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Catfishing

Catfishing is dating someone online under a borrowed or invented identity: someone else's photos, or a person who does not exist. That is the dictionary sense. People also use the word for someone who looks different from their photos, which is closer to kittenfishing. Its signs are reasons to check, not proof, and the law has its own page.

Updated

Means
Dating someone under an identity that is not theirs
First seen
Documentary Catfish, US release September 17, 2010; Urban Dictionary from July 23, 2010; MTV series from November 2012; in Cambridge and Collins
Related terms
Kittenfishing, Red flags, Love bombing, Future faking
In Swedish
Catfishing

Collins defines a catfish as “a person who creates a false identity on social media in order to lure someone into establishing a relationship” (Collins, undated). The word also gets pinned on real people who look different from their photos. The law and where to report are on is catfishing illegal.

What is a catfish in dating, and why the name?

Catfish, a documentary directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, opened in the US on September 17, 2010 (Box Office Mojo, undated). It follows Ariel’s brother Nev, a New York photographer, through an online relationship with a woman from a Michigan family he met over Facebook (Christian Science Monitor, 2010).

An Urban Dictionary entry dated July 23, 2010, before that September release, calls a catfish someone using social media “to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances” (Urban Dictionary, 2010). MTV’s Catfish series premiered on November 12, 2012 (NextTV, 2012).

The title comes from a story told in the film by the husband of the woman behind the profiles. As Merriam-Webster retells it, fishermen shipping live cod put catfish in the tanks to keep the cod “active and alert”, and he implied his wife was like those catfish (Merriam-Webster, undated). It is a story the Oxford English Dictionary calls probably false, and which was in print by 1913, in an essay by Henry Nevinson (Language Log, 2025).

An Urban Dictionary entry dated April 2, 2015 stretches the word to someone who seems attractive online while being “a complete or near opposite of that portrayed” (Urban Dictionary, 2015). On The Student Room, a UK student forum, someone who had been called a catfish started a thread on February 8, 2018 (about 13 replies): “I think he meant I look different in pictures than real life or something” (The Student Room, 2018). That sense is closer to kittenfishing than to the dictionaries.

How can you tell if someone is a catfish?

Each sign is a reason to check, not a verdict.

SignWhat it suggestsWhat it cannot prove
A Google or TinEye image search finds the photos under another nameBorrowed photos. The FTC counts another name among the “signs of a scam” (FTC, 2022; Google, undated; TinEye, 2025)That the person is real. A search finds only what is public
No video, and the camera is “broken”An excuse eSafety lists, with a soldier who must hide his face (eSafety, undated)That they are fake. Get Safe Online says fraudsters use AI to make “even video calls more convincing” (Get Safe Online, undated)
One photo, or only model-grade onesPsychologist Madeleine Mason Roantree, quoted by Bumble, flags “only having one photo of a very good-looking, model-like person” (Bumble, undated)That the person is fake. Real people post one good photo too
A thin social media traileSafety calls “a low friend count, not many posts and photos” a possible sign of a faked background (eSafety, undated)That they are fake. Some people barely post
Fast feelings, then a money problemA romance scam. The most common lie in the FTC reports below was about someone sick, hurt or in jail (FTC, 2023)Whose face it is. The ask is the problem either way

In 2022, nearly 70,000 people reported a romance scam to the US Federal Trade Commission, and the median reported loss was $4,400 (FTC, 2023). Among 8,070 of those reports with a dollar loss and a narrative of at least 2,000 characters, the most common lie by keyword analysis was “I or someone close to me is sick, hurt, or in jail”, in 24%.

On Mumsnet, a British parenting forum, a woman in a thread started December 10, 2023 (about 24 replies) declined a video call seconds after sharing her number. The man called her a catfish, “probably a pensioner with fake photos”, and blocked her; by our read of the thread, replies took her side (Mumsnet, December 2023).

How is catfishing different from kittenfishing and a romance scam?

Kittenfishing is a real person behind flattering photos, and the kittenfishing entry linked above sets the two side by side.

A romance scam is the version where money is the point, and the FTC figures above are about it. Our reading: the run-up can resemble love bombing, or future faking when the meeting keeps moving. Sweden’s figures are in romance fraud in Sweden in 2025.

Catfishing does not need money: none of the definitions quoted above mentions it. Old photos blur the line. In a Mumsnet thread started May 26, 2023 (about 300 replies), the poster’s date looked about ten years older than his photos, and replies disagreed on whether that counted as catfishing (Mumsnet, May 2023).

Is catfishing illegal?

Our legal page checked Texas, California, New York and Louisiana, and England and Wales: a fake identity on its own is usually not a crime there, and money, threats to share images, a minor, a real person’s identity or harassment can make it one. The statutes and where to report are on is catfishing illegal.

Common questions

Why do they call it catfishing?

The sense comes from the 2010 documentary Catfish. In the film, the husband of the woman behind the fake profiles tells a story about fishermen shipping live cod with catfish in the tanks to keep the cod active, and implies his wife was like those catfish. Language Log quotes the Oxford English Dictionary on both points: the sense comes from the film, and the cod story is probably false. It was in print by 1913.

What does it mean if someone catfished you?

It means they talked to you, and maybe dated you, under an identity that was not theirs: someone else's photos, an invented name, or both. Collins and Cambridge describe a false identity used to lure or trick someone, and neither mentions money; in a romance scam, money is the point. Whether it was a crime, and where to report it, is on our page about whether catfishing is illegal.

How can you tell if someone is a catfish?

Photos found under another name in a reverse image search, an always-broken camera, one model-grade photo, almost no social media and fast feelings followed by a money problem are reasons to check, not proof. A search finds only public photos, Get Safe Online says fraudsters use AI to make video calls more convincing, and in a Mumsnet thread started November 27, 2023 (about 26 replies), a match whose photo looked like a stock image turned out to be real.

What is kittenfishing in dating?

Kittenfishing is a real person whose profile is more flattering than the facts. Nobody's identity is borrowed, and the person who turns up is the one in the photos, with the edges smoothed. Catfishing is a different order of lie: the name and face belong to someone else, or to nobody. Our kittenfishing entry sets the two side by side, with ordinary good presentation as a third row.

What does it mean when someone calls you a catfish?

Sometimes that you look different from your photos. One Urban Dictionary entry from 2015 uses it that way, and a Student Room poster called a catfish in 2018 guessed that was the meaning. Or it is an accusation: in a Mumsnet thread started December 10, 2023 (about 24 replies), a woman declined a surprise video call and the man called her a catfish and blocked her. The first is closer to kittenfishing than to the dictionary sense.

Sources

  1. catfish, Collins English Dictionary, undated, accessed 2026-10-05
  2. catfish, Cambridge Dictionary, undated, accessed 2026-10-05
  3. Catfish (2010), Box Office Mojo, undated, accessed 2026-10-05
  4. Catfish: movie review - CSMonitor.com, The Christian Science Monitor (Peter Rainer), 2010-09-24
  5. catfish, Urban Dictionary, entries dated 2010-07-23 and 2015-04-02
  6. MTV Renews 'Catfish' for Second Season, NextTV (Multichannel News), 2012-12-19
  7. Catfish, Merriam-Webster, undated, accessed 2026-10-05
  8. Word of the week: 'curtfishing' (Mark Liberman), Language Log, 2025-09-25
  9. I got called a catfish, The Student Room, 2018-02-08
  10. Search with an image on Google - Computer - Google Search Help, Google, undated, accessed 2026-10-05
  11. What is TinEye?, TinEye, updated 2025-02-24
  12. What To Know About Romance Scams, Federal Trade Commission, 2022-08
  13. Catfishing, eSafety Commissioner (Australia), undated, accessed 2026-10-05
  14. Safe online dating, Get Safe Online, undated, accessed 2026-10-05
  15. How to Detect Fake Profiles and Protect Yourself from Catfishing on Bumble, Bumble, undated, accessed 2026-10-05
  16. Romance scammers' favorite lies exposed, Federal Trade Commission (Data Spotlight), 2023-02
  17. OLD -refusing unsolicited video call. Red flag or not?, Mumsnet (Relationships), 2023-12-10
  18. Catfish?, Mumsnet (Relationships), 2023-11-27
  19. Catfished and can't get over it, Mumsnet (Am I Being Unreasonable), 2023-05-26