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Catfish : The phenomenon of internet predators that fabricate online identities and entire social circles to trick people into emotional/romantic
A catfish is someone who creates a false online identity. Catfishing is common on social networking and online dating sites. Sometimes a catfish's sole purpose is to engage in a fantasy. Sometimes, however, the catfish's intent is to defraud a victim, seek revenge or commit identity theft.
in UAE ; There is a possibility but a quite few percentage bearing in mind that there is a law to protect individuals as well as entities. They are working hard to promote awareness campaign about the internet risks as well as social media.
Hi Salaam. Am still wondering how this dove-tails with my information on marketing...:) But thank you for asking anyway. It's definitely a by-product of the anonymity that came gift-wrapped with the advent of social media. And frankly, it chokes you up when you hear & watch the actual toll this has taken on defenseless individuals who were just too eager to 'bond'. North America in particular has been very badly affected.
As to your question - What is cat fishing, I believe the term was first used as the title of a movie and then gained coinage when unscrupulous individuals, inspired by the content of the film no doubt, took a leaf out of the plot and began acting it out in real life. The act of cat fishing involves 'pretending to be someone else on the internet to establish contact with a remote, hitherto unknown person, with the intent of winning over that person's trust and subsequently cheating her/him of their wealth & valuables' (this definition is not from a dictionary or web, just what I see happening on the ground). The 'love/romance' angle of this most negative of acts has become pretty common in USA and Canada. Sadly, some senior ladies living in these countries have lost their entire life's savings responding to people they thought were their soul mates.
As to your second question - is it prevalent in the Middle East, honestly my assumption would be YES (I don't have any numbers to back up my assumption though). Why do I say that? This phenomenon is related more to an individual's low self-esteem and need for company, which is a fairly across-the-board reality. You don't have to be a white or of any particular ethnicity to fall into this trap. Naivety is not confined to some. Hope this helps.
