A catfish describes someone who is pretending to be someone else online for the sake of scamming or tricking people. This is especially prevalent with online dating sites such as Match, Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and Coffee Meets Bagel where catfishes either pretend to be someone else for their own amusem*nt or often to trick unsuspecting victims into sending them money. However, this is not only relevant to dating sites. Catfishing can also happen on other social networks such as Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram. In this article we will highlight a few tactics we recommend using to swat the online fly.
Reverse Image Search
Catfishes often use fake photos to hide their true identity. Many of these photos being used are stolen from other profiles or taken from Google images. To identify if the catfish is using a stolen or stock image in their profile, we recommend first using a reverse image search.
One of the best reverse image services is called TinEye. It is as simple as downloading the suspected profile picture and uploading it into their search engine. To download someone’s profile picture, right click the image in your browser and click “save-as.” Tineye’s reverse image engine will search through billions of images online to identify where else the image that has been uploaded resides online. Here is an example:
How to use a reverse image search to identify a catfish.
Step 1:Downloaded the user’s profile image from a dating site:
Step 2:Upload to reverse image search service. TinEye is excellent, Google also has a reverse image search.
TinEye says there are 50,150 matching images found online. If this image was being used in a dating profile, this would be a red flag that this person was using a false image to hide their true identity. Any more than 10 results could be cause for concern.
Reverse Social Profile Search
Another way you can check to see if a profile is legitimate is by running a reverse social profile search at a people search company. There currently are no free providers which offer this but is definitely something worth considering especially if you’re considering going to meet this person. Companies which offer a reverse social profile search include SocialCatfish, Spokeo, Beenverified and Pipl. This is as simple as copying and pasting the social media profile url in their reverse social search.
How to run a reverse social profile search to identify a catfish.
Step 1:Find social profile url:
Step 2:Identify the part of the url corresponding to the profile's username. In the example above, the username is "john.doe".
Step 3:Enter the username into a reverse social handle search and submit. For example, on SocialCatfish:
Step 4: Wait for the provider to search their records for the matching results. This may take several minutes:
As a general rule, it is a red flag if the name of the person on the profile doesn’t match the name of the person associated with the underlying record brought back on the people search site. If it does match then you may be talking to the person you thought you were. We still highly recommend running a background check before going on an in-person date with the person. You can try running a free criminal history check on durt.com or nsopw.gov as a first step but to run more comprehensive searches we recommend premium sites like Intelius, Truthfinder or BeenVerified. Your safety is always worth the additional cost.
Reverse Phone Lookup
Try to get the person's phone number to run a reverse phone search.You can try asking by saying something like: “I'm not on Tinder much, what’s your number?” Once you get their phone number you can run a reverse phone search. ThatsThem offers this for free as a service but other sites such as fastpeoplesearch.com and usphonebook.com offer excellent results as well. The other major people search companies like Intelius or BeenVerified offer this as a paid service. Searching on these sites is as simple as typing the phone number into the search box.
Reverse Address Search
Congratulations, the person you have been speaking to has cleared every other check and you're ready to meet up. They have invited you over to their house for dinner and a movie. Many young people nowadays are willing to go to a strangers house on the first date. While we do not recommend this, there are certain things you can do to ensure you're going to the address of the person you think you are talking to. This is often referred to as a reverse address search. ThatsThem offers this service for free but companies like Whitepages, Spokeo and Intelius also offer premium reverse address lookups. Once you get to the result pages, simply verify the other pieces of information you have found or know about the person match up.
As a rule of thumb, if the name of the person brought back by the people search site doesn’t match the name of the person you’ve been speaking with online you should rethink meeting up with the person altogether. If the person is younger they may be living with their parents so there could be a case where the first name doesn't match but the last name matches. If neither the first name nor last name match, that's a red flag.
Be Safe & Informed!
There is no reason to put yourself in danger when going on a date; many mishaps are avoidable by simply doing research beforehand. Keep in mind particularly with addresses and phone numbers, the data companies may not always have up-to-date information as these change frequently. Ultimately all of the research methods discussed are tools to help unmask who you are talking to online. Do not rely solely on the information you find through reverse image searches or people search companies; simply use them as a tool to make responsible and low-risk decisions. There is no rush to meet someone online in-person!
If you have any questions or would like to suggest a topic we should cover in our next post, please contact us at info@thatsthem.com. Feel free to share this article if you found it helpful!
