Catfishing

#cybersecurity #hackers #socialengineering

Definition: Catfishing is a dangerous form of online deception where someone pretends to be a different person than they actually are. The goal is to make the victim fall in love with the catfish.

Once the catfish obtains the victim’s trust, they might ask the victim for money. Catfish are very good at coming up with excuses to ask for “financial aid”, so be warned.

Source: https://vpnoverview.com/internet-safety/cybercrime/catfishing/

Humans are exploitable and a lot of people know it, especially hackers. I have worked in IT for a while now and I find it quite frightening how some people know nothing about 'techy stuff' as they call it. Sometimes I wonder whether young lads really see the scams that lurk behind certain apps that sell content or fake profiles set -up to coax them into handing over nude pics or dick pics. Does the older, lonely man or woman realise that their dating profiles are run by a bunch of unscrupulous individuals based in god knows where? Are they really that gullible? Well yes, of course, how else would they know? Why would they know unless someone has educated them on the subject. Same goes for girls. How does she not think that the topess photo will not be immediately shared on a whatsapp group with a bunch of lads from school, work or wherever. She talks about emotional support, she says 'he is nice and he would never do that', whilst lads are having a look at her nipples on their smartphone. She probably doesn't care but what if someone was just exploiting your daughter's naivety. What if your friend is doing that? She may fluff her ego and give herself the boost needed to maintain such high levels of self worth but that's her take on her self-worth. The rest of the world could say all manner of things from who cares to what a hoe. True the world has seen enough now that its 'just-another-hoe' syndrome. The apathy set in a while ago but it's still amazing how we can physically co-exist, digitally interact and yet live in parallel universes.

Catfishing is already an old thing and I think it exists on an industrialised, normalised basis now. The fact that the content writers syndicate so much now makes it harder for me to understand why people can't spot this crap. 200£ into the hands of some stranger because you want to watch some porn on an OnlyFans profile. You must be a mug. Basically catfished to a whole new level and you don't even know it. How? It can only be your ignorance which reminds me of that bullshit tone teachers had when I was at school, 'ignorance is no excuse' echo the words. Kind of fucking is. It is still right to teach people whatever the age about scams. It could be a pension scam via adware targeting retirees or porn scams via a so called models social account targeting kids and young adults.

The internet is just another place that scammers can operate. It is a place that works in their favour and far easier to do it through an app. The model can be scaled up and mailchimp could probably help you mass mail to make it that much better for them. Just because it's an app don't allow yourself to hand stuff over especially money. Push someone if they sound like they are asking too much of you and don't be a mug.