Catfish?!

I’ve never been online dating ever actually but I’ve seen the catfish show and some of those stories are wild!

View Quoted Comment 💔 My heart breaks for some of these people! What kills me is that it’s so incredibly obvious that there’s massive holes and all of the stories! It’s 2021 and you mean to tell me that ‘you’ve never once tried to Skype or zoom’ with the person you claim to be so in love with online?! Lol it really is wild!

No! Did a few first dates and the person always endes up looking different from their profile picture. Different as in older or significant weight gain.

Before I met my fiance, I dated online for many years, and I'd never say I was actually catfished since nothing was ever as serious as that, but I did go on MANY dates with people who did not look like their photos.

Often, I found most guys barely bothered to fill out their profile, and didn't share many photos and I quickly learned it was a good idea to only agree to go on a date if people had enough photos of themselves to clearly underline what they looked like.

For example, one guy only had one or two pictures of himself, all of which were artfully black and white and quite heavily shadowed, and whilst he may have felt that those made him look most attractive, I remember joking with my friends before I met up with him that he might only have one eye, since there was not a single photo with his second eye unshaded or hidden somehow. (He did have both eyes, in the end!)

Online dating is quite hard in that way though, people often only share selfies which aren't full length, so when you meet, they look way taller or shorter or fatter or thinner than expected because of the angle of their chosen photos.

And there were cases where the person was perfectly attractive, just *different* to what I expected, making it hard to connect because I felt like I was re-evaluating what I felt I'd learned about them, and that was tough.

For me, attraction isn't just about the way someone looks. There are so many other tiny things - the tone and depth/ intonation of their voice, the style in which they speak overall, unexpected gestures or if they have a strange walking style or they dress different or the way they speak to staff at a restaurant, or any number of things that for whatever reason, just doesn't vibe with me - and if you'd met them in person you would have taken all of that in at a glance, and known you weren't interested, which you can't do online.

I personally felt I needed to actively be doing *something* if I claimed to want to meet someone, which is why I continued to online date, but I genuinely found it stressful and not remotely enjoyable, although I know loads of people who met their partners online and I totally do think it works!

I met my fiance in person by chance in the end though

Yes! My fiancée and I met through Bumble! I have several friends who met their now spouses through online dating, so it really is much more common and can actually be successful. (Although we all have our share of bad date stories too! 😆)

My future brother in law and his wife met through an online video gaming site. Had been online friends for a few years playing games together before any mention of dating or actually meeting up! Once they met in person they just “clicked” and dated for short time then got married!! She is pretty awesome and we all get along great!

I met my husband initially online on a site called OkCupid that friends had signed me up for after my divorce. Then it turned out that we had gone to the same high school (he’s two years older) and had a ton of mutual friends so I felt confident in going on a date with him. I don’t know if I would have wanted to go on a date with a total stranger.

I met my FH through online dating but I have never been catfished

My fiancé and I met on Tinder actually ! We talked online for about two weeks before deciding to meet and then it was another month before we decided to “officially date”. Don’t regret a thing 💙 however I know I got lucky, there are a ton of weirdos online 😂 Never been catfishes, it’s usually super easy to tell if the profile is fake these days.

I have never done online dating, but one of my best guy friends has been on 100+ dates with girls from online dating sites, and some of the stories he has told me... 😳😆

View Quoted Comment Awee that’s a cool story

I watched Catfish way back when, and I feel like a lot of the couples met through Facebook or other social media sites as opposed to dating websites (might've changed, though - it's been a long time since I've seen an episode!). I've never dated anyone via social media, but went on a decent number of dates via online dating and met FH through OkCupid! I can't say anyone I met in-person looked different than their profile, maybe just height-wise? One of my filters was height (I'm 5'10" and didn't want to date anyone shorter) and if FH didn't round up, he wouldn't have shown up in my search lol (he's like half an inch shorter than me)!

My best friend met her husband through PlentyOfFish, so I know the whole dating website thing can work! I didn't meet my FH off of a dating website (we met in high school), but prior to us getting together, I did some online dating...I've never fully been catfished but I have some stories!

The first guy who had something different about him that he didn't tell me was acting kind of weird before we met up. He kept bringing up this car accident he was in and I finally just bluntly asked if he was missing a limb or something. He said no, totally normal. I'm not really judgmental when it comes to stuff like that, I can look past it as long as we click and there's a connection. ANYWAYS. We show up to the restaurant and he's wearing head to toe orange (I HATE ORANGE!) and he had a speech impediment. He was so self-conscious of it he barely spoke to me. For that reason I said I wasn't interested and he called me all kinds of names because he claims it was because of his speech impediment. I said no, it's because you barely spoke to me and we just sat there staring at each other the whole time.

I also had a guy show up pretending to be this nice guy, then disclosed he did 6 months in prison. And another show up who said he was taller than me but was actually way shorter than me. Again, if there's a connection I can look past things...but he straight up lied. So I guess kind of catfished? I'm so glad those days are OVER!

View Quoted Comment Lol oh wow! With that one guy I would’ve been like it was the orange for me man! Lol trust me it’s not a speech impediment, it’s the fact that you’re dressed like a cara cara 😂

View Quoted Comment My story was somewhat similar. My FH and I had met a couple times when I was 15 and he was 18. When I saw him on OkCupid, I was able to figure out from his interests and pictures that it was the same person I had already met (and liked) before. We chatted online for a few weeks before our first date. I didn't tell him we had met before and he didn't put it together until about an hour before our date!


No catfishing stories for me. My poor FH had some really disappointing first dates, was stood up a few times, and dated some strange, crazy people before we found eachother. Online dating is really a mixed bag.

I dated online for a while and never had a catfish situation but ran into a lot of men who put “47” as their age but ended up being early 50s.
I read so much about men being angry that a date would show up and weight more than the pictures looked so I was super blunt about being chubby LOL One guy still said I was catfishing because my photo made me look better. It was a week old, I hadn’t gained any weight and had said I was chubby!

OH and one guy gave me a fake last name. I had no idea until at the end of the date he revealed he was a sex offender and then gave me his real last name. And a story about him being 18, his gf in high school being 17, etc.
I looked him up and it was NOT the case. Much more serious. I think he wanted access to my kids. That was just a 30 min coffee date and I blocked/deleted/notified the dating website.

View Quoted Comment Wow! He sounds like he’s a real jerk! Explains why he single.

View Quoted Comment OMG!!!!!!!!! Stuff like this is why I don’t even do social media! WeddingWire is basically the only social media that I use because I’m so paranoid about people trying to steal my pictures online or stalkers and sex offenders etc!


It’s sad to say but a lot of women aren’t as smart as you to just walk away either. Some women will actually try to give some of these people a chance

View Quoted Comment I learned to be downright brutal with the block and delete. There’s no real reason to give someone you just met the benefit of the doubt. If he’s a jerk on the first date, he’s a jerk!