Over the past few weeks, several catfishing scandals have rocked France and Ireland. One involved a French woman losing more than €800,000 to a fake Brad Pitt she thought she was in a relationship with; the other was a large catfishing operation targeting Irish elite sportsmen using pictures of British influencers.

Catfishing is the act of creating a fake online persona to deceive people on dating apps or social media platforms. It often relies on pictures and private information stolen from other accounts. And it's not as rare as you might think: in the UK, a survey found that over 20% of adults had fallen for a catfish.

This online deception is often perceived as trivial, but it can cause real emotional trauma. Victims of catfishing often develop anxiety, symptoms of depression, and PTSD, along with difficulty to trust people and build new relationships – sometimes even suicidal thoughts. Yet, in most European jurisdictions, online deception does not constitute a crime in itself.

Let's say you meet someone online and eventually build a relationship with them. A few weeks or months later, you realise you were being catfished. You might have grounds to prosecute if you sent them money or were subject to coercive control or harassment – that all depends on the existing laws in your country.

For example, in 2020 a woman in the UK sued her nearly decade-long catfisher for harassment, misuse of private information, and breach of data protection. It's considered the first successful civil claim for catfishing in the country, even though there were no criminal consequences for the perpetrator.

Getting retribution for catfishing is virtually impossible. ”Criminalising catfishing rather than just the intent behind (money, bullying, sex, ...) would help to increase sentencing as well as give a sense of justice to victims,” explains Anna Rowe, co-founder of the fraud centre and think-tank LoveSaid and an advocate for better recognition of romance fraud victims. ”It could also allow some form of prosecution for the people who have had their photos stolen.”

Victim-centred legislation implies recognising the emotional damage the deception can cause. There have been minor changes in that direction. In 2022, Denmark was the first European country to explicitly criminalise social media impersonation. A similar law is being discussed in Seanad, the Irish senate.

As catfishing mostly happens online, preventing it falls onto digital platforms, which are often accused of not doing enough to get rid of fake accounts.

Take the example of several European influencers who discovered last summer that their pictures were being used to fuel fake pro-Trump X accounts. One victim reported that she was told an account using her pictures could not be taken down because she lacked proof. Instagram has faced similar accusations.

A good way to weed out fake accounts is user verification. Although the process has become increasingly common for dating apps, social media platforms still have a long way to go. X only requires you to pay a monthly fee to get the famous blue verification tick without actually verifying your identity. On Facebook and Instagram, it's only available for creators and businesses. So, in the meantime, beware of the catfish!