I was just aghast when I read the source story for this post. I had to warn the world. I’m not likely to have fallen for it. But some online daters are being left on the hook for dinner by ‘dates’ who don’t show up…
There’s a well-known online scam known as Catfishing. If you weren’t familiar with it… Perhaps you’re among the lucky majority who haven’t (yet?) been targeted. But you should still be aware of what it is and what it can do to your life.
What it is
The Australian eSafety Commission maintains a comprehensive site on Catfishing. It defines the nefarious practice as follows:
“Catfishing is when someone sets up a fake online identity and uses it to trick and control others. Often they do it to scam people out of money, blackmail them or harm them in some other way.”
The site offers ways to identify ‘catfishers’ as well as suggesting what to do if you’re targeted.
What’s the new threat?
Believe it or not… Some restaurants are using catfishing techniques to fill their seats. How? An employee poses online at a dating site as a would-be companion, and cultivates the mark as a traditional catfisher would. But instead of blackmail or some other rotten trick, they make a date with their correspondent at their own restaurant.
Then, the ‘date’ fails to show. And the unsuspecting target is left holding the tab for whatever food and/or drink they ordered to pass the time while waiting.
Even worse…
Some resto catfishers add insult to injury, saying they’ll be ‘running late’. And asking the mark to order for them when he or she gets there. So the target ends up ordering two meals and maybe also drinks. And is left holding the doggy bag.
The really insidious aspect of this possibly criminal behaviour is, you can’t trace the real identity of the perpetrator. Even if you’re dead certain you’ve been date-fished by a resto, it’s virtually impossible to prove it.
Started in India
This practice apparently started some time ago in India, and has become quite a problem there. One video poster on Reddit offered a ‘western culture’-oriented opinion of the scam”
To which Redditor @fatmanbejones commented:
“In Delhi shady bars HIRE women to lure guys and order from a “special” menu; large amounts of watered down shots for themselves, food for the table […] and have the restaurant goons extort the inflated bill amount from them. […] They have an army of women luring guys in batches the whole day. Pay off is rather lucrative.”
My take
I have to admit I agree with TikTokCringe about date-fishing being a less serious problem here in the west. We probably don’t have to worry as much about the prospect of marks being worked over by goons. But the fraud remains the same. And there’s also the shame and (in some cases, at least) heartbreak that goes with being stood up.
Not to mention the humiliation that comes with the realization that you’ve been taken in.
We really didn’t need another dimension of danger on top of all the better-known perils of online dating. But opportunists and creeps will always rush in wherever they see the slightest sign of weakness…
~ Maggie J.