We've all been there. Talking to this smoking hot girl who hits all the right check boxes but you have this nagging feeling at the back of your head that something isn't right. Maybe the person you're talking is a catfisher. If they then ask you to pay or to click on a link they are a scammer.

So how can you spot one in time before losing valuable time and energy. I'm going to write a few things you can do and try. This is not an all inclusive list and you may not be able to follow all these steps or it's possible none of them apply.

Remember most users are here to have discreet fun. They want something casual. Exaggerated excitement!!!! and desperation to talk to you is not something that is seen in 99% of users. This is Reddit after all, so a real girl who posts a nude or an inviting message posted to millions of readers is being hit upon by at least fifty users in her DM. This does sound to good to be true. A 22F looking to chat with married (blackmailable) and older men (someone who doesn’t mind paying $50 for some peace of mind) you being her sole focus is probably because you are the targeted audience (read a gullible fool) that might end up getting blackmailed for sending her face pics or your Instagram or Facebook or any other public social media account that gives your full name and a list of contact of your friends that they can use to shame you into paying the blackmail amount.

• ⁠Look at the users post history - Where all have they posted? How often are they posting? What type of posts are they? Are they spamming their kik or snapchat id everywhere so people can add them? No real girl who’s not looking to gain some monetary benefit would spam her Snapchat account incessantly.

Post history is a good way to quickly have a "feel" for the user. Keep in mind this does not always work, as throwaway accounts are just as easy to make as it is to delete. But take a look. Was the account created in the past 15 mins and in that time the user has spammed the same post with their handles on a bunch of subreddits? (conversely is the account 3-4 etc years old with zero account posts and comments? It could be a stolen/hacked/bought account) What subreddits are they? If they are certain dedicated kik and snapchat subreddits then ask yourself, is the user really that desperate to talk to someone?

Speaking about post history, have they posted in r/Gonewild or r/Gonemild or any such subs where they are verified? If yes, great - there's a fairly good chance they are real! I say fairly and I will explain why so shortly.

Okay you've taken the plunge and have messaged the user - be it via Reddit PMs, Kik, Snapchat, telepathy, snail mail, telegrams. Can you still stay safe? Yes of course.

So live Kik/snap images, I'm sure you know what it is, maybe you've even asked for them before and have received a picture which must have been taken just a few seconds before. Oh well that must be the user is real right?

NO

This is not true at all and don't believe anyone when they say "but but it'a a live camera pic! How could it be faked?!".

Well I'll tell you how. Modified Kik and Snapchat apps exist. These apps have whatever code there is in the app that allows you to send gallery images as "live camera" images..

• ⁠Email scams - Users that need you to sign up using your email can be safely regarded as scams or email address collectors. There is absolutely no reason for you to "leave your email address" in order to chat.

• ⁠Skype/Camming - "Oh my camera does not work/ it's broken." I think we've all heard this one before right? And then they try and prove they are real by sending some random unverified picture. Dirtyr4r chat exists, you can always use this to cam up with the other user and see if they really are who they say they are.

Another thing of note is the picture quality - does the pic look like it was taken with a professional camera and professional lighting, then most probably the pic is stolen. There’s a very easy way to verify in such scenarios. Reverse image search - something that I use all the time is www.yandex.com/images (first choice) or www.tineye.com. This is a reverse image search done by pixels. So even if the picture is stolen and cropped, it should be be able to find the link to the post.

If the person you've been talking to passed all of this, I say there's a good chance it's legit. If you have some doubts, remember trust your instincts and not your dick.

This was decent enough guide to spotting a catfish. I hope this comes in handy as there seems to be an influx of such posts on here. Please please report such posts and send a modmail with proof of that. Writing a comment on the post does not bring it to our attention. If you’re gonna write a comment, tag me. I know you guys watch the /new queue like hawks so if you can all contribute it'd be great!

This is borrowed from https://www.reddit.com/r/dirtyr4r/s/YUJnP58REr which makes few other great points but I have edited it to make it smaller to read and removed few other points that I felt weren't as relevant here and added a few that people must know.