15 Statistics On Catfishing (And Ways To Avoid It)

One of my best friends is obsessed with MTV’s show “Catfish.”¹ She’ll spend a whole Sunday watching episodes online, laughing about the harmless misunderstandings and getting teary-eyed about the serious heartbreaks (she’s a big-time crier).

For those of us who haven’t experienced catfishing, it’s easy to enjoy the show and walk away without a care in the world. But anyone who has experienced catfishing knows it’s no joke.

Today, we want to share 15 catfishing statistics to shine a light on this ever-growing, deceptive activity. We’ll also give advice about how to make sure you don’t fall for a catfish profile.

Before you can protect yourself from a catfisher, you need to know the facts about them. I’ve collected interesting stats from studies, nonprofit organizations, and dating sites, among other sources, to show just how prevalent these scams are.

1. Over 62% of Americans Say They Have Been Catfished

Somewhat shockingly, or maybe not so much if you’ve been swiping a lot lately, nearly 2 in 3 internet users in the U.S. claim they’ve encountered a catfish.²

2. More Than Half of Online Daters Admit to Lying

A whopping 57% of online daters admit to lying to matches.³ And those are the ones telling the truth about their lies! It could be a fib about being tall or a deception about income. Whatever the case, it is wrong.

3. Catfishers Have 4 Main Motivations

Researchers have analyzed the motivations behind catfishing and identified four common themes:⁴

1. Entertainment: Just having fun.
2. Emulating Ideal Self: Pretending to be better to get better.
3. Desire for Meaningful Chats: Lonely and desperate for connection.
4. Financial Gain: Begging or lying to get an easy payday.

Some catfishers are bored, some are lonely, and some are nefarious. But all of them are liars.

From teenagers with nothing better to do to hackers looking to get into your bank account, catfishers come in all shapes and sizes. Keep your eyes peeled and trust your instincts when you feel like something isn’t right.

4. Catfishers Are More Likely to Have These 4 Personality Disorders

We all know catfishers tend to compulsively lie. Perhaps because they are addicted to false persona and fantasy, but researchers have also found that catfishing people are more likely to be in the dark tetrad of personality disorder:⁵

• Narcissism
• Psychopathy
• Sadism
• Machiavellianism

Mental illness can play a role in catfishing, and trauma may come into it too. People often do bad things when they’ve been hurt (emotionally, psychologically, or physically).⁶

Call me crazy, but perhaps if we stop lying to each other, then we’d be more trusting?

5. Over 28% of Online Daters Have Felt Harassed

A huge part of online dating is, obviously, the communication, but it’s not all flirty banter and date planning. Bad actors can feel emboldened because they’re hidden behind a screen.

It could be someone getting mad for not getting a response (or not getting the response they wanted), someone asking for money, or someone professing serious feelings very early on (aka lovebombing).

In the U.S., 41% of online daters say they have felt harassed on the apps, and over half of those respondents (54%) reported being called an offensive name.⁷

Young people between 18-29 were most likely to report experiencing sustained harassment (15%) and sexual harassment (18%).

6. Around 4 in 10 Online Daters Say the Apps Need to Do More

Pew Research Center’s survey found that 40% of online daters agreed that dating platforms are somewhat bad or very bad at removing fake accounts.⁸

According to Phactual.com, 1 in 10 profiles on a free dating site are fake.⁹

The good news is you can spot fake profiles pretty quickly because a lot of them won’t have clear photos. Also, most dating sites use AI to spot warning signs and have paywalls or mutual matching to ensure only serious daters can send messages.

7. More Than 51% of Online Daters Are Already in a Relationship

That’s not all Phactual.com discovered. Another statistic is that over half of online daters already have a boyfriend/girlfriend or husband/wife — even though their profile says they’re single.

For instance, 30% of Tinder users are married, and 12% are in a relationship.¹⁰ In these cases, the catfisher would be someone who’s leading a double life and looking to cheat. Don’t they know that’s what Ashley Madison is for!?

8. Women Are More Likely to Lie About Their Age

We mentioned earlier that a majority of people have admitted to lying on their dating profiles, and what they tend to lie about varies based on gender.

According to Psychology Today, women are more likely than men to lie about their age and appearance.¹¹ These lies can come in the form of using a photo that was taken years ago or selecting a different body type than what they actually are (e.g., slender instead of curvy).

9. Men Are More Likely to Lie About Their Finances

It’s not just the women who are liars — men seem to have trouble with the truth as well. When it comes to their careers and financial situations, a lot of male online daters are dishonest.

In fact, 40% of men (versus 33% of women) have misrepresented their work position and salary.¹² This particular study surveyed more than 1,000 online daters in the United States and the United Kingdom.

10. Facebook Is a Common Place to Be Catfished

Catfishers swim on social media just as often as on dating sites — Facebook is a favorite haunt. Approximately 83% of catfish incidents take place on Facebook.¹³

Some warning signs to look for on Facebook include that the person is vague about their past, always seems to be traveling, and has had some sort of recent traumatic event happen in their personal life.

11. Facebook Blocked 1.3 Billion Fake Accounts in 2020

Meta has taken steps to reduce cybercrime on its social media platforms. Facebook identified and removed 1.3 billion fake accounts in 2020.¹⁴ That’s just a drop in the catfish bucket, but it’s a good effort to keep users safe.

12. In 2022, the FBI Received Over 19,000 Complaints About Romance Scams

Back in 2011, only 5,600 romance scam complaints were submitted to the FBI, and the collective losses totaled about $50 million.¹⁵ That’s nothing compared to today’s numbers. In 2022, 19,050 Americans reported falling victim to a romance scam and lost $740 million in total.¹⁶

13. Over 55% of Americans Exaggerate or Lie About Their Jobs

According to Newsweek, 55% of people exaggerate or lie on their dating profiles about their careers.¹⁷ Sometimes they invent a whole imaginary job, and other times they’re just fibbing in certain details, such as their salary or work hours.

Romance scammers often pose as military personnel or international businessmen to gain trust and explain why they can’t meet in person.

14. Over 90% of Fake Profiles Are Female

Cybersecurity experts estimate that the vast majority of fake profiles created are posing as females.¹⁸ This is a tactic to lure unsuspecting men to profiles with a beautiful face and a dark secret.

Be wary of women who seem too good to be true and rush into a romantic online relationship. They may not be all they appear.

15. Nearly 1 in 4 Catfishers Lie About Someone Being Sick, Hurt, or In Jail

Catfish profiles get money by making up some sob story that’ll require borrowing money. They need jail money. They have hospital bills. They’ll pay you back, surely, just as soon as they can. It’s all a lie. Be wary of the most common lies, as outlined by the FTC.¹⁹

According to their data, 24% of catfishers claim someone they love is sick or in jail. And 18% claim they can help you invest money.

Now that we’ve given you all the stats, here’s how to avoid being catfished in the first place and what you should do if you think you’re in contact with a catfisher. These tips are simple and can be done immediately!

1. Run Their Photo Through Google’s Reverse Image Search

Google isn’t just for looking up funny cat videos — you can also find out if the person you’re talking to online is using someone else’s photo. It’ll only take a couple of steps.

Go to Google, click Images, click Search by Image, and then paste the URL where the photo can be found or upload the image. Google will show you if the image is anywhere else online.

If the correct name and photo match up with the results, and if the profiles look filled out and legit, that should be OK.

If you see the photo coming from a stock photo depository or being used on another person’s Facebook profile or website, you should definitely be wary.

2. Search Social Media

Some people will tell you not to Google your online matches, but if they’re being weird, or you suspect they’re lying, then you should definitely look them up. See if everything they’ve told you lines up with what’s on their social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.).

You’ll also want to look for articles, comments, forum posts, mug shots, police reports, or anything else with their name in it, just in case there’s something fishy.

3. Ask for a Video Call or Meet in Person ASAP

In general, with online dating, you want to meet your match in person as soon as possible — or at least exchange numbers so you can text and call each other. Not only is this the best way to tell if there’s chemistry in real life, but it’s also the best way to see if they are who they say they are.

If your online match keeps making up excuses for why they can’t call, text, Skype, or go on a date, then your Spidey senses should be tingling. This is particularly true if this has been going on for longer than a month.

4. Block & Report Suspicious Users

If an online dater makes you uncomfortable even in the slightest, block them and report them to the dating site you’re on right away.

If it’s something very serious, like they’ve threatened you or asked you for money, you should also report them to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

This will help prevent other online daters from having to go through what you did.

MTV’s “Catfish” entertains millions of people like my friend. But we should also remember that these are real people with real feelings and real lives that are being messed with (and sometimes even ruined) by online pretenders.

Hopefully, this article has taught you a few things about catfishing behaviors and schemes, so you can keep yourself safe while on that journey to love.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfish:_The_TV_Show ↩︎
2. https://zunews.com/2024/02/catfishing-more-common-than-you-think ↩︎
3. https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/online-dating-report/ ↩︎
4. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44248-024-00011-5/tables/1 ↩︎
5. https://theconversation.com/what-kinds-of-people-catfish-study-finds-they-have-higher-psychopathy-sadism-and-narcissism-198755 ↩︎
6. https://drmichellebengtson.com/hurting-people-hurt-people/ ↩︎
7. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/01/08/characterizing-peoples-most-recent-online-harassment-experience ↩︎
8. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/02/02/the-experiences-of-u-s-online-daters ↩︎
9. https://www.phactual.com/16-scary-statistics-of-online-dating/ ↩︎
10. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/07/dating-app-tinder-married-relationship ↩︎
11. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-mating-game/201609/the-ugly-truth-about-online-dating ↩︎
12. https://legaljobs.io/blog/catfishing-statistics ↩︎
13. https://medium.com/@ukmarketinghelp/digital-deception-exposed-why-catfishing-is-the-next-cybersecurity-crisis-in-the-post-truth-era-f176a151f7bc ↩︎
14. https://www.techbusinessnews.com.au/news/fake-facebook-accounts-is-an-ongoing-problem/ ↩︎
15. https://www.bbb.org/central-california-inland-empire/news-events/bbb-scam-alerts/2016/01/romance-scams/ ↩︎
16. https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/29/tech/catfishing-explained-what-to-do-as-equals-intl-cmd ↩︎
17. https://www.newsweek.com/dating-experts-most-common-lies-dating-apps-1781178 ↩︎
18. https://www.darkreading.com/cyber-risk/how-to-spot-a-fake-facebook-profile ↩︎
19. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/data-visualizations/data-spotlight/2023/02/romance-scammers-favorite-lies-exposed ↩︎