What is Catfishing Scam and How to Prevent Catfishing?

Are you an active Internet user? Do you use social media actively and often chat with random people on social media platforms? If yes, then you might be at risk. Yes, you heard it right, because cyber attackers have found a new technique for trapping innocent people through the internet. The technique of cheating people by falling them into the trap of a fake love relationship is known as Catfishing. To know more about this, watch our YouTube video, “What is Cat Fishing Scam?”

What is Cat Fishing?

With increasing internet users, the number and types of cyber threats are also increasing. Cyber attackers are using new techniques each day to make innocent people their victims. While some attackers extort money from the victims there are some dangerous ones who blackmail their victims and put them in a situation where such people are forced to commit suicide as well. Attackers do so not by revealing their actual identity but instead by impersonating as someone else and then trapping their victims. This act of copying someone’s real identity to fraud innocent people through the internet is known as Catfishing.

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How to Prevent Cat Fishing?

Such frauds where people pretend to fall in love with you to take favors from you can be really dangerous. It is quite mandatory for you to prevent them hence you should be aware of them and follow some important steps to save yourself. Some of the steps that you need to follow are given below:

• Don’t Share Personal Information: Never share personal information with anyone, no matter how close someone is to you. Because it becomes easy for catfishers, scammers, and stalkers to connect with you through a small detail about you. If by any chance you share your banking details with someone they can also empty your bank account.
• Don’t Share Personal Photographs: If you send your personal pictures to someone who is not known to you personally, they can misuse them and can use the pictures in pornography and blackmail you for their advantage.
• Be Suspicious And Attentive: Scammers are smart enough to analyze who is their potential target. These people contact their target through personal messages and once they establish a strong connection with the target they move on to a further private chat option which can be email where their real identity will be safe. So, you need to be suspicious about the person you are talking to.
• Try to Connect In The Real World: While you are talking to someone on social media platforms or dating apps, you should ask the other person to meet you personally. And if that is not possible in the initial days of your relationship then you should ask for video calls since relying on pictures sent by such people will not be enough.

Since the internet world is turning into a world of scammers, it has become quite important for us to stay safe while being a part of the mainstream population. And for this, you need to be aware of the techniques that you can follow to stay safe from scammers around you.