MAJOR Signs of an Online Dating Catfish - Dating in Thailand

Watch out for scams when on dating sites.

A lot of guys want to try their hand at dating in Thailand. So many men go ahead and download mobile dating apps on to their phones, create profiles, and then start browsing the possibilities for love. Some guys end up so successful and move to Thailand. Other guys move their Thai partner to where they are.

Yeah, there are a lot of guys who find love with free dating apps. They find the person who is meant for them, their twin flame. All because they tried their hand at online dating.

But not everyone who signs up for dating sites is going to find love. The top dating apps in the world cannot guarantee success. What they do is that they offer a chance to find love. But the thing is that they extend that opportunity to pretty much everyone. Which means that people who may not want to find love can end up on those dating sites.

As long as there are people, there will be bad actors. There will always be people who will look to take advantage of those whom they deem vulnerable and a lovelorn person on the internet is a prime target for such people.

Catfishing Defined

Catfishing is when a person or persons pretend to be someone that they’re not in order to trick people on the internet. This happens on dating apps a lot. Old men will pretend to be young women or something similar.

Catfishing is one of the most common scams on the internet. It’s not altogether uncommon for people to fall victim to such bad actors if only because of how prevalent they are. If only half a percent of potential victims fall for the scam, that’s still hundreds if not thousands every single day. Many of them are sophisticated enough that they can easily pass as legitimate people. Their motivations can be varied and it’s not always just about money. Some people do it to stalk a specific person without them being aware of their identity. Others do it as a form of harassment, they derive some pleasure over causing distress to another human being. But there are cases where it really is just about the money.

Keep an eye out for red flags.

The major signs

Because of how prevalent catfishing is, there are a number of red flags that a person can look out for when they’re trying to get started with dating in Thailand.

• One of the most common indicators that someone might be dishonest is in their profile picture. There are models on date sites and they do use pictures from their professional catalog, but they are few and far between.
  
  As such, photographs that look too polished and professional can be an indicator of a false profile. If you feel like there may be something sketchy going on with someone’s profile, try performing a reverse image search on their profile picture.


• Another red flag is if someone refuses to meet in real life. Seeing each other is an important part of a relationship and if the woman you’re dating on the internet doesn’t want to see you, then that can be suspicious.
  
  A person can have perfectly fine reasons to not meet an online partner in real life. Maybe they’re happy with the relationship being exclusively digital. Maybe they’re insecure about their appearance or their personality.
  
  Or maybe they’re actually a fifty-year-old man instead of the beautiful woman that they claimed to be.
• Another indicator of dishonesty is if they ask for money or other material goods. Most catfishing scams are done because the perpetrator is looking for material gain. They want to make money. So if your relationship consists of some online flirting before she says she needs some cash or a new phone, then that's a sign that the relationship isn’t as real as you feel
• There’s also their internet presence. Many people will have social media profiles outside of a dating profile because social media is extremely prevalent globally. If they don’t have any kind of digital footprint outside of their dating profile, then that’s not an encouraging sign.
  
  Some people don’t vibe with social media but they still want to find love on the internet, but many scammers will often neglect to flesh out their character before going online to try and hoodwink people into giving them money.

People who don’t have social media profiles can be suspicious.

• A catfish will also want to limit communication. Chatting with someone over FaceTime or Skype or Zoom means having to show your face and someone who’s hiding their identity is going to want to avoid that.
• There are times when you need to trust your gut feeling. Your intuition is based on your brain processing information that you’re not aware you’ve absorbed. If you have a bad feeling about something, then you need to trust your gut.

Protecting yourself

Because of how prevalent catfishing is, there are numerous ways in which you can stop yourself from being a victim to these bad actors.

• One of the most common ways to protect yourself is to avoid sending too much money. A catfish is going to realize that you’re not someone they can get money from and cut their losses and move on to someone else.
• Another way to protect yourself is by using verified dating services, the websites with reputations for being real. Yes, scammers will try to get on these websites, but the robust security protocols these websites employ minimizes the chances of false profiles.

The internet can be a great place. People all over the world have found platonic, familial, and romantic relationships online. But it can also have its drawbacks. Not everyone on it is going to be a good person.

Dating in Thailand can be a wonderful thing. It can lead to the kind of relationship that literally changes lives. But that change may not always be for the better. Sometimes, a guy runs into the kind of people he needs to be avoiding on the internet. But these unscrupulous individuals are neither omnipresent nor omnipotent.