{"id":14425,"date":"2016-01-08T12:01:01","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T12:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/catfish\/"},"modified":"2016-01-08T12:01:01","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T12:01:01","slug":"catfish","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31636\/catfish","title":{"rendered":"Catfish"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_catfish_mean\">What Does Catfish Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p> Catfish is a term for a situation where a user is impersonating someone else online and\/or in some digital interactions. Issues around catfish illustrate many of the legal and social complications of identity theft, false identities and deceptive digital media practices.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_catfish\">Techopedia Explains Catfish<\/span><\/h2>\n<p> A catfish may take control of another user\u2019s profile, or create a false profile purporting to be that person. In many cases, a catfish acts aggressively toward other users, or acts in a way that tarnishes the other person\u2019s reputation. A catfish may also act deceptively to take advantage of some strategy to acquire the other person\u2019s assets, manipulate friends and family members, or harm that person emotionally. In other cases, catfishing is just a prank. Catfish has become a general term to talk about how it is possible to become an imposter or impersonate someone else on social media or online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Catfish Mean? Catfish is a term for a situation where a user is impersonating someone else online and\/or in some digital interactions. Issues around catfish illustrate many of the legal and social complications of identity theft, false identities and deceptive digital media practices. Techopedia Explains Catfish A catfish may take control of another [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[245],"class_list":["post-14425","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-internet"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Catfish? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Catfish and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Catfish\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Catfish and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31636\/catfish\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31636\/catfish#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31636\/catfish\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Catfish\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-08T12:01:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31636\/catfish\"},\"wordCount\":155,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31636\/catfish#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31636\/catfish\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31636\/catfish\",\"name\":\"What is a Catfish? 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