Credits: MTV
Everything we do on the Internet today puts us at risk of cybercrimes and other dangers. One of the most rampant types of cybercrime is, of course, catfishing. Urban Dictionary defines catfish as "someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances". With the advent of the Internet, users have been more susceptible to deception and fraud than ever. Catfishing has been so rampant over the recent years that it has spawned many click-bait lists such as this BuzzFeed list of "17 of the Most Insane Catfish Stories That Will Make You Cringe", among many.
Cases of high-profile celebrities such as Manti Te'o', a NFL linebacker, have splashed the covers of tabloid magazines, speaking about the terrors of being a catfish victim. When the film, Catfish, was released in 2010, the producers of the film received so many e-mails from the public about their personal encounters with catfishing that MTV decided to produce a television show chronicling the lives of victims as they track the perpetrators down with the help of Nev Schulman and Max Joseph. Catfish the movie was, in fact, a real-life story of how Nev was catfished by a woman named Abby, who was eventually discovered to be a fraud.
In serious cases, the perpetrators of this crime resort to extorting money from their victims. In Malaysia, cases of Africans using false identities to extort money from unwitting women are not foreign to us anymore. Malaysia currently ranks at sixth place globally in terms of cyber crime threat risks, and this figure is expected to climb over the next few years. 2,960 cases of fraud have been recorded by My Computer Response Team (MyCERT) in their Incident Statistics Report in 2015.
Some of these cases involve blackmail; first involving coercing victims into indecent acts, and then recording these acts, then threatening to release those photos online if the victims do not pay a certain sum of money. Sometimes, victims are also persuaded to send money over to these perpetrators after they are sweet talked; where perpetrators whisper sweet nothings to them, and then suddenly encountering "family and/or problems" that require urgent wire transfers.
These victims are commonly divorced, single or widowed women who are looking for partners. These perpetrators are usually Africans who use photographs of Caucasian men as a ruse to hide their identities. The Star Online reports that as a result, RM1 billion have been lost to these scammers alone.
What do you think can be done to curb this problem? Sound off in the comments below.
References
Arief Irsyad. (2015, December 8). Malaysia is becoming a global hub for online scams, will you be the next victim? Malaysian Digest. Retrieved from http://malaysiandigest.com
Brady, E., & George, R. (2013, January 18). Manti Te'o's "catfish" story is a common one. USA Today. http://usatoday.com
Camoens, A. (2016, March 26). RM1bil lost to online scammers. Retrieved from http://thestaronline.com.my
Campbell, C. (2014, July 9). Malaysia is becoming a global hub for internet scams preying on the lovelorn. Time Magazine. Retrieved from http://time.com
Catfish (n.d.) In Urban Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=catfish
Written by
Natalie Ha Siaw Ching (42623)
Surprisingly to find out the term “catfish” after read through the blog. It really enlightens me! Well, I think it is difficult to curb the problem especially for those female who are lonely and highly desperate into romance relationship. Because love is blind.
ReplyDeleteBut, in my opinion, I think that there are some way to trace in order to prevent an individual from being catfished, firstly, put high concern on privacy issue when come across to digital world. You not necessary need to update all your personal information throughout the digital world. Also, please check, update and secure your won privacy setting on all you social media account especially bank account.
Next, you may access to the people’s social media account and check his/ her profile. Stalk his/ her social media account and find out did you both have mutual friend or not, his information like education background, occupation and so forth. However, these all information could be modified. But there are some information which one unable to modify as well such as his/her Facebook friend count, google their photos (because they might use other people photo like model photo to “lure” you) and be suspicious when someone keep request to meet you “online” like Skype or webcam or even asking your financial status.
“Catfish”, this is also the first time I have been exposed to this term. However, I think I am not strange to the issue mentioned which concerning on creating a false identity online intentionally. Every technology users must be aware of this type of cybercrime as these fakers are using a fake identity and exists everywhere. And therefore, it is hard to protect the online users away from them. Cybercrime is causing damages on an individual in terms of emotions and financial. As mentioned by the author, the faker is creating a false identity in order to pursue an online romance with the victim, generally, the fakers will persuade the victim believe to their false identity and believes everything that the faker created. The victim is then falling into the cyber trap created by the faker unconsciously. This is a serious issue in the modern society. Everyone is exposing to this cybercrime as these fakers are everywhere online. Therefore, the public must be extra careful when using any online application, especially when a stranger is approaching you.
ReplyDeleteSame goes with me, I never heard “catfish” before. However, I was a victim before. Things happened on year 2009. In the very beginning, criminal tried to add me as facebook friend. He always gave comments or likes on every status or photos. After some time, he started chatting with me. Being a secondary student, I was not aware of any cybercrime. Or another word is I do not know there had such thing called, “cybercrime”.
ReplyDeleteThings happened because I was full of curiosity. We made friend through facebook until almost addicted to chat with each other every night. I remembered this “relationship” ha maintained for about half year.
One day, I can’t access to my social media account. Not only Facebook, there are blogger and Window Messenger. Only after this, I realized that I had trapped. From that day, I learned not simply believe in people you meet online. My advice is maybe there still has those who sincerely wants to become your friends, but the intention to hack your account is still possible. So do not simply share private information online.
Same goes with me, I never heard “catfish” before. However, I was a victim before. Things happened on year 2009. In the very beginning, criminal tried to add me as facebook friend. He always gave comments or likes on every status or photos. After some time, he started chatting with me. Being a secondary student, I was not aware of any cybercrime. Or another word is I do not know there had such thing called, “cybercrime”.
ReplyDeleteThings happened because I was full of curiosity. We made friend through facebook until almost addicted to chat with each other every night. I remembered this “relationship” ha maintained for about half year.
One day, I can’t access to my social media account. Not only Facebook, there are blogger and Window Messenger. Only after this, I realized that I had trapped. From that day, I learned not simply believe in people you meet online. My advice is maybe there still has those who sincerely wants to become your friends, but the intention to hack your account is still possible. So do not simply share private information online.
After reading through the article, I totally agree that all of the Internet users are exposed to the risk of cybercrimes. Surprisingly, I realized that our friend Janice, was a victim of cybercrimes few years ago after reading through her comment below. So, is there any possible way to curb catfish problem?
ReplyDeleteIn my point of view, we as the Internet users must be aware and alert with our privacy information all the time. I advise to all is that we should not easily make friends with strangers online. For instance, please do not simply accept friend requests on Facebook and any other social apps especially when the person who sent you the friend request is not the person you even know in real world.
Yes, you do have your own freedom to decide or to choose anyone you want to be friend with. But, in my opinion, the very first thing you need to bear in mind is do not simply update and expose your personal information and privacy with person you met online. And second, do not simply trust and believe in people you met online especially when they have the intention to develop a romance relationship with you. Even though they are so willing to share their every single personal information with you, you need to always remember that these people are able to fake every information they provided you. Thirdly, not to forget to be alert when your online friends request you to make a video call with them through social apps such as Skype because they are able to record the whole process of video calling which involve privacy issues.
In short, as long as Internet users are aware of the cybercrimes risk, and if they are smart in the sense that concerning their own privacy and personal information, catfish problems could be reduced and curbed eventually.
As for me, I think that the best bet is to do a little investigation as soon as someone contacts you. This may sounds creepy but we have to take care of ourselves first anyway. Check out their social media accounts by Google their name and make sure it looks like someone spent time on it.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, we should treat these people like anyone else we've just met. Would you immediately make friend with a complete stranger that approaches you on the road? We were taught that stranger danger since we were young therefore we should know the way to treat a stranger. We also shouldn't expose too much of our private information to the public. It's important to make sure all these information are not open for anyone to see and of course don't provide any information that will leak your identity to the others.
I recently saw a news report on The Star Online regarding this same topic, about how a 50+ year old woman was conned out of her savings by two different men. She knew she was being conned, but she still gave her online "boyfriend" money anyway. This is because she believed that the first man who conned her, named Mark, disappeared and manifested again as a different man named John. She loved Mark so much that she believed John was Mark, and kept giving him money although John insisted that he was not Mark. Therefore, what I can derive from this incident is that you cannot help a person who doesn't want to help herself. She knew very well that she was being cheated off her money, but she kept giving because she loves him. Plus, the reason why so many women are being cheated off their live savings is because they would do anything for love.
ReplyDeleteI used to watch Catfish on MTV before; and I remember all these people completely losing themselves over someone who can't even show themselves over Skype or talk on the phone over the course of 2 years. If I was in their shoes, I would have dropped them in a week. I agree with Chantelle, you cannot help a person who doesn't want to help his or herself. We cannot trust the internet completely because anyone can be anyone on the internet, therefore we need to take necessary precautions when being approached by someone on the internet. A little digging might save you from being heartbroken or conned.
ReplyDelete