Are There Men Or Women Who Want To Get Scammed Online??

“CATFISHISM” Appears To Be A Thing Now! Who Knew?

There appears to be a growing number of men involved in “catfishism,” a fetish centered around getting scammed on the internet.

These men or women willingly hand over their money (as much as hundreds of dollars at a time) to fake impersonator scammers who present themselves as beautiful women or men on social media but either say upfront their pictures are fake or the “victims” know it in advance. In reality, they could be anyone—and that’s part of the appeal, so advocates of this say.

Relationship ScamRelationship Scam A Relationship Scam is a one-to-one criminal act that involves a trust relationship and uses deception & manipulation to get a victim to give to the criminal something of value, such as money! Click here to learn more: What Is A Relationship Scam? fetishism is a more recent development.

According to Gizmodo Magazine:

I spoke with eight catfishCatfish Catfishing, as it is commonly used, is a descriptive term for an activity where a person creates a fictional persona or fake identity on a social networking or dating service, usually targeting a specific kind of victim. The practice may be used for financial gain, to compromise a victim in some way, as a way to intentionally upset a victim, or for wish-fulfillment (as it was originally coined).  The term is now considered a derogatory term as it was originally coined to describe scams by women against men, and catfish admirers for this story, almost all of whom declined to provide their real names. (They will be referred to using pseudonyms, and screenshots of catfish accounts have had women’s faces and identifying information removed.) Of them, none recalled hearing of “catfishism” before December of last year. Most only learned of it in recent weeks, but the community, which primarily operates on Twitter, is growing fast.

We are seeing similar behaviorBehavior   Behavior / Behavioral Actions Otherwise known as habits, behavior or behavioral actions are strategies to help prevent online exploitation that target behavior, such as social engineering of victims. Changing your behavior is the ONLY effective means to reduce or prevent scams. in both men and women also. Women to pay scammers for the attention – a kind of denialDenial Denial is a refusal or unwillingness to accept something or to accept reality. Refusal to admit the truth or reality of something, refusal to acknowledge something unpleasant; And as a term of Psychology: denial is a defense mechanism in which confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or reality. but one that comes with an awareness that it is a scam.

We are not totally sure about this new phenomenon, but as this story is spread it will have a significantly negative impact on real victims. As awareness of this grows it cannot help but paint all romance scam victims with a negative light and reduce what empathy there is with law enforcement.

One of the problems of this behavior is that it may also be an aspect of denial. In other words, victims who cannot let go of their scamsScams A Scam is a confidence trick - a crime -  is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust through deception. Scams or confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, or greed and exploiting that. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men' - criminals) at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". A scam is a crime even if no money was lost. due to their more extreme emotional attachment. So much so, that they will choose to continue the fake relationship. Therefore it is important to try to separate the truth from fiction in these stories to understand what the underlying motivation is. What can appear to be willful continuation may in fact be denial or another form of loss-avoidance. If that is the case these are every bit as many victims as any other and deserving of support.

One last aspect of this that can be a serious problem though is if there are willing participants, then they may place themselves at risk for willfully funding terrorism. A significant percentage of scamming directly supports terrorism in West African, Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere. The jury is out on this.

To learn more about this behavior visit the article here: https://gizmodo.com/catfish-fetishists-the-men-who-get-off-on-getting-scam-1835001978

SCARSSCARS SCARS - Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc. A government registered crime victims' assistance & crime prevention nonprofit organization based in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. SCARS supports the victims of scams worldwide and through its partners in more than 60 countries around the world. Incorporated in 2015, its team has 30 years of continuous experience educating and supporting scam victims. Visit www.AgainstScams.org to learn more about SCARS. NOTE: The use of the term Catfish in this post is as a reference to the source material. We are fully aware of the derogatory nature of the term and would not use it otherwise.

[Updated May 4, 2021]