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During the pandemic, millions of people turned to online dating apps or social networking sites to find company. That meant millions more marks for scammers who use dating sites to find their victims. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the number of romance scams and confidence scams increased dramatically, by 22 % in 2020. The pandemic created ideal conditions for such scams to thrive, as individuals had good excuses about why they could not meet in public, and many individuals were searching for ways to connect with others.
The term “catfishing” refers to these kinds of dating site scams, in which scammers create a fictious online social media identity and use it to cozy up to one’s victim with the goal of gleaning money or personal information from them. The term has been normalized by shows (like the eponymous MTV reality series) and widespread media coverage of catfishing scams in the past few years. Given all this…
