Catfish involves “someone who pretends to be someone they’re not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances,” according to urban dictionary.

Being “catfished” is a common occurrence in today’s online society. MTV has an entire television series helping people who have been “catfished” unmask the face behind the screen.

A very public catfish scandal in the media concerned Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o.

In the Te’o situation, a real person’s photograph was used to create a phony Facebook profile using a fake name. The “catfisher” created an elaborate, fabricated story providing evidence to support it. Te’o was convinced the woman he spoke to over the Internet for a year was real.

A junior who has done this to others said, “During the summer my friend and I were bored and made a Facebook account of a boy whose image we randomly picked. We added girls that we knew and made fun of them through flirting with them, but it got boring when people began to notice that it was a fake profile so we quit and shut it down.”

Such accounts are proving to be more common as others discover they can create fake people with fake backgrounds at the expense of innocent people.

To avoid being taken in by such scams, online romances should include dates on Skype or photos in a reverse google image search. If someone is reluctant to talk on the phone, Skype or meet in person, teens should be wary.

“ I was catfished once. I received a friend request from an attractive boy who I had mutual friends with. I added him and we quickly began to talk as friends but once he refused to Skype or talk to me on the phone, I cut all communications with him. I felt ashamed and stupid so when my friends ask me what happened to him I just lie and said he changed. I learned my lesson the first time and refuse to talk to people I have not met in person,” said a second student.