r/catfish

6 months i catfished. i dont need sympathy, i know what i did was simply too fucked up. i know im such a lost case. i wish i was better. i apologised to that person and even though im a shit person who will die of having nothing, it doesnt give me peace. what to do. i wanna get better but yet im held by this guilt

This post is not supposed to encourage catfishers, This is just my personal story to get off my shoulder because I can't keep hiding it anymore and the guilt is eating at me.

I've been catfishing this girl I met online, She's from another country and we met through online on discord. I genuinely feel so much love for her, I've grown so attached that I don't want to let go. But the biggest problem is that the version of me she thinks she's talking to isn't even real.

I'm trans (ftm) and still transitioning and since my voice has been getting deeper me and my friends decided to catfish for shits and giggles, We all collected pictures of people who we wanted to catfish as. It was a joke at first, until it wasn't and even my friends are now concerned for my mental well being.

I met my girlfriend through discord and we talked through there, we got along super well and eventually started dating. We've been together 8 months It may not be much to you but to me it is, I've been rotting in depression before I met her and she's made my life so much brighter. But I am not who she thinks I am.

My girlfriend fully believes I am a cis man who just really understands how she feels, but the truth is I'm not even a cis man. Over the months we've been dating I've gotten more and more dysphoric with myself because of this and the fact my girlfriend is transphobic and homophobic doesn't help that either. She's openly admitted she would never date someone who is trans and she's so grateful to be with me, not knowing that I am trans.

It's gotten so bad to the point that my 'catfish persona' has an entire made up life background that isn't real, It's like I made a version of myself that I wish was me. And that's the version of me my girlfriend thinks she's dating. I don't know what to do anymore because even her friends believe It's real and I've even sent a package of plushies and snacks over to her in her country and lied that I had a friend send it so it isn't addressed with my name. She tells me that some day she'll get tickets for me to fly over to her and we can get married, But I know that's never going to happen no matter how much I want to marry her too.

Everything that happens in my life is being put into this fake persona I made up online. My experiences are not even my own experiences anymore, they are my persona's experiences, When I talk to my girlfriend, It's not me talking to her, It's my persona. It's driving me deeper into depression than I already am. I feel so guilty, I love her I really do, If I could come back to her as the real me I would. But how would she react to the fact that the real me is so vastly different to the me she thought she was dating. I don't know, I don't even think words can express how I feel, I want to date her as the real me and not the version of myself I made up.

I'm so so tired of trying to keep up this catfish persona and I just wanna be able to be the real me and still love her. It's become an addiction for me to keep this whole act going. I tell myself "One day, I'll tell her" but the next day I find myself lying to her about how I dyed my hair and show her a picture of who she thinks is me with red dyed hair when the reality is behind my screen I still have the same black hair I always do, I lie and I lie. I've created an entirely new person that only exists online and if she dug deep enough I'm sure she's going to find out one day the man she's talking to isn't even real.

I know what I'm doing is wrong but I can't stop it, I don't even know where to begin to stop it. I desperately want to tell her the truth, that I've been lying to her the entire time, but I can't bring myself to do it. The guilt of what I'm doing is eating me alive and I don't think I can tell this to my therapist either. I just wish that sometimes if I were born a man and had met her as a cis man we'd actually be able to get married one day, but sometimes I also wish we had never met so that she won't have to deal with the pain and loneliness when I eventually have to leave her.

(Edit: Since I've made this post I've gotten so many useful and uplifting comments from everybody who has given me advice on what I should do, I am planning to come clean to my girlfriend and figuring out on how I should go about it. The longer that I let it keep being like this, the more I get attached and the more it will hurt, It hurts to face it but she deserves someone who will be honest and open to her, while I need to work on myself to become more truthful about my identity, embrace the real me and take pride in myself as a trans ftm. I hope that I'll eventually be able to find somebody who will love me for who I am. In the end I can't keep lying to her like this and will come clean to all the lies, Thank you so so much to all the helpful comments I'm very grateful for all the help. :)

I did some research on the picture and its actually kitten sophie and the number i was texting was (602) 742-8173 can anyone tell me who it is

I started talking with this girl but she is like wha out of my league and I can’t help but feel I’m getting catfished and like I’ve actually seen the face somewhere before so I don’t know if I’m getting catfished but I don’t know how to find out with our ruining in case it isn’t catfish. And can’t pay for a site or find a free one to do it please someone help me

So long story short I matched with this girl on Hinge a couple of months ago and it turned out to be her and her boyfriend that were looking for a thing and I wasn't into that. Fast forward to now she starts messaging me again asking to meet up, but wouldn't send me any current photos and the photo she did send of her and her boyfriend looked way too good to be true. They were very attractive. She claimed they both had no social medias and would not FaceTime. I reverse search the phone number and it came up with a different name so I just called that number with *67 asking for the new name and the man on the phone said that she had passed away. How do I mess with these catfish even more or determin if they're scamming and give their information to the police?

(I 10000% know he is not the man in the photo as he has used AI face replica to talk to my mom and when the photo slipped it was a darker gentleman.)[she said a cloud made a shadow on him:/]

My dad passed away last year very suddenly from an aggressive cancer. Him and my mom we're married for over 40 years. She joined the Facebook dating group and quickly feel for a fake guy who immediately started asking her for money. Me thinking that bumble would be a better choice and have less scams made her one. Unfortunately they are just as many on there. This brings me to how she is getting scammed. I should also say now that my mom is not a dumb woman but love, being sad, alone and lost also makes you do crazy things.

My mom started talking to a guy who said he was working in Dubai no matter how much I tried to prove to her that this man wasn't real and then everything he was saying to her is obviously a lie. She believes him over me and all the proof that I bring to her. Unfortunately I think this guy is a better scammer and more professional than I ever thought. About a month ago she started becoming very secretive with her phone and what she was talking to him about. She then let it slip that she was talking to his broker which immediately brought up red flags for me. After some investigating I have found out that she has sent him all of her banking info and the logins. She will not listen to me or talk to me about it and I am very concerned for her mental health and for what she will do in the future when she is unable to work and doesn't have any savings because of this.

The only way I see her getting out of it is if I can find the real man and have him talk to her and explained that he is not who she thinks he is.

I have trade reverse image searching it and not much shows up.

So please if anybody recognizes this man please please let me know .

DO NOT POST HIS NAME OR ANY INFO. IF YOU KNOW HIM PLEASE REACH OUT TO ME PRIVATELY.

Are teens and JBs who do kinda naughty stuff to turn on guys without showing their faces always a catfish?

How can someone tell the difference from a video quality perspective?

If someone know please share your thoughts.

I’m pretty sure my girlfriend is cheating on me. She went to a girls trip a few weeks ago and she has been acting weird since then. She doesn’t text me as much to hang out and when we do she looks like she doesn’t want to be with me and also she uses her phone a lot more than she ever did. I didn’t want to think badly about her but I had this feeling that she probably met someone during that trip. I talked with our mutual friend who went to the trip with her and she sounded sus af. I’ve never done this but I decided to stalk my girlfriend’s friends and I found something… Probably its not enough proof but there was this guy pretty close to them in one of the pictures and I had this feeling in my gut so I took a screenshot and I uploaded on facecheck Id. I got a clear picture of him but not his socials. This might sound pitiful but I really want to find him, I don’t have a plan or anything but I prefer knowing who he id before talking with my girlfriend. If someone has credit to use facecheck id or other webs dm please.

I am posting this because I need to be completely honest with myself and get some perspective. I am 27, and I’ve been dating my girlfriend (25F) for a few months. Recently, she found out about a double life I’ve been living, and everything has completely shattered. To explain how I got here, I need to lay out what has been happening, because this is a compulsive habit that has been wiring my brain since childhood.

It all started when I was just 10 years old. It began as a joke between me and a friend catfishing people online. He might have thought it was funny, but I didn't. It did something to my brain. From that point on, it developed into creating elaborate characters online, which eventually escalated into sex chatrooms. In those rooms, I would cosplay as different characters, sometimes a woman, sometimes trans, or sometimes a man. I even kept specific files on my computer for each character I was playing so I could keep the personas straight. For 17 years, I haven’t stopped doing this for a single day.

A few months ago, I downloaded dating apps, which is actually how I met my current partner. Once we started dating, I never deleted the apps. I told myself that as long as I stopped the conversations and never went out on actual dates, it was just catfishing and not real cheating. When I felt insecure or stressed, I thought, why not use them so they can hit the spot? I wasn't being selective at all. I was just swiping on everyone, landing on men, trans individuals, or literally anyone, just so I could get a hit of validation and text them.

A few days ago, my phone screen was on. My girlfriend turned around and saw Tinder. Crucially, she didn’t see the word "Download", she saw the word "Open." That’s when her suspicions instantly rose. She asked me about it, and I confessed right away. She kept asking more questions because she feels it is pure cheating. In that moment, I spiraled and confessed to everything I have done over the last 17 years, including the sex chatrooms, the cosplaying, and the files, to try and explain to her that this was a deep-seated catfishing addiction.

Because I confessed to all the weird stuff along with the dating apps, she is completely overwhelmed. She says that since I was using my real profile on the apps, it wasn't catfishing, it was pure cheating. Now, she can’t look at me the same way. She says she feels like I am a total stranger to her.

I feel completely disgusted with myself. I feel sick, ugly inside, and heartbroken over what I’ve done to a girl I've only been with for a few months. I’ve deleted the apps and the files, but I know willpower isn't enough. My brain has been wired to seek dopamine and escape this way since I was a child.

How do I actually fix my psychology when a habit is this deeply ingrained? How can I even begin to make up for this to my partner, when she feels like she doesn't even know who I am? Has anyone else been in this dark of a hole and actually managed to change? Any advice, even the harsh truth, is appreciated.

hey everyone, i’m coming here because i’m truly scared and this has ruined my life, if ANYONE can help me, that would be great because im on the verge of actually offing myself, (seriously) around january, i started speaking to this guy, i started wearing wigs to snap him as i was bored, he started to become interested in me, i asked him to send me a photo of what he looked like before we carried on and he sent me what i asked, 8 weeks go by and in that time ive image reversed all his images and i dont see anything, ive sent him nudes, i’ve asked to do stuff and call etc, we played roblox and did various things like talk all day, but he would never snap me except this ONE ab photo. i later found out he had catfished him and messaged his sister, he got mad and i said to him you better show me what you actually look like otherwise im going to find you dad and message him (he’s a sort of DL) he sends me a photo. a couple weeks go by and we’re still not speaking like im begging for him back but he says no bc i messaged his sister long story short, he told me last night after days of trying to contact him, that those photos were not him, because i was being crazy and he didn’t trust me with his actual face, but his sister at the time when i sent her the OG photos she said that’s not him but when i sent her the “real” ones she said it is, if anyone came across a guy who’s arabic called Daniel, then we may have the same guy and this may be a thing that’s been happening. this has genuinely ruined my life and i don’t think ill like anyone else bc of how much i liked him, i haven’t found anyone attractive since and i just want to know if it’s actually him, because he also said multiple things to me about the photos he sent me that would imply they are him, he’s very insecure according to his step sister and that’s why she has no photos but i’m not entirely convinced, i’ve put the photo many times through google search but nothing came up. please let me know if anyone can help. genuinely don’t know what to do anymore. i can’t send the photos here but if u can help please dm me

This person never has sent pics or anything but have phone number and they’re calling my parents. Assistance to verify identity. DM me

There was a girl online who seemed genuine; the friendship was good, and she was quite caring. However, after a few days, she became irritable and started lying about small things.

​She shared very limited pictures hardly 1,2 and Nothing is coming up on reverse image search either and she would send voice notes but never took any calls. Eventually, her account was deleted, and a few days later, there was an announcement of her death.

I used to be active on this sub reddit a lot last year. I thought I would revist it. I honestly thought it would be impossible to spit a catfish, especially with AI, but it's so easy, and people suck so much. If its not pictures from Pinterest or people refusing to do certain commands, you can instantly tell they are a catfish also having 0 snapscore and low followers. I use chat sites often, and I thought it would be impossible to tell, but boy! People seriously suck at catfishing. To me anyway

Can someone please search for a photo for me? Lenso ai, facecheck id or pimeyes

I matched with this guy on Tinder, who looked incredibly good compared to the people I would usually match with. I immediately got suspicious because he looks like your average handsome light skin model guy, but proceeded with the conversation and found out it actually clicked, so we moved over to Whatsapp

Here’s why I’m suspicious:

1. After 1 day of taking he suddenly changed his number, and texted me from his “new” number
2. We agreed to meet up in 2 days but every time I ask for an address he moves past the subject.
3. I asked to facetime, and he immediately agreed to, but then disappeared (and hasn’t responded for over 24h)
4. Reverse image search doesn’t show me anything, not even a profile that could be his own

Please help me out with some advice… Should I wait it out, or is it best to go with my gut feeling??

Found out the person I was talking to wasn’t really who I thought. I had been contacting the same phone number the whole time. It did belong to the person in the pictures but they shown me proof I was somehow speaking to someone completely different. I still can’t get over the fact that the phone number had been someone else when it was truly someone’s actual number!?

Hey so i recently got messaged by some random woman who has a very suspicious instagram profile. I cant seem to reverse image source to find out if shes using another persons pictures or not. Im also 90 percent sure she must be some kind of stalker. She seems to avoid videochat and phone calls.
She says she knows a girl or went to school with a girl i am currently talking too and planning a date. Also she she is currently going to salamanca on trip with friends, wich is a town i was last week, eventough she didnt follow me on instagram back then. She also knew me from when i was dating my ex and avoided mensaging me to no interfere in our relationship wich makes me believe she has been aware of my existence for a longer amount of time.

Can you guys help me first of figure out if the pictures she has are fraud, and who this person might potentialy be.

We met last night in a party and we had a great time. We just met but the connection is like we've known each other for years. We unexpectedly got separated at the party and forgot to exchange profile so I was wondering if someone can help me find the account just by picture?