Catfish
A catfish is someone who creates a fake online identity, often using stolen photos, to deceive people into an online romantic relationship.
A catfish is a person who constructs a false identity online, typically using photos taken from someone else's real social media accounts along with a fabricated name, backstory, and personality, in order to pursue an online romantic relationship under false pretenses. "Catfishing" is the act of carrying out this deception, which can range from a relatively low-stakes fake profile to an extended, months- or years-long fabricated relationship, sometimes escalating into a romance scam involving requests for money. The term entered mainstream use following the 2010 documentary "Catfish," which followed a real case of exactly this kind of deception, and was popularized further by the subsequent MTV series of the same name, which investigates suspected catfishing cases at the request of one party in an online relationship. Common motivations documented across catfishing cases include loneliness and a desire for connection without the risk of using one's real identity, insecurity about one's own appearance, direct financial scam intent, and, in some cases, harassment or revenge against the person being impersonated or deceived. Warning signs commonly cited by dating-safety resources include a refusal to video call or meet in person, inconsistencies in a person's stated story over time, and reverse image searches turning up the same photos under a different name; catfishing is closely related to, but broader than, the specific subset of cases that escalate into a financial romance scam.