MovieChat Forums > Catfish: The TV Show (2012) Discussion > Tell your own Catfish story

Tell your own Catfish story

posted 8 years ago by gimmedacash
10 replies | jump to latest

I'm making this thread in part for me, since I discovered this show it's brought back to memory a part of my life I'm not proud of, the time I was catfished. I am telling my story here, I invite anyone else who's ever experience this to share theirs.

About me: I'm a 34 year old white male living in Canada. My story takes place over 15 years ago. I wish I could remember the exact year, but this happened in 2000-2001. Back then, Facebook wasn't a thing, digital cameras weren't everywhere and there were no smart phones. No one I knew had a cell phone either, but we did have Internet.

I met the "girl" (I use quotation marks because I am not sure who this person was) on a message board. We started chatting over ICQ and hit it off instantly. We would spend hours chatting and eventually, as a foolish, shy and immature 20 year old, I believed that I loved her and told her so. She reciprocated. She had given me her name, her age, the city she lived in, her e-mail address but I had never spoken to her on the phone or seen a picture of her. Everytime I brough up a phone call or a picture, it was either "soon" or "stop bothering me with this or I won't talk to you no more". As I pushed for a phone call, she told me she had a voice handicap (smart answer) and that's why she didn't want to talk on the phone. Webcams were also out since neither of us had one.

Over the course of a few months, we planned a trip to meet. We were going away for a week-end in Toronto (she lived in Rochester, NY), but everytime I would go to book the trip something would happen and she'd get pissed and cancel the trip. Eventually, she told me she had throath cancer and would have surgery which meants she would lose her voice box (I brought up the fact that it could be cancer, "she" jumped on it). Occasionnaly, I would get to talk to her "cousins", one was nice and seemed to want to help, the other was mean and wanted to drive me away. I never spoke to said cousins on the phone either. One time, her "Father" came online and talked to me, and I mentionned that I would like to talk to him on the phone, he refused.

Despite all the signs pointing that this person was playing me, I couldn't bring myself to just say "screw it" and cut ties with her. I wanted to believe. I even bought her an engagement ring (Thankfully it wasn't expensive, I think around 200$) thinking I was going to propose. This went on for months, me always asking about getting a picture (I found someone with a scanner to scan mine and sent it to her). I never got her phone number, never got a picture but I once got an address and sent a letter to it. The letter came back saying that the address didn't exist.

I want to say that's the straw that broke the camel's back but I can't remember, I do know that something happened and she "went away". She eventually came babk with a new e-mail address and when I asked her who she really was, she maintained everything she told me was true, that she was now living with an aunt in Florida. Eventually, I started to get sick of the BS and I simply decided to stop talking to her.

I never found out if she was real, or what percentage of what she said was true. My best theory is that I think it was a girl, that she maybe felt self-concious about her apperance (she told me she was smoking) and I also believe that all the family members were fake.

Watching Catfish makes me sad that this is still going on. I wish I had half the tools at our disposition then that we do now, such as Skype, smartphones, Facebook and more. Part of me would still like to know what really happened, just to know exactly who played me and why.

I know some of you will say that I was stupid falling for someone I never saw or met and I agree 100%. Since then I have grown and learned. I have met people online that I then dated IRL, none were catfish, and that eventually made me more confident.

So that's my Catfish story, it didn't last 8 years, I never sent her money and I sold the ring to someone else for the same amount I paid for it. I am grateful that all that was wasted was my time, as I was still living at home and not working at the time.

That's my story, which I've never shared with anyone who didn't know me back then. If you have a story too, feel free to share.

[–] jamiegirl-933-377412 8 years ago

ok... just watched the one where Courtney is claiming to be in contact with Kayla's deceased father Frankie. I THINK the daughter's name is Kayla.

Anyways. I'm very spiritual but I do not believe this woman. I believe she knew this guy when he was alive. Maybe they had an affair. idk. but why would he attach himself to a random person he never met and not a friend or family member? something about her was just "off." I really believe she knew Frankie.

[–] jamiegirl-933-377412 8 years ago

sorry this was supposed to be a new topic....

[–] Melissa91 8 years ago

In 2006 My best friend told me she met a nice guy on the IMDB message boards of all places and thought I'd like to talk to him. So we started talking and he supposedly lived near my town. Then after a while it was revealed he had cancer and did not have long to live. Then his best friend started talking to me. He had supposedly liked me for a long time. After a while of talking, he said he had to move to scotland because he was heir to the royal throne. At different points I talked to about 4 different friends of his. All different personality types. My friend apparently even ran into one of them at a concert. My phone would ring with a blocked number, I would answer and hear nothing. A while after he "moved" he had a surgery and then died in surgery in 2008. After that I moved on with life. I still wonder what happened with that. Tonights untold stories had a lot of similarities. The story with megan and rose. I jokingly wondered if it was the same catfish. Oh and nev and max's favorite part, he was supposed to be a model too.

[–] ljmartin-55302 8 years ago

Hi Melissa91. I'm Megan's Mom (Mama Bear) from Megan and Rose's episode...
There sounds like a lot of similarities. The fake profile was an LA/Burbank area profile for a fake "Tyler Robertson" that "Rose", (not her real name, but I know it) was operating in 2008. A lot of details in the show did not get aired,(we do know there were others involved by name in the private investigation that she/"Rose" would not admit to. Megan did talk to a boy on the phone, likely her real life brother Jake different last name) but included phone calls, some head games playing favorite song of Tyler's after his death would come into Megan's phone. Many catfish out there so would be a huge coincidence if it was the same, but she had tons of online friends as "Tyler", so anything is possible. Sorry you had a similar experience. People do not understand back then, it was not as well known how many people were doing this...Jill/Mama Bear

[–] WaningMoonMage 8 years ago

I'm ashamed about this but I "dated" a guy for 2 years that I met on yahoo answers. I found out he was using his ex friend's photo instead of his. He was older and looked way different but I kept talking to him because I still liked him as a person. I went to see him in Cali and I wasn't attracted to him, plus he didn't have his life together and I thought that was pathetic for someone his age (I was 19 and had to pay for EVERYTHING) so we stopped talking a few months later. Dated a few more losers after that but at least I got to see them in real life and get laid. I'll never do the long distance thing again.

[–] Dragon000 8 years ago

I actually was a Catfish. I started a post about this a while back, and was basically treated like dirt for confessing to it by some people on this forum. I will look, though, to see if it's still up. Granted, this was a long time ago, and even longer ago that I did the Catfishing itself. I have been reformed for about 6 years now.

The ironic part is that the two people I Catfished the longest are still friends with me, because I eventually came clean and confessed everything to them. They both forgave me and we all moved on. I went through what was a very dark time in my life, before I learned to love myself for who I am, and not feel the need to hide behind online personas.

At any rate, I can attest that it can become an addiction, and a substitute for real, meaningful relationships. I am grateful every day that I am free of that behavior, and that I still have these former victims in my life ... as REAL friends now, instead of being involved in fake romances and lies with them that could never go anywhere.

[–] blacknyellowsquid 8 years ago

 Reformed catfish, yey. Glad you learned to love yourself. I think it's cool you're still friends with those people. I suppose coming clean and all that mattered. For the catfish who aren't just sociopaths wanting to ruin people's lives, there is always an element of the real person even if it's behind a mask, I think. I mean sure it's not really honest but if someone is talking with you, it's still you at some level, right?

I'm not promoting catfishing but just saying, I can understand them still being friends with you since there was some kind of bond there obvs

[–] Dragon000 8 years ago

Thanks! Yeah, I am definitely not a sociopath, and my guilt was overwhelming. I actually had made a "clean break" with both the victims and could have just walked away and never said anything. But I missed their friendships, and I could not live with my conscience, so I told them both and opened myself up to their expressing hurt and anger, as well as answering any questions they had.

In the end, yes it was me, behind that mask, and we all agreed that we had gained valuable friendships and yes, love, on a level, and did not want to give that up. Not all stories end this happily, but I glad that ours did. :)

[–] Gem_Bot 8 years ago

Me and my friend were out fishing out at the docks, and my fishing rod really started to bend, after fighting with it for a couple minutes I pulled in a pretty big catfish. It was the biggest fish I ever caught.

💎You couldn't lace up my Chuck Taylors🌸💎

[–] Goldenhand_The_Just 8 years ago

It ended up not being a catfish but I'll post it anyways.

So around 2008 my girlfriend (who we will call Jessica) of a little over a year moved to San Diego and we would hang out as much as we could. I live about 7 hours from SD so it was quite the trip but we made it work, her new best friend who we will call Megan began chatting with me on Facebook but for some reason we never met in person.

After a little over a year of this Jessica and I broke up, but Megan and I kept chatting online and we both developed very strong feelings for one another, I could never get her to video chat but we did talk on the phone a few times.

Her voice sounded odd, almost like she was intentionally making her voice higher, like she was disguising it. We made plans several times to meet up but it never panned out so I eventually grew suspicious and a part of me wondered if it was my ex girlfriend (and Megan's now ex best friend) getting some sort of revenge but I would always convince myself that Megan was a real person.

This went on for about a year until I got tired of just chatting online and we stopped talking. A few months later we started talking again, I was still a little suspicious until she invited me to stay with her for a week. I drove to SD and finally met Megan and we had a real relationship for almost 4 years.

Her voice was very small, it wasn't a disguise, she was insecure about it so she didn't like talking on the phone. We never met in person when I was dating Jessica because she was very shy but she wanted to get to know her friends new BF so she reached out to me on Facebook.

I miss her :/