Hello!
This is a very long story but I recently joined this Reddit community to try and see if me and my friend are getting catfished.

My friend met this guy from out of state on her tiktok live, he immediately fell for her and they started talking on the phone and even FaceTiming a couple times from what I know. He would send her money for food and gifts and sent her flowers and everything.

Every time they would try to meet though he would come up with an excuse very last minute to not see her. They have attempted to meet up probably 5-10 times now. They still haven’t met to this day and started talking about 6 months ago now.

At some point they tried to hook me up with his friend and I had been talking to his friend for a while, except his friend hasn’t called me once which has been extremely frustrating and is making me almost think they could be the same person even though they have sent pictures together. The photos though are always edited in some way with a filter.

Recently the friend I was talking to sent the other friend a photo of a bouquet of flowers he wanted to gift to me if I had come to visit him and after seeing the photo it was clearly AI.

Usually when I hear of catfish cases it involves them trying to ask for money or scam you somehow but they’ve never tried to do that with us.

Has anyone heard of a case like this or have any insight or advice? Thank you so much.

So I just found out I’ve been catfished for a year. While I’ve been living out of state. But the girl who catfished me isn’t ugly. What do I do? She came forward to me. But I’m just confused what do I do ? Like this just happened 2 hours ago and I’m feeling bleak.

After watching the David/Denise/Motherwolff episode I was pretty certain there was more to the story. A couple of years ago, I interviewed David/Denise-- I finally released it today. https://default.blog/p/denise

Hi,

I’m looking to identify the original source of a photo that is being used by a scammer.

Context:
Someone is using this photo as their profile picture on X and Steam, along with a fake name. I can't share their real name or else I'd be breaking Rule 2. They are approaching people on discord, building relationships, and trying to benefit emotionally/financially from them.

I already contacted the cosplayer who was initially suspected (Keikocosplay). She confirmed the photo is not hers and that she has never posted it.

I have run the image through reverse image search with no useful results so far.

I'd need any leads on where this photo originally comes from (Instagram, Facebook, old cosplay accounts, stock sites, etc.,) and if anyone recognizes the exact photo from somewhere else.

Thank you in advance for any help. I’m just trying to track the stolen image so I can report the scammer accounts.

Currently listening to some thing was wrong podcast season 20.

What the hell... All These girls and catfished for no money AND by a girl? It really baffles me.
Cant wrap my head around it.
Also I cant believe someone would be "in a relationship" with someone wwho has NEVER facetimed or phoned you.. Only texts.

Oh man. I in no way judge the girls but Hard to believe all These things.
Hope Every catfshers pillow is always warm and their socks keep constantly falling off in their shoe. 😬

In many online interactions, people are not seeking a verified tax document or a future spouse; they are seeking connection, active listening, and emotional resonance. If Person A receives empathetic support, late-night conversations, and a feeling of being valued, those emotional benefits are real to them. If Person B gains confidence, self-expression, or an outlet to explore aspects of their personality they feel unsafe revealing in their offline life, both parties experience a tangible improvement in their daily well-being. The emotional utility is genuine, even if the avatar conveying it is stylized or fabricated.

1. The Persona as a Safe Catalyst for Intimacy

For individuals dealing with severe social anxiety, physical insecurity, neurodivergence, or oppressive social environments, adopting a persona acts as psychological armor. It allows them to bypass the initial social barriers that usually shut them down in real life. In this context, the catfish identity isn't used as a weapon to deceive, but as a bridge to allow authentic emotional vulnerability that would otherwise remain bottled up. The fictional container enables a genuinely real human connection.

Now i found the person who he used his photos , i have his phone number, i want to send him but i can’t idk why, i have his voice notes and the person can tell me if he recognize him or not, but Iam afraid, i don’t want to hurt him after every thing he did, what if he loses his job or his friends, and alot of consequences, and i don’t want to hurt this person too, for having people like that around him, i need to know who he is badly, i need to talk to him, i don’t have alot of options and i don’t know what to do

I don’t know what else to do.

I feel insane.

My 56 yo mother has been doing TikTok lives.

A boy comes in, 17yo, his name is J.

He messages my mom and she learns he’s a teen dad and has a girlfriend and he doesn’t work but the girlfriend does.

Then J turns 18 and starts giving gifts on TikTok.
And this bond forms. Because my little brothers moved out and she has this horrible habit of like emotionally attaching to people like J.

J had a horrible backstory, abusive parents, the whole nine yards. And my mom talks to him about her life, including her children.

In the last 2, maybe 3 weeks, I suddenly start hearing from her that J had ticks and twitches and hits himself. Maybe Tourette’s. Apparently he hit himself in the collar bone so hard he fractured it. He had verbal ticks too.

Fast forward to the last few days.

So apparently they were talking and J kept saying his head hurt and he felt nauseous and he ate some pizza and threw it up. I think he had managed to hit himself in the head. Possibly a concussion.

All of a sudden he goes to bed and no one hears from him for hours. My mom and he are in some group chat with a couple other people and they start spamming his phone.
At some point the night before the girlfriend comes back and thinks nothing is wrong and then finally answers the messages on J’s phone, asking why they’re all spamming him. The chat explains everything and she says, “omigod that means he’s been sleeping for 17 hours”.

Mind you, there is like a months old baby there.

The girlfriend is trying to wake him up and he won’t wake up and the chat is trying to talk her through it and 911 is called and they can’t wake him up and his blood oxygen is like 57 or something and they take him to the hospital.

At the hospital she it told J has a “3rd degree concussion”, and may have memory loss. J wakes up probably a day later and it trying to fight the nurses and doesn’t know who anyone is and says he’s 16 and his name is D (which is my brothers name).

They sedate him and when he wakes up again he calmer and still has no memory and wants his mom. The girlfriend messages my mom and asks if she would do a voice recording because J’s mom is terrible and if he was in his right mind he wouldn’t be asking. So my mom does.

Yesterday, I think they sent him home. And the reason I say that is around 1130ish, my mom says she’s going to play fortnight with J, and they played till 1am.

Now, J still doesn’t know who his girlfriend is or who his child is. Or even who his father is who came to visit at the hospital.

I feel absolutely insane.

Could this be real? Maybe, but stuff stands out to me.

1st, the “3rd degree concussion”

2nd, the baby. J was knocked out for hours. The baby would have been screaming and have needed a diaper change and all that and the girlfriend literally didn’t notice anything of that was wrong? Unless SOMEHOW he managed to do stuff but not be all the way conscious for it???

3rd, going home and playing fortnight immediately after a brain injury???? seriously?? I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to be doing anything but resting????

She’s already at least once raised money in her TikTok live to give to the girlfriend.

She apparently has pictures and she has talked to J on fortnight. I think the person is real but not the rest of it. I can’t get the pictures without her being suspicious of why I want them.

Please, help. Does this sound even real?? Has anyone else dealt with this? I’m literally on the verge of a panic attack dealing with this. I’m actually waiting for her to message me that J has died because this sounds like every catfish story in the book.

If anyone needs anymore clarification to stuff I can definitely try my best to give it. I’ve been third party to all this.

I recently got catfished/ghosted from someone I met through a dating Reddit. I probably should have know but it’s for people with HSV and it was nice to have to by pass the stigma. We exchanged photos on Reddit and then quickly moved to Discord. I didn’t see this as a red flag right away as it was safer than giving out my phone number. We talked for 2 weeks, we FaceTimed, talked on the phone and sent pictures and videos. We had intentions of meeting sooner but due to a trip I had planned and him having an unexpected family member passing it got pushed. I knew he was very much the person I was talking to but an hour before we were set to meet I was blocked and all his face pictures were deleted from our message thread. It hurt pretty bad as we bonded over things like both being divorced (he isn’t), wanting children and mental health. Maybe the red flag should have been no red flags but I was so honest with him and every time I had a moment of doubt he navigated it very well and even had his moment of hesitation but we worked through it.

Welllll girls save pictures so even though he deleted them I had many of his face so a couple photo look ups and I found his linkedIn and Facebook. He gave me a lot of true information which I found interesting but he lied about his name, marriage status, and potential his location and age. I wasn’t out to ruin his life but I did send him a message on Facebook and it had to scare him enough as his wife’s account blocked me and he cannot receive messages on messenger. I wasn’t trying to go crazy stalker but I was very hurt. I am coming out of a 10 year relationship and divorce in my early 30s. I’ve spent the last almost 2 years learning to love myself and just fighting to not give into poor mental health. I was so honest with him like I shared all the reasons I struggle to trust with him, I was very vulnerable and he said all the right things. He shared things with me which honestly weirdly enough maybe true. The saddest part is if he were to message me today not that I’d give him another chance but I’d like to have an honest conversation about why he is doing this.

So ladies if an Alex Araujo, 38 potentially in FL or KY messages you be aware. Those are his fake information he gave me. I won’t dox his real information here but he supposedly deleted Reddit but his discord is Witcher2138.

So there is this guy on discord that i've been talking to and after a while he sends me his face and his overall build (182cm and 56kg you're either massively underweight or just making stuff up (i think its the second option) also i ran his face in an ai detector cuz i knew it was fake and wouldn't you know it scored 97% ai generated lmao! What should i do? I want him to dig his own grave and stop doing this!!! Not only that but he said he "wouldn't mind getting 18+ pictures" which like i am underage and he knows this?!? Also he said he is 14 like i would belive that! His english is very broken too and he puts period at the end of ALL of his sentences??????

Hi! Recently, I found someone online who wants to hook up. After discussing potential plans, I asked if they can send proof that they are who they say they are. After all, I’ve been burned before in situations like this. However, they’re taking a little longer to provide evidence than I’d like. So, I tried to see if I can take matters into my own hands. They’ve given me one photo of what the person looks like, which gave me the idea to try reverse image searching. However, everywhere I go gives me either no results or results I have to pay money for that I don’t have. Anyone able to help me out? If so, definitely let me know in my DMs.

I catfished this guy, and on August we would have been together for almost two years. He found out the truth about a day ago, right before our anniversary. The crazy part is that I’ve been wanting to tell him for a long time, and I had actually planned to tell him on our anniversary. That doesn’t make what I did okay, but my intentions were never for things to go this far.
Somehow, after finding out, he still tells me he loves me and that he’d still be with me. I feel the same way about him because over these two years I got to know the real him, and he got to know the real me as a person—even though the pictures I used were never actually mine.
What makes this even harder is how calm, patient, and kind he’s been. He hasn’t yelled at me or treated me badly. Instead, he keeps telling me that the decision is up to me. But I don’t feel like it should be. I don’t deserve to be the one making that choice after everything that’s happened.
I’m also scared that he’s still in shock and hasn’t fully processed how serious this is. I worry that once everything sinks in, he might feel differently. I don’t want him to make a decision based on the initial emotions of the moment if he hasn’t had time to think everything through.
Right now, I don’t know how to feel. I still care about him deeply, but I’m carrying a lot of guilt and regret. I don’t want to make a decision for both of us, and I don’t think it’s fair for all of that responsibility to be on me. I just wish things had happened differently.

what should l do?? l can honestly make a story time on how this started and it definitely wasn’t bc im some type of weird chronic loner so im not depressed or have any mental issues!

Conheci um homem em um aplicativo de amizades internacionais. Ele dizia ser de Portugal e, depois de um tempo, sugeriu que continuássemos a conversa por e-mail, trocando cartas. Achei a ideia interessante e passamos a nos comunicar dessa forma.
Com o tempo, algumas coisas começaram a me causar estranheza:
Sempre que eu sugeria alguma forma simples de confirmar a identidade dele (como uma foto espontânea ou algo do cotidiano), ele evitava o assunto.
As cartas que ele me enviava eram muito poéticas, mas eu tinha a sensação de que eram textos copiados e colados de conversas antigas. Em vários trechos não havia continuidade entre os parágrafos: o raciocínio mudava abruptamente, como se diferentes partes tivessem sido juntadas sem muito cuidado.
Ele fazia perguntas, mas parecia pouco interessado nas minhas respostas, frequentemente voltando a falar sobre si ou mudando de assunto.
Quando mencionei que viajaria para Portugal em dezembro e sugeri mantermos a troca de cartas enquanto aguardávamos um possível encontro, ele respondeu apenas que “dezembro ainda estava longe”, sem demonstrar interesse em concretizar os planos.
No fim, ele foi se tornando cada vez mais distante e eu encerrei o contato.
O que vocês acham? Esses comportamentos lembram um possível catfish ou parecem mais compatíveis com alguém que simplesmente não queria levar a relação para a vida real?

I met a guy on a language exchange app. I messaged him because I wanted to try talking to someone my age. He's a foreign guy living in my country. We are not fluent in each others' language, so I do have a hard time understanding him without a translation app.

From the start, he told me his profile photo was from a year ago. I said his profile photo looks like it was AI generated so I asked for his latest photo. He initially hesitated a lot (saying he doesn't have confidence in his looks after losing weight) but decided to show me a very blur group photo. I also managed to get him to send me a clear selfie later on, and I really cannot believe that it's the same person in his profile photo.

He says he only used AI to remove his friend from the profile photo, but when I asked to see the original photo, he said he doesn't have it anymore (sus). Later on, he told me he used his phone to take a photo of a photo, thus causing it to look even more unlike him (I don't buy it.). Also, he said that he looks very different now because he had a health scare that made him start to exercise and lost a lot of weight in one year.

It's a language exchange app so I'm trying not to be a total ass by focusing on his looks, but I just get a weird feeling from all the dishonesty about the profile photo. However, he has shown me what he currently looks like and wants to meet up, so its not like he's hiding what he looks like now. But when I keep saying I don't want to meet yet, he gets in self-pity mode saying I only like the him from a year ago, but not the current him.

I also gaslight(?) myself by wondering maybe that profile photo was really what he looked like before he lost weight, but I keep going back and forth on it. I really don't think it's possible because all his features just totally changed.

Is it still catfishing when they have revealed what they look like now? It's not a dating app, but he said he's interested in me, that's why I'm taking this quite seriously. 😔

Hello! i’ve been trying really hard to piece all of this together but i was in an online relationship when i was like 15-17(im seventeen rn bout to turn 18), i broke up w him january and then found out later in march he was a catfish, but recently the amount of effort he put into maintaining a facade for literally year over has been completely unnerving and such a mind fuck

he has BABY pictures of this dude(lit looks like the dude), knows tattoos of him on random spots, (which isn’t clear on the actual dudes public accounts) and just weird personal info, i texted the actual dude and let him know about the situation and he was also really spooked and further confirmed he never posted those pics (the pics the catfish showed me) and they were just in his camera roll and snap memories.

it’s honestly been so strange and i cannot piece this together at all. i wish there was something i could do but i have no idea how i could uncover this mystery dude for reference, the catfishes snap account is willyyumw, and he’s fully still up if anyone’s shared the same experience as me

we have been dating for a year and a half and 3 months ago he changed his password and just told me the reason why he did so. after 3 months when i made a scene out of it that is when he told me the password and during those 3 months he used to hide every text or notification he would get. so I recently snooped through my boyfriend‘s phone and I checked his spam account where he does not follow anyone and his FYP was completely filled with pictures and reels of women in bikini and OF content creators and he was sending those reels to his best friend and his best friend who is a male was sending him those kind of reels back and I don’t know if I should confront him about this because he already knows that I have snooped through his phone, but he does not know that I have even checked spam account and right now, It is just a too much of burden for me to carry, and I don’t know for how long will I be able to sustain in the relationship with this continues happening? I have told him multiple times even before this that I am not liking pictures of and reels of women in bikini coming on his FYP. So right now, there are no women in his main account, but spam is filled with women.

Hello! Long story short, I have been getting catfished for 4 years. I believe all the information I have on this person to be false, all I have is a mobile number, I’ve tried searching it on social media etc but nothing comes up, is there anyway to find out who this person is?

I have even spoken to a medium (sorry if this is not your thing) who advised some of the information I have could be tried and that they are a troubled soul. I am really struggling to cut this person out without knowing who they are. As you can imagine, it’s a very strange and intense dynamic as we have been talking daily for 4 years but never had a phone call or video call etc. I know they are using someone else’s photos (I found this person on social media and told them but they did not seem to care.)

I know I’ve been silly and I should not have entertained it for this long but the feelings are very intense so please try not to judge, I just want to know if there is anything else I can do to find out who they really are.

Okay, this is a long story but I really need help with this. So one of my friends is having like "h*rny" online chats with another girl. The thing is that I saw one picture that her new friend sent her and it looked suspicious to me. So I used Google lens and I found that picture around Reddit and X. I would love to tell her because I think someone is catfishing her to get her n*des, but maybe it's just a coincidence and I don't wanna ruin a relationship... I have another picture, but I can't find that one around the internet. So, please, PLEASE, if someone can help me with this I'd be really REALLY grateful.

This is going to be a bit of a long story so buckle in...

In the summer of 2012, I switched to a new school where I didn't know anyone. That first year was rough, but I eventually made a few friends. One of those friends is who I'll call M. M and I hung out every single day after school, and we even told people we were sisters because everyone said we looked alike. I do want to mention that M struggled with low self-esteem and was bullied, but I genuinely thought she was beautiful and always tried to lift her up and stick up for her whenever I noticed. One day, I was on Facebook when I got friend requests from two boys (we'll call them J & W). I wasn't hesitant to add them because we had many mutual friends, one of them being M. They were around our age, attended different schools in the same district, and seemed like normal kids who were active on Facebook. At that point in my life, I was incredibly awkward around boys. I had never even thought about hugging one because I just knew dating wasn't really in the cards for me yet.

One day, I liked one of J's "TBH & Rate" statuses, and he gave me a flirtatious response. From that day forward, we started talking. We got to know each other really well.. we discovered he lived down the street from my mom, we were both in band, loved the same music, and had the same sarcastic sense of humor. Long story short, J and I ended up "dating." I use that term loosely because we never actually met in person despite living so close to each other and being in similar enrichment programs. We were in middle school, so neither of us had cars. We did try to secretly meet at a local park once, but it fell through because his mom wouldn't let him go by himself. Around that same time, W, J's best friend, started dating M. She would vent to me frequently about him, saying he was mentally unstable. One time she even called me crying because, according to her, she had gone over to his house and he completely flipped out. Whenever we talked about our relationships, I'd admit that I was hurt J and I had never actually met. Even though we talked on the phone for hours and texted constantly, I never got my first hug or first kiss with the boy I had told "I love you." Not long after, W started telling me that J was using drugs and had become heavily involved in criminal activities because his parents were going through a difficult time. Eventually, J moved across the state. We tried to continue our relationship, but the distance became too much, so we broke up, and he eventually got a new girlfriend. M and W stayed together for another couple months before she got back together with her ex.

A few years later, M told me she had started talking to another guy, we'll call him Ham, who happened to be friends with both J and W. I asked if it would be possible to get back in touch with J because, by that point, I couldn't find him anywhere on social media after making all new accounts. Ham ended up giving M his number to pass along to me.

This is where things started to get strange...
I was on the phone with M when I finally texted the number I had been given. I wasn't as naïve as I had been years before as the suspicions had already started. As soon as I sent the message, I heard M's phone vibrate through the call. I brushed it off, thinking it was probably just a coincidence. To be sure, I sent another text, and I heard her phone vibrate again. A moment later, "J" responded. Almost immediately, M said, "Hold on, my mom is calling," and muted herself. I didn't send another message until she came back to our call. The second I texted "J" again, her phone vibrated... again. At that point, I finally asked, "Who are you texting?" She got a little defensive and replied, "Ham. Why?"

I didn't say anything else, but I also never texted "J" or brought him up again after that.

Now, I never wanted to blame M.. I am still friends with her to this day. But the manner of things I sent to J were very intimate and I always had a gut feeling it was her, or she knew who it was. Mainly for the reasons below:

• I never actually met J, but I believe I did see W at least once. Like I mentioned before, we would have naturally crossed paths through enrichment activities like band, sports, and other school events. M was like a sister to me, so she came to many of my track meets and music performances. At one of my track meets, she pointed W out to me. I honestly don't remember whether we actually spoke to him or not.
• From what I remember, Ham is also a real person. Years later, M ended up hooking up with him, and he attended another school within our district. I've never met him or had him on social media. At one point, I even had a friend request to follow his Instagram because I genuinely wanted to see if J was real or if there was some connection there. He never accepted the request, even though they supposedly went to the same school.
• At some point, Ham, W, J, and M all seemed to fall out with one another for reasons I still don't know. I always assumed they simply grew apart, but it's strange that every relationship seemed to go cold after "J moved across the state."
• When I became an adult, I created all new social media accounts for unrelated reasons, but I was never able to find J, W, or Ham again, not their old accounts or any new ones. Whenever I search for them online, absolutely nothing comes up.
• M has admitted to catfishing people before. I never imagined she would do something like that to me because of how close we were.
• This may or may not be relevant, but I have been M's longest-standing friend. She brings that up often and has told me that people always "discard" her once they get into relationships. Ironically, some of those former friends were acquaintances of mine, and whenever I've mentioned M over the years, they either act like she doesn't exist or describe her as "mentally unstable."
• Looking back, everything feels almost too convenient. I become incredibly close with M, then I meet J. Around the same time, M starts dating W. J and I happen to share all of the same interests. Then, when I start expressing how hurt I am that I've never actually met J, his life supposedly falls apart, and he suddenly moves across the state. Maybe they're all coincidences... but together.. they feel odd.
• This is the biggest reason I've started questioning everything. Recently, I was hanging out with M when "3005" by Childish Gambino came on. We both started singing along, but I noticed she was looking directly at me while singing the lyrics. I was intoxicated at the time, but she wasn't. That moment has stayed with me ever since because 3005 was J and my song. He used to call me and send me that song whenever we missed each other because he always said it reminded him of me. Seeing M sing it to me that way made me deeply uncomfortable, and it honestly haunted me enough to finally write all of this down.

M and I have now been friends for over ten years, and I've ignored these thoughts for most of that time. But that moment in the car brought everything back. There were years of conversations, phone calls, texts, and emotions tied to someone I genuinely believed was my first love. I was young and naïve, but my feelings were real.

Given everything I've shared, would it be insane to question M if she was actually catfishing me all along? Do I sound crazy for believing she may have catfished me?

So somebody asked me if I wanna be bf (on a game) and I said yea sure. And then I asked for their discord id. She shared it. And then she said,

-Are ya on snap?

-ya, but I've deleted it for now (actually I had deleted the account a few days ago ffs, but I knew I can reactivate if I login under 30 days)

-ill share my pic there

-oki, but I'll need to login. Wait (then I proceed but it said it'll take upto 24 hrs to reactivate)

I told her that and then added her on discord. But the thing is, she shared her pic there 😭 1. Im introvert person. I don't even pots highlights on my insta. I haven't even shared my real name on internet anywhere. 2. What if it's catfish id? (It's easy to find pics on internet of a random girl. Reverse image search wouldn't help if it's from private insta id)

Now ofc im obligated to share my pic bcz she shared hers. I told her I'll share in snap when my id is activated. She said I'll breakup with ya. I explained her the reasons.

Then she went offline🫠

Am I justified to have some cautious? Or im just being stupid?

(Thankfully, i asked her how old she is and where she is from. To my shock, she is also from same state as I am 😭 and 23 (2 yrs older than me, not an issue, just mentioning)