CATFISH - The TV Show

[JerseyGirl2]

Who done Catfished Tracie Thoms?!
Catfish Season 3 Trailer

[Jordan Catalano]

It's Baaaaaaaaack!!!!!!

[StockardFan]

Thanks, Jordan. I have to make sure my DVR is set to record it. I can't remember if it was off when I had to get a new DVR box.

[StageManager2]

I recently watched the movie -- I haven't seen the show yet -- and I can honestly say that I've been catfished on this very site. It was nothing romantic, but I truly thought that I had made a good friend, even if we lived in separate states. I normally wouldn't get involved in long-distance relationships, but when I heard about some posters finding lasting friendships (luvtheEmcee and orangeskittles) or even love (catiesus and jasonf eventually married), I decided to have an open mind.

I don't think I'm a gullible person, but I do tend to take people at face value -- or I'd like to think that I give them the benefit of the doubt. That's how I approached our initial exchange. We started PMing constantly, which eventually turned into the occasional phone call. Also, we both became contributors to a popular thread. Since many of us from that thread lived in or around NYC, we started having get-togethers, but always this person backed out at the last minute. Even when it was just to be the two of us, I would get a cancellation the week of the meeting. Naturally, I started getting suspicious, especially when the excuses were becoming outlandish (e.g. hostage crisis).

However, I was not the one to end it. Three years into this so-called friendship, I suddenly stopped hearing from said poster. No explanation whatsoever. (I think it was because I was becoming more persistent about finally meeting up and questioning discrepancies in stories and photographs.) It was then that I started doing as much research online as I could and came to the conclusion that this poster was not real -- or rather, like Angela in the documentary, the poster had created an ideal but nonexistent life and persona by inventing friends and family and using other people's photographs.

I have since moved on, but I do feel like I wasted 3 years of my life -- well, four, counting the extra year when I was trying to find answers -- because I emotionally invested in a friendship that never paid off. I know I will never be as trusting as before in regards to online relationships. Hard lesson learned.

[FindingNamo]

Sounds like it might have been a little romantic.

[JerseyGirl2]

Okay, I think we all need to know who this was!

[FindingNamo]

How could it not have been Brendan?

I generally give people the benefit of the doubt when they are in a hostage crisis.

[Jordan Catalano]

I'm sure Sutton Ross/Sue Storm wouldn't do that to anyone.

[JerseyGirl2]

My friend and I totally Catfished each other. We met playing a video game years ago. We both lied about ALL kinds of stuff and had an online relationship. We were both too shy and too far apart to ever plan on really meeting. I told the truth pretty early on. (I was a bit chunkier than I had let on, though I had never sent a fake pic. The rest was silly, unimportant stuff.) I had always told the truth about my name and personal details. Then, after another YEAR of getting even closer, after swearing she was being truthful, she came clean. She had used a fake name, fake picture, every detail, including her SEXUAL PREFERENCE was a lie. She was married to a man and very happy with him. I forgave, the relationship part ended a few months later and we became good friends. I visited her in NY and realized there was absolutely NO attraction whatsoever. I ended up falling in love with the city, so I moved to NJ to be closer. She was my besty. We're not that close now, but we still laugh all the time about the silliness of the situation. I don't regret it because it allowed me to explore the emotional aspects of my sexuality and realize exactly where I stood.

The one thing she did recently that still makes me want to hurl is pretty outrageous. When we were together, she wrote me a poem. (Maybe she wrote it for me. Maybe she wrote it for her crush when she was in college. Who knows?) It was very very sensual and honestly, quite beautiful. There was no denying it was about two chicks doing the deed. I don't have it anymore, but committed most of it to memory. Well, she had a baby two years ago. When her kid was 6 months or so, she wrote a poem and shared it on FB. It was the very same poem with just a few lines changed to turn the sensual parts into parts about motherhood. MOST of the damn thing was exactly the same, including the opening and closing stanzas. Her friends all praised the beauty and raw emotion of it. She thanked them and talked about how she was so inspired watching her kid sleep that morning, laying against her breast. She said that she was overwhelmed with creativity and could hardly wait to put pen to paper. Yeah, well, that poem was written at LEAST 13 years ago and there was no baby involved in being against that breast! She must have either forgotten she ever gave it to me or assumed my memory isn't all that. Either way, I had to back up a little. I can't let that go. lol

[EricMontreal22]

How old were you when you met online? I was catfished twice--but both in my late teens (very late.) One guy, actually even sending me stuff in the mail just disappeared, and I was told later on that he was completely not who he portrayed himself to be. The other guy, who I met on a Kylie forum (:P ) disappeared after intense chats for about two years, for another year. Then he messaged me to apologize. He was, physically, not remotely what he pretended to be. But, honestly, I was glad he got a hold of me, because I always wondered what had happened to him. We're still friends--he hung out with me and another friend the last time I was in San Francisco and it's now water under the bridge (this was over 10 years back, now...)

[JerseyGirl2]

I was in my early 20s. In retrospect it was a mix of depression and desperation over a job that had me in a different city every four weeks and made it impossible to maintain a real relationship. I was willing to ignore the things that didn't make sense. I wasn't quite Sunny clueless, but I was willing to let things slide.

[StageManager2]

FindingNamo, there was an initial attraction -- to whoever was in the photographs -- but it ended up being just friendship... or so I thought.

JerseyGirl2, I can't say because said poster still posts here.

[Jane2]

"I'm sure Sutton Ross/Sue Storm wouldn't do that to anyone."

I smell an odor.