Catfish

[Jason74]

Lately I have been landing on MTV when I am channel surfing and I came upon the show Catfish and I am sure everyone knows about that show where people talk online and then in the end its not always the person that you thought was on the other end of that conversation online and lies and created and pictures are not of the real person and I am just curious if anyone has ever been in a situation like that?

In all the chat rooms and forums that I have belonged to I have always had my own picture and its always been the real me but then it has me thinking has the person on the other end always been who they say they were? I mean I only met one guy that I end up dating online and I think that is it and the others which is kind of sad I can't remember how I did meet them, most likely at a bar.

Just curious how people feel about people that act a certain way when its really not who they really are online? I mean do you think that you could put up a flase picture and profile and continue a relationship with someone like that. I just think it would be hard to deal with that person once you do meet them. I don't base people upon what they look like but if you tell me that you are a supermodel and then we meet and you are 500 lbs and what not, I am not going to be attracted to you either because you have decived me.

It just seems like with the social media these days and chat rooms that a lot of people may be doing this to other people and just curious how people feel about it.

Thanks

[East]

I only had my picture up once ...maybe for a year or so...and then I had a lot of second thoughts based on one creep in particular. It was a flashback thing for me because a recurring theme in my life has been seeing something no one else saw and then after awhile everyone else sees it when they do something bad or get caught at it and in the meantime I hate to be exposed to the creeps...and there are ALOT of them in the world.

I thought it was stupid because after Mr Mass Murderer....a guy I worked with once who I had really bad vibes about but everyone else loved him and thought he was "cute"...I realized that I should have never let him know I knew he was creepy. Big mistake. I have really good senses about people....I kinda hoped it would fade on the internet but no such luck. I try to hide my opinions now ...and my face.

There was a very creepy man here once a few years back. I left the site because of it. I tried to tell a few people but everyone loved him. He made my skin crawl. I decided at that point to NEVER post my picture again on the internet.

I am not looking for sex anyway nor do I pretend to be looking for sex so it doesn't really matter.

[ShiftyNJ]

Behavior on RealJock made me rethink public pictures too. Not that I am likely to be on the first 1,000 pictures people would look at to try to lure others, but I don't want to be accused of anything I didn't do, either.

I have never been personally involved in anything like this, but my friend's brother was. He was talking to a "girl in Florida" for a long time, bought into her whole sob story, sent her money, etc. The day before they were supposed to meet in person, he got messaged from a "family friend" that told him she was killed in a car crash. How convenient, and of course, while a family is grieving, their first thought is to reach out to strangers she met on the Internet to let them know. His brothers had a good time razzing him about that for a long time.

[Borg69]

I think misrepresenting yourself by using someone else's pictures as your own is heinous.

[LJay]

Just don't have the guile to be a fake. I maintain a certain amount of anonymity on the web because I know a few assholes who would be happy to use anything they could to damage others. I keep open to the notion that others may not be what they seem, but in my case guys, what you read is real.

On the other hand, if someone has the talent to do a fantasy well and is benevolent about it, what the hell.

[ShiftyNJ]

The freakiest thing are the fake profiles on Facebook that are not even controlled by people. I am the admin of a bunch of groups up there and they have legions of zombie accounts that try to join you group and then start posting ads. But the brains behind it spend months grooming each one to seem real... they even interact with each other to be more convincing.

I have had at least three people send me friend requests when we were already friends, only to discover that their account had been hacked.