Beware that often the people you meet online are not who they say they are
You may have heard about thewhere a man travelled from Virginia to Riverside to meet with a teenage girl who he “catfished.” The girl, who was driven away by the suspect was unharmed and the suspect was killed in a shootout with police, but not before he had murdered three of the girl’s relatives.
What happens next depends on the skills of the catfisher and the vulnerability of the victim. In some cases, the relationship is strictly online and never results in any in-person meetings or exchange of money or favors. But it can be part of a financial scam and there are cases where the catfisher met with and assaulted the victim.I’ve never been a victim of catfishing, but, like many people, I’m pretty sure I’ve been targeted.
You can’t always tell if their picture is them or someone else, but sometimes they look too good to be true or the photo looks like it was professionally taken. You can try a reverse image search on Google or another service which may reveal if it’s a professional picture, possibly of a model. On Google, go to, click on the camera icon and upload the photo. If it’s a stock image, it might tell you where it came from, but don’t rely on this.
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