
A Catfish Stole My Identity - alxhill
http://row-k.tumblr.com/post/74992087173/a-catfish-stole-my-identity
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eric_bullington
I hope he asked the writer for permission before posting a private message.
That message contains a lot of very personal information.

~~~
jtheory
This worried me as well. I didn't read the whole letter, but there wasn't
anything at the start or end about "feel free to tell the whole internet my
full name and location, that I'm bisexual, and all of this other stuff about
me."

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acqq
For everybody who doesn't know where that catfish use comes from (I didn't):

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfish_(film)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfish_\(film\))

Probably itself a "fake documentary": "why the filmmakers would begin
obsessively documenting Nev's online relationship so early on."

~~~
orclev
I vaguely remember seeing the trailers for this in the theaters and thinking
at the time "oh great, another fake 'documentary', just what we need". So
yeah, it does not surprise me in the least that it was most likely faked (or
at least partially faked). It had been a while since I saw the trailer and I
didn't remember the name of the movie, so thanks for putting these two
together, I never would have connected the two otherwise.

~~~
GuiA
Fake or not, it's a really great movie. Recommended to anyone on HN looking
for movie suggestions.

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logfromblammo
I have to wonder whether there is an easy technical countermeasure to
catfishing, or whether human psychology will always be the insurmountable
hurdle here.

It seems like it would be easy to verify that a given message is from a
particular internet pseudonym, or to construct a challenge that would be easy
for a real person to respond to, but difficult for a catfish. We've had proof
of life from kidnappers seeking ransoms before the Internet even existed,
after all.

If you ever watched the Catfish movie or the MTV show, you'll notice that the
common element is that the victims all have an overwhelming desire for their
relationship to be non-fraudulent, to the point where they actively ignore any
and all warning signs. Is there something that people with low technical
ability can do to verify online counterparties that cannot be affected by
their desire for the results to come out in a particular way?

~~~
badgod
PGP.

~~~
baddox
PGP is essentially useless for verifying the identities of people you've never
met who are not well-known.

~~~
dllthomas
Without a chain of intermediaries, anyway.

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derefr
Felt a lot like a Radiolab story, somehow. Maybe the weird melancholy of the
"I still feel that I'm your friend, though you're not mine, and that's
alright" note it left out on. Strikes a similar emotional chord to, say,
knowing someone with dementia.

(That, and as a writer, it really kind of makes me want to see the "intuitive
narrative conclusion": the blogger and the victim becoming real friends. But
it's left without that resolution, because that's what life really is like.)

------
colinbartlett
I've never heard of "catfishing" before. I'm inferring it means
"impersonating"?

~~~
lmkg
"Catfishing" describes con schemes that involve the mark developing a trusting
(usually romantic) relationship with a fictional person.

In the most common form, the conman finds a guy on a dating site, and pretends
to be a girl who is interested. The relationship escalates for a few months,
including swapping risque photos, until they try to meet in person (the
fictional identity is always several states away). The conman than uses the
pretense of logistical barriers and bad luck to extort cash from the mark,
while delaying the in-person meeting ('my connecting flight through Detroit
canceled, and I don't have money for a hotel! please wire me two hundred
dollars ;_;'). The mark gets increasingly distraught and desperate, and is too
emotionally involved to realize he is being lied to.

Probably the most famous catfishing case in the last year was college football
player Manti Te`o's fictional dead girlfriend (which does not completely
follow the textbook outline above): [http://deadspin.com/manti-teos-dead-
girlfriend-the-most-hear...](http://deadspin.com/manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-
the-most-heartbreaking-an-5976517)

~~~
FireBeyond
The Te’o case, as you mention, doesn’t follow the outline above, because to
many, there is the definite possibility that Te’o was in a homosexual
relationship with the person involved (that claimed to have hoaxed him), and
that this spin was much more damage control for Te’o (given that the NFL does
not have an ‘out’ gay player).

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quackerhacker
This may come off as jokative, but the people that are tricked could always
ask for a picture of the person with a newspaper or a love note for proof that
they are talking to the actual person, and not just some impersonator.

Personally, I can't get past the fact of falling for someone online. Just
today I met one of my online professors and it was awkward, yet online we're
both very chatty.

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crazytony
Tragic. I still don't get the objective of the person pulling these scams: it
doesn't seem they want money or fame or any of the 'normal' drivers. Are the
scammers typically lonely individuals or are they suffering from some social
disorder such that they are rewarded by others' pain?

~~~
aaaaaaaaabc
The objective isn't necessarily malicious, for people with very low self
esteem and disdain for themselves it can be nice to talk to someone without
any personal baggage, it can be nice to be someone interesting for once and
once your in too deep there's no coming back, admitting your identity is
fictional is a death sentence for the relationship.

~~~
fallinghawks
I agree with this. Someone who doesn't want to be who they are -- which is
sometimes a reason people to into acting -- or wants to have, as you said, no
personal baggage. I kind of see it as fiction writing for lazy people: instead
of creating a cast of characters, the "scammer" focuses on one in great
detail. This person has the excitement of studying another person's identity
through their photos and/or videos and making up an entire fictional identity
around it.

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busterarm
My roommate repeatedly gets catfished on dating sites. It's kinda sad but he's
just an easy mark. At least I've talked him into not giving strangers over the
internet money (though he'll still occasionally give $20 but never more at
least now).

It's a shame too, because he's not a dumb guy at all.

~~~
MarkTee
Dumb is defined as "lacking intelligence or _good judgment_ ".

Sounds pretty dumb to me.

~~~
busterarm
Well, yeah, I hear you, but everyone has their area. I know folks with Ph.D.s
who fail at simple stuff.

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orclev
This is the first I've heard the term catfishing. Can someone provide a more
concrete definition? Is it simply pretending to be someone else online?

~~~
makerops
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfish_(film)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfish_\(film\))

It originates from a movie, and is also now a TV show.

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catFishery
I was hoping this would turn out to be some bizarre tale of monkey-wrenching,
involving high school student RFID tags, or a lost RFID debit card, or some
such thing, and a scientific study that involved tagging catfish, to study
their migration patterns.

C'est la vie...

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evanmoran
Well worth reading, if only to be someone else for a moment and also to
remember that internet is a harsh place. I really feel for this person.

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karmajunkie
Am i the only one who thinks it was kind of fucked up to publish the victim's
name?

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nodata
Urban Dictionary definition of "catfish":
[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=catfish](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=catfish)

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scotty79
Doesn't sound real. Maybe it's fictional piece writen out of sheer creativity
of that guy or for promotional purposes?

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bhelx
I just got an email this morning that someone tried to sign me up for Kik. I
was able to disable the service through that email.

