POF : I’ve been catfished?? I’d appreciate some feedback – thanks.
First off I’m not a gullible sort, consider myself quite savvy and intelligent. Got talking to a ‘guy’ who had an Intriguing profile write up, (I contacted him) and on talking further with him, he had an incredible story, so much I wasn’t sure whether to believe him. I managed to find ‘him’ & his story on the internet despite him not telling me exactly who he was. He seemed to be clever, articulate and spent hours telling me about what happened to him, (via WhatsApp at this stage) answering my questions as soon as I asked so no long pauses between. He did not come across as creepy, or se xu al in any way, and seemed genuinely interested. He didn’t ask me for any overly personal details and I was very vague about what info I told him about myself, all he knows is my first name, job title and the county I live in. I don’t have pics up on my profile, so he asked for one which I sent and he was very complimentary, without being smutty in any way. He sent me a pic, he wasn’t dashingly attractive so I wouldn’t have been interested in a relationship but I was intrigued by his story. Anyway after hours of texting, we said good night and said we would speak again. I didn’t make a point of contacting him again as I was a bit unsure of him. But when I logged on I could see was online. When I logged on to my profile 2 days later I find that he’s blocked me, but my messages to him are still there in my sent items. ‘His’ profile has now turned into a female, with all features/username etc. Changed to woman seeking a male … I reported it to pof. But what I don’t understand is why would someone do this. He seemingly wanted nothing, I could understand it more if he had been trying to get money from me or even if he was some sort of creep that would want to know exactly where I lived/worked etc. I just don’t understand what he could have gained from this? The story he told me was factual as it hit the news years ago (it would have been quite a high profile story though I had not heard of it before, and the person he claimed to be was real). I’ve not been on pof long, though I’ve found very quickly it can be a murky place, and so I have my wits about me in that I give very little away until I’m sure of someone. If I’m honest, this along with a couple of others has left me feeling a bit paranoid/vulnerable and even a bit embarrassed at being taken in to a small degree. The other two, I found quickly wanted cash, hook ups which as soon as I realised this I stopped contact. This last one though just talked for hours but without anything to gain from it?
By. meg147
The story was probably lifted from the internet.
He was probably going for a medium length con.
If you had been less cautious you would have bitten and been reeled in.
They are many generic scams. But also many non generic scams.
Even motivation for scamming can be diverse.
I had a cousin long scamming women for shits and giggles.
And I have seen both men and women pulling scams.
Update: the sent messages have now disappeared from my sent box. They were still there earlier, hence I had the opportunity to report the profile to pof. Also I stated that I had blocked his number on WhatsApp, at that time he had not blocked mine but I think he has since, as his last online details were showing up but they aren’t now.
Hi Its fine, i appreciate your comments, I stated in another post maybe I am more naive than I thought! I’ve went over the conversation we had (all text) and I know I gave nothing away that he could identify me with. He does not know the town I live or work in, or the company I work for. I suppose it would sound strange that we texted for hours but isn’t that what people on pof do? Granted, I don’t think I’ve held a conversation for that long with anyone else in one go, but his story had me intrigued and I’m nosey/curious hence my many questions to him to work out if he was genuine. At the end I still wasn’t sure, but politely ended it and did not contact him again despite agreeing to speak over the weekend. It was just today I saw his profile changed to that of a woman which also has me confused, I didn’t think those settings could be changed.
If he blocked you then you would not be able to see the messages you sent him. When someone blocks you on pof all the messages disappear in both the recieved and sent folders. His account could of been hacked you never know.
Did you try to message him and get the message that says you have been blocked please contact another user?
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I had a guy once who was good and he tried to catfish me but I called him out on it right after we exchanged numbers. I had watched the show catfish and something didn’t seem right. He finally just up and stopped talking to me after I called him out when he tried to text me a photo but sent it as a group text. Turns out he wasn’t who he said he was and he didn’t like that he was figured out so he stopped talking to me
Hi thanks for reply. My messages to him are definitely still there, someone else blocked me (for no reason other than they weren’t interested I assumed – I only sent one message!) and my message to that guy was still in sent but not inbox. The only messages that disappeared were those in my inbox not my sent ones. Hence I know his profile has changed to that of a female (I only noticed it by chance, as I thought it odd a woman in my sent items??). I wouldn’t have thought you’d be able to change that sort of detail once an account has been set up. But yes I hit the message icon to see if I was blocked and got the notification telling me so. I still have his number in WhatsApp (well I’ve blocked that now) but I didn’t want to text as it’s just creeped me out and I’d rather have nothing more to do with it, but I’m just confused as to what he could have gained from it.