Catfishing: How Online Predators Hide Behind Fake Identities

Online predators almost never show their real face. Instead, they build a convincing fake identity — a friendly same-age peer, a thoughtful listener, sometimes even a crush — designed to earn a young person’s trust. It’s called catfishing, and it’s one of the most common ways someone is lured into an online relationship without ever being real.

A fake profile is the foundation of nearly every grooming attempt. Once a predator has a believable persona, they can spend weeks or months building trust in private messages, asking questions, offering sympathy, and slowly testing boundaries. The child believes they’re talking to one person. The predator is someone else entirely.

The warning signs are consistent. The profile may have only a few photos or no photo at all. The person dodges video calls and refuses to meet in person. Their pictures turn up in other places when you run a reverse image search. They ask for money, pretend to be a different age, or quickly pressure the child to move to a private, hidden conversation. They offer lavish compliments, isolate the child from friends and family, and eventually ask for inappropriate photos or a secret in-person meeting.

None of this means every unknown online contact is dangerous. But it does mean families should keep the conversation open and practical. Teach kids to only be online friends with people they know in real life, to keep privacy settings at their highest level, and to tell a trusted adult if anything feels off. And stress a simple rule: if someone refuses to show who they really are, that’s not a friendship — it’s a warning.

If your child has connected with someone online who may not be who they claim to be, trust your instinct and act. You don’t have to figure it out alone.

Learn the full warning signs and how to recognize a fake profile by reading Cyberbullying Research Center’s guide, Catfishing as a Form of Cyberbullying.

If you believe a predator is targeting a child, don’t wait. Report a Predator so the report can be reviewed and acted on.