Let me dust off the old blog (seven years after my last post) to bring you a hilarious tale of how I was accused of using my own photos to catfish on Reddit.
I have had the unfortunate pleasure of catfishers using my photos and identity to catch victims hundreds of times over the seventeen years my website has been active. Normally, someone contacts me via my email address or social media accounts to alert me about a faker or a catfisher. I then report the catfisher using my photos and/or identity on whatever website they used me on. Eww. That sounds dirty. This used to happen a few times a week when my blog was active, but these days I have someone contacting me maybe once a month to report someone using my photos or identity. You know how it is estimated the average person spends five years waiting in lines and queues in their lifetime, I wonder how long I will spend replying, reporting, threatening legal action, etc catfishers who use my photos?
Recently I was returning to Perth from a holiday in Bali. As I was about to board the plane I jumped on the wifi to soak up some sweet delicious data before boarding a flying metal machine and staring at the heat cream adverts in Balinese on the overhead compartments for hours, wondering exactly what the cream is meant to heat and why the girl in the advert was smiling in a sly manner. My money is on boobs. I checked all the usual suspects; Instacrack, Facepalmbook, YouTubbin and of course my beloved, Reddit. I noticed a direct message, which was new, no one ever contacts me on Reddit. I rarely post something of substance. I mainly lurk, upvote dog pics or gaming-related posts and make sarcastic comments. I was surprised to see some random wanting to message me. Maybe they want to send me a photo of their dog because said dog is so cute? Maybe they knew the worlds best cookie recipe to eat while gaming?
I opened the direct message in anticipation and was greeted with the following exchange…
Kitta.net 