Dating these days is a lot more challenging than in recent years. People now are onto the next best thing: online dating. These dating apps and online websites are encouraging and matching people based on similar preferences to meet their true love; however, sometimes things can go wrong.

Around 2024, an online survey showed an estimate of 60% of internet users being catfished. A lot of well-known dating apps, for instance, Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble, were included in this scandal. Catfishing has even branched into a larger scale called romance scam.

Romance scam is another form of catfishing, but it involves losing money. These scammers use a fake identity to form connections with their partner, feeding them with deceitful lies in order to gain their trust and put their guard down.

Many of these scammers tell their partners that they can’t pay for hospital bills or other expenses, overall trying to make the other person feel sorry for them enough to give them money.
In 2024, it was reported that more than $400 million was stolen from 7,600 victims by romance scammers.

An LSU Student, Caroline Marke, has experienced the trauma and betrayal of being catfished. She shares that they were previously talking for about three weeks before they decided to meet each other. The day of the meeting couldn’t have been worse. In Mark’s experiences, she couldn’t find any red flags because the boy was so polite and kind in the beginning.

“So I was talking to this guy on Tinder, and he seemed really nice, and so I agreed to go on a date with him, and we went to meet up at Chimes,” Marks says. “So I got there and I saw him and immediately noticed the person that was in the picture on Tinder, and so I kinda just left.”

She is not the only victim of catfishing; there are many others with similar stories or even worse. Marks strongly recommends going to a public place to have a first date or take someone else on a date that you know.

It’s always a good idea to thoroughly vet the best person you choose to go out with.