why we call it catfishing today.
What Happens During Catfishing?
While not always the case, it’s mostly the catfisher who makes the first move on the victim. They’ll usually receive a direct or private message with some sort of opener. “Hey there, handsome.” or “I can’t stop looking at your profile picture.” could be examples.
Should the victim engage with them, the catfisher will start to weave their web. It’s not uncommon for catfishers to play the long game. The scam may be perpetrated over lengthy periods of time, building trust with the victim.
Catfishers can be experts at manipulating and exploiting the personal weaknesses of the person they are targeting. Such as someone who is lonely, lost a spouse, or is otherwise vulnerable.
Why Does Catfishing Happen?
One of the trickier aspects of catfishing is that the people who do it can have many different motivations. The most straightforward one is money. There’s a thriving online catfishing industry that scams thousands of people out of their money each year. Then there’s catfishing as an act of pure and sadistic cyberbullying. The idea is to humiliate the victim and otherwise mentally torture them.
Finally, the catfishing may not be intentionally malicious. Rather, some people use the anonymity the internet affords to create fictional personas that help them live out fantasies or explore their own romantic or sexual natures.
For example, a married person may have a virtual fling with someone online while hiding behind a fake account they’ve created for that purpose. Despite the lack of malice in this type of catfishing, it’s no less devastating to the victim.
How to Spot a Catfishing Attempt?
Spotting a catfishing attempt can be incredibly tricky. First of all, not all warning signs apply to every type of catfisher. The motivations of the catfisher decides the type of attack on you. Nonetheless, there are some common things to look out for when your new online friend starts to make romantic overtures.
Fake Profile Pictures
One of the key tactics used by catfishers is stealing profiles from other people. Their profile picture could originate from anywhere. While it’s not 100% foolproof, a good way to detect fake profile pictures or other photos posted to their profile, is to use reverse image search.
Have a look at What Reverse Image Search Is & How To Use It for a quick lesson on how to trace images back to their origin.
Complete Avoidance of Video Calls or Real-life Meetings
Since the catfisher probably doesn’t look like their profile picture, you’d expect they wouldn’t want to show their real face. Which is why you’ll also receive an excuse about why a video call or real-life meeting can’t happen. If the person is of a different gender to the fake account or has a completely different than expected accent, they may also say no to a voice call.
If a catfisher is pushing for a serious relationship but won’t do something as simple as hop on Zoom to chat with you, that’s a big red flag.
Poor Language Skills
It’s not a universal sign of a scam, but you should be suspicious of someone who has poor spelling and grammar in their communication with you. Advanced catfishers can of course explain this away by creating a fake profile of someone who’s a second-language speaker.
They are Unrealistically Perfect
We don’t want to imply that you, dear reader, aren’t an absolute catch and couldn’t snag the person of your dreams. However, catfishers have a tendency to create fake profiles that are just a little too perfect. They may be beautiful, smart, qualified, skilled in every hobby and checking just about every other tick box you might have in mind for a partner.
Ask yourself how realistic it is that such a person could exist and that they are obsessively targeting you for romance in particular.
They Have No Network of Friends
A catfisher’s fake profile can be well rounded with details about their fictional life, but it’s much harder to fake a real social network. Do they have any other friends? Are all their contacts suspiciously like fake accounts themselves? Do they interact with anyone else? Trust your gut and judge the account for how authentic it feels.
Sob Stories and Requests for Money
After establishing some measure of trust with you and making sure there’s some romantic interest, you’re likely to get a request for money. Usually there’s a “medical emergency” or the person claims they’re about to get evicted.
Whatever the specifics, the need for money is urgent and your newfound affection is used as a way to get it without too much critical thinking involved on your part.
Different catfishers have different styles of fleecing money from their victims. Some might escalate a single incident into ever larger sums as the “emergency” gets worse and worse before disappearing. Others might take small amounts of money over a long period of time, keeping up the scam for as long as possible.
Just remember that not all catfishing incidents involve money. So just because this behavior doesn’t happen doesn’t mean you’re free and clear.
Where to Find Help if You’re a Victim
If you suspect that you’re being catfished, the most important thing to do is block the account. Don’t continue to communicate with the person and report their account to the social media platform.
In some cases, you may also want to contact the police. These days many police forces have specialized units for crimes such as catfishing. They can help track down the real person and provide other forms of support. Especially if you’ve been scammed out of money.
You should also take care to consider any psychological harm that may have been done to you. Check to see if there are any cyberbullying support organizations that you can contact for support and further information. Of course, you should also reach out to trusted friends and family members for support if you need to. Never be embarrassed that a catfisher fooled you. It really can happen to anyone!
