I saw a movie today. No! not at the cinema but just a downloaded movie from Netflix. My sister happens to love movies a lot so she downloads and then forces me to watch them by sending them to my phone. Yeah! She loves me that much.
So this movie titled "Nobody's Fool" got me glued the moment I started watching. It was very captivating, typical of all Terry Perry movies so if you're a lover of Terry Perry, you might just wanna see this movie. It happened that the lead character was in love with someone she met online. Apparently, they've been dating for a whole year without meeting up or face timing or video calls or any form of communication that involves face to face. For this whole one year, she dedicated her life to the so called Charlie. She turned down every other guy's request,never went on a date with any but simply focused on her work each day looking forward to when Charlie would call her. Charlie's excuse for never video calling was he was away on an oil rig with poor WiFi and so can't make video call. Not to bore you although it's actually very interesting, it took her crazy sister who is an ex-convict to make her realize she's been catfished.
Yeah! Catfished. My first time of ever hearing that word. This word piqued my interest and from the movie it was pretty easy to understand what it means.
To be catfished is to be in a form of relationship with someone you met online who has a fake identity and not what they pretend to be. Someone who pretends to be someone else online with the intention of deceiving another into a relationship or other sexual reasons is known as a catfish.
The social media has made this so easy these days. Gone are those days when you find love around your surrounding not many kilometers apart. These days, you can find love online with someone who is thousands of miles away from you. Lots of dating sites have got many people joining with the intention of finding true love. While the good ones are there for genuine reasons, the bad ones are there to scam the unsuspecting.
The signs are pretty easy to notice except you are too blinded in love to read any meaning to the red flag.
This person is always in a hurry to kick-start the relationship and drive it at a fast pace. They wanna know all about you while giving you very lil or no details about themselves.
They never show their face. No video calls, no skyping, no face timing, Nothing that involves showing their face. Sometimes they never call you from their real number. They will rather WhatsApp voice call you or voice call you on Facebook but never with their registered line.
Their social media account usage is sparse. Not every account on social media is real. The usual first red flags are the fact that it's a newly created account, not many followers, very few friends and very very few published posts.
Their pictures on their social media account is always very few. One or two perhaps a lil more but mostly group pictures or pictures taken from a distance so you can't make out their face. Most times they are using someone else's pictures. It will be a great idea to use Google reverse image search to know if the picture is their true identity or belongs to another.
They ask for money. Just few weeks and they are already telling you of how they have one problem or another they need you to help them with. You would expect if someone is in need, they should talk to their relatives or close friends and not a total stranger you've never met before. Anyway, just be careful. Never give a large sum of money to someone you met online whose true identity you are not sure of.
They appear too perfect. They know the right words to say and the right things to do as if they are acting a rehearsed script. Chances are if your gut tells you it is too good to be true then it is probably fake.
Their job is one that takes them round the world and so they never have time to actually schedule a meeting so you get to meet each other.
It can be very embarrassing and annoying knowing you have been catfished. At first you will be in denial then when reality hits, you will feel like a fool. If you have lost a huge sum of money, you might break down and end up with depression.
Anyway, so it turns out Charlie wasn't actually catfishing her but it would have been better that was what he was doing than what he ended up doing...lol
Alright, time to rest. It's been a hectic day.
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PS: I used the image cos I love it.
