Does anyone know what a "catfish"is? I was watching a show about this. It is about people who make up personas for forums. Mostly it is on dating sites and the catfish uses fake names, profile pictures and start relationships with people under false pretences. Usually the fakers are just lonely people with low self esteem who do not think people will really like the real them so they make themselves prettier, more educated, with better jobs and more lofty hobbies and talents. But it got me thinking. Do we have any catfish here? And if we do should we care?
What if , hypothetically, I found out we did. Hypothetically what if I was bored with a bad cold and googled some posters on here and found out that we have our very own catfish? HYPOTHETICALLY. Would you want to know? Would it matter? What of I did , hypothetically, out the catfish and the poor people were so distraught that it caused them much emotional pain? Maybe these people are just really lonely. Who cares if they really are not caregivers. Right? But what if these same catfish sometimes wrote hurtful things on here. Would that change the situation any? Or is it still not anyone's place to out them. HYPOTHETICALLY. I mean we all embellish some, right? Maybe I am not such a good person with my Mom as I write. Should I be outted?
This was a by interesting show and there is also a documentary of anyone is interested. It is called-Catfish.
I would really like to know what one would do if they, hypothetically, discovered a catfish. Please.
Equillot, I giggled at your post. People nowadays do not honor the marriage vows. Maybe that's why he was persistent. You're one of those rare people who knows what love/loyalty/marriage vows mean.
For me, I really don't care if they're a catfish - as long as they don't attack other people on this site and hurt them. I'm glad that I'm no longer suicidal. I wouldn't have been able to handle the attacks. But I do worry so much when I see others attacking others here on AC. I've seen over and over, after being attacked, how the newcomers ask for AC to delete them from here. They came here for help and instead got attacked. I have lost 3 of them so far. How sad....
For any female who gets an email from ANY guy wanting to "start a friendship", "be pals" or anything at all like that, PLEASE be very, very careful.
I have a friend, in her 50's, who went onto match.com and posted a profile. Next thing you know, some guy contacted her. This woman is the naïve, vulnerable type. Within two weeks, she was "in love". Within another WEEK she was "engaged" and looking forward to living happily ever after with the man of her dreams. Whom she had never laid eyes on!
I'm not even going to go into the rest of it, but it was a "romance scam". The latest and greatest out of Ghana and Nigeria. Thankfully, he only got her for $160. She balked when he next asked her to send him $1,000.
Lots and lots of info on this particular scam at "romancescams.org" and also at "scamvictims.com".
As far as this site having a catfish, IMHO if you are sure about it, I think you should post the info and let the chips fall where they may.
I am not going to out the person. It is really just sad, IMO.
Now-can we please talk about Capnhardass as his stint at Goodwill. Heehee. Like calicargiver said we need a fun , humorous, thread , momkeeper -you can ignore this thread if you want.
Have you ever thought about what they think about when they are in there own little world....is anything going on and they are just not able to articulate it or is nothing going on, in their heads..idk that just popped up in my mind!
Sorry. I guess there is axxholes like that out there. I suggest don't give your phone number or where you live.
I think someone said that on any forum online there are people who lie. For whatever reason. To make themselves prettier or to make themselves feel as if they're right about everything. I guess there are a number of reasons why someone would lie.
But lying about being a caregiver is a pretty silly thing to lie about. I'm sure there are other forums online where attention-seeking behavior has a pay off but if someone signs up here just to be part of a community, in this case a caregiving community, that's a pretty sad little lie. I can see if someone were on, say, a cancer support forum and they lied about having cancer. They'd get lots of attention and get to be a victim = an emotional pay off albeit a sick one. But what's the pay off here? We're all caregivers and a catfish on this forum would just be one among many.
But to answer your question, no, I wouldn't care if someone were skulking around here, pretending to be a caregiver. I don't want to confuse by saying I would condone it, I just really wouldn't care one way or another.
As far as outing a catfish it'd be awfully tempting to do so I must admit and if a person were caught lying I would think they'd just slink off the forum never to be heard from again. I can't imagine someone being outed and then standing their ground.
So to recap: I don't care if there's a catfish lurking around. And if there is, out them if you'd like to get rid of them. If they're not causing any drama and are just desperate to belong they'd be pretty benign so to out or not to out? Whatever you think is best.
:-)
It is nice to see all these faces attached to their posts! Maybe I will put mine back up or another one.
And Christina, that 30 lbs came from not exercising. At least it did with me. It came from sitting around the house with Mom and trying to fix foods that would help her gain weight. She didn't gain a whole lot, but I sure did!
Thanks, Mary:) Love you, dear friend. xo
Welcome, Beth! Most threads are more deep than this one, but I welcome a bit of light-heartedness. The catfish are jumping around here. Just wait...
Thanks MishkaM for asking this question. Good answers from all.
Welcome, Beth. We have such a good group on AC for the most part. There are some stinkers but I try to just ignore them except for the ones who issue insults and then I have to defend myself. Oh, I learned to defend myself somewhat when taking care of my late mom, the hateful narcissist. Anyway, I read your profile and I was born in Denver. Pretty place!
Like you, Christina, I hate getting matronly when my mind still thinks I'm a kid. The other night I was all dressed up and went to get some high heels to put on with this fancy outfit I had on (I'd waited almost 2 yrs to have an occasion to wear it), walked one trip around the house and my hips and back were hurting so bad from the heels that I ended up replacing them with flats. Like my Mom says, "Getting old ain't for wimps".