Hi, I‘m Lauren. I just turned 17 and I still live at home with my family. I love social media and posting pictures of me on it. I already got 6000 followers on Instagram, which I‘m really proud of.
फिसलना: 2
This is my best friend Abigail. We‘ve been friends since kindergarden and we‘re attending the same college. She‘ll turn 18 in less than a month.
फिसलना: 3
Oh. This guy just texted me. His message is really nice. Let me check his profile to see what he looks like.
फिसलना: 4
WOOOOOW! He is definitely my type. I have to tell Abigail about him tomorrow.
फिसलना: 5
Guess what! When i checked Instagram yesterday I saw that I received a message from such a cute guy. We‘ve texted for the whole evening.
फिसलना: 6
Lauren, that sounds great. How do you know this guy?
फिसलना: 7
But he just texted me two minutes ago and asked me to meet up with him today in his apartment.
फिसलना: 8
What do you mean by that? We haven‘t met yet.
Lauren, are you out of your mind? You cannot meet up with this stranger in HIS apartment. It is too dangerous. If anything happens nobody would be there to help you.But if you really have to meet up with him do it in a public place!
फिसलना: 9
You‘re totally overreacting. But if it makes you happy I‘ll ask him to meet me in a café.
फिसलना: 10
This is weird. But anyway, I‘m so excited to meet him in person.
फिसलना: 11
He should be here any minute. What will I say to him?Do we have to hug each other?I‘m nervous now.
फिसलना: 12
Uhm… hello. Who are you and how do you know my name???
Hi Lauren.
फिसलना: 13
You might not recognise me but I‘m Marcos. Isn‘t it nice that we finally meet?Should we go somewhere quiet?
NOOO!You are not Marcos. That can‘t be you. Who are you?
फिसलना: 14
HEY! Where do you think you‘re going? Don‘t go! We have such a great connection.
LEAVE ME ALONE!
फिसलना: 16
You were right. I should‘ve listen to you when you said it‘s dangerous. He was so old and ugly. Nothing like the person on the profile. I feel so stupid.
फिसलना: 17
Don‘t feel stupid. This can happen to anyone. I heard about these kind of incidents before. It happens a lot.
फिसलना: 18
What happened to you is called “catfishing“. Catfishing is when someone is posing as someone other then themselves on the internet. Like this old man who pretended to be a teenage boy.
फिसलना: 19
It is often used when the goal is to make romantic connections. These people try to build relationships with their victims and have you tricked to be your friend just to deceive you for their own purposes.
फिसलना: 20
Let me show you some statistics.
फिसलना: 22
But how will I recognise a fake account on istagram? I don‘t want this to ever happen again!
फिसलना: 23
Well normally, a catfish would avoid personal contact and the use of any two-visual contact like Skype or FaceTime. When you decide to break contact because they won‘t meet you, the catfish tries to prevent it by promising you they’ll meet you. However, they will always find excuses why they can‘t meet you.
फिसलना: 24
It‘s a bit weird that he met you so soon but this just shows that it can be different for every “catfish“.But a bit skepticism may protect you next time.
फिसलना: 25
If theres an account that tries to follow you next time check these things first:
फिसलना: 26
First of all: Does the profile seem unnatural? For example it follows a lot of account but barely has followers of their own or their followers are bot account (weird profile pictures, no followers, ect.). You can also check if any of your friends know them or follow them so you know for sure that the person exists. Fake accounts are also often new created accounts and use stolen photos or pictures created by AI. You could put one of their pictures into google search and see if there are other accounts posting the same pictures.
फिसलना: 27
If you ever find yourself in a serious or dangerous situation on social media and you don‘t know how to deal with it. You can find help online, e.g. on Stay Safe Online URL: https://staysafeonline.org/resources/online-safety-privacy-basics/Take care of yourself and don‘t repeat Laurens mistake.
फिसलना: 28
These are the sources I used:James Deeney (17.08.2023): Instagram Accounts Engaging with your Ads, Lunio.ai, URL: How to Stop Fake Instagram Accounts Engaging With Your Ads | Lunio (https://lunio.ai/blog/paid-social/fake-instagram-accounts/) (10th of June 2024) Lea Römer (03.01.2024): Woran erkennst du Fake-Profile, URL: So erkennst Du Fake-Profile (https://www.juuuport.de/infos/news/wie-du-fake-profile-erkennen-kannst) (10th of June 2024) Comic-website by: URL: Kostenlose Storyboarding-Software – Online-Storyboard-Ersteller (https://www.storyboardthat.com/de (10th of June 2024) Created chats by: URL: Zeoob: Terms And Conditions (https://zeoob.com/terms-and-conditions/)(10th of June 2024)