Catfish Background Check

Cindy Ellis - August 9, 2024

The world of online dating continues to be one of the most popular ways that people are meeting each other.

Whether it’s for a date or a casual fling, the research is clear; more people than ever are using platforms like Tinder, Bumble, and Facebook Dating to meet new people. In fact, data from Pew Research has found that nearly one-third of all adults have used a dating platform, with 30% of that group having interactions with one in the past year.

While meeting people online is convenient, simple, and less stressful than meeting people in person, it’s important to be careful. Unfortunately, research also shows that more bot accounts, catfish, and even blackmailers than ever before are using dating platforms to scam or steal from others.

The good news is that you can stay safe online by running a catfish background check on anyone you meet. Plus, doing so is easy when you work with reputable people search platforms like Information.com.

Read on to learn more.

What Is a Catfish?

Before we dive into running a catfish background check, it’s important to learn more about what a catfish is – and we’re not talking about the fish. In the world of online dating, a catfish is someone who is pretending to be someone else.

Typically, catfish will use pictures of someone else to meet and connect with new people. Some catfish will do so to take money from others or discover if their spouse is cheating, while others may have low self esteem.

Regardless of the reason for being a catfish, knowing you’re speaking with one is important. Not only can it prevent you from wasting your time, but it can also prevent you from losing money or being blackmailed.

How to Spot a Catfish

Before running a catfish background check, it’s a good idea to look for signs that someone is a catfish. These signs can help you determine if it’s worth it to conduct a background check on someone.

The good news is that many catfish can be found by digging slightly deeper into their profiles. If you notice any of the signs we cover in detail below, it’s time to start running a catfish background check.

Pretending to Be Someone Famous

One of the biggest red flags that someone is a catfish is that they might be pretending to be famous. For example, if Brad Pitt slides into your Instagram direct messages, there’s a good chance something is wrong – unless you guys are really good friends.

While it might have the pictures of a famous person and use their same name, you may find some subtle discrepancies with their account. For example, the name might have an extra letter or there may be numbers attached to the end of the name.

Unfortunately, these are all red flags that someone is trying to catfish you.

Explicit Images

One of the best warning signs that someone is a catfish is their profile. If images seem more scandalous than what you usually find on social media or dating platforms, the person might be a catfish.

This is even more true if they slide into your messages or match with you, continue to talk to you, and give you random praise. While this may seem enticing at first, it’s a red flag that something is off, especially if you haven’t spoken before.

Another sign of a catfish may be someone trying to send you images or someone asking you to send them these images. This can be the early stage of blackmail.

Inconsistent Information

When you’re building a relationship with a catfish over a long period their story can become more convincing. However, if you poke holes at their disguise, you may find some cracks. Look for subtle inconsistencies when you speak with them to determine if you’re speaking with a catfish.

You can also try to read them, especially if you’ve spoken on the phone. If they hesitate when you ask them questions about friends, family members, or things they should know, you can catch them in a lie and reveal them as a catfish.

3 Ways to Run a Catfish Background Check

Running a catfish background check isn’t like running a more traditional background check. In fact, you may have to use some unconventional tools to find what you’re looking for. This is because you can’t exactly ask a catfish for fingerprints or send them somewhere to participate in a background check.

Instead, you’ll have to get creative. A great example is leveraging social media. You can use multiple platforms to check someone’s identity and learn more about them.

That said, plenty of tools are available to help you find everything you need to know in one place, which is where Information.com comes into play. Learn more about how to run a catfish background check below.

1. Information.com

If you want to run a catfish background check on someone the best tool you can use is our people search tool. We always recommend starting with our people search tool because it can help you find anything that’s a public record. With someone’s name, address, or even just their phone number, you can find anything that is publicly available.

Additionally, getting started is a breeze. All you have to do is enter their information into our search tool and let us do the rest. We may ask you some additional questions to narrow the search results, but by the end of the search we’ll compile a full report for you.

Within this report, you can verify someone’s identity and find important information including:

• Sex offender status
• Address
• Phone numbers
• Criminal records
• Email address
• Relatives
• Full name
• Marriage records
• Divorce records
• Social media accounts
• Dating platforms

At the end of the day, we can help you find any relevant information you need to know about the people you’re dating. This is important to run a catfish background check, but also to keep you safe if you’re meeting someone new.

2. Social Media

Social media is another great way to do a catfish background check. If you have some information from the person who you think is a catfish, you can start to search for them on platforms like Instagram, X (formally Twitter), and Facebook. In fact, you can even use Snapchat and other similar social media platforms.

To run a catfish background check this way you’ll need to have some basic information about them. We recommend learning more about them from the dating sites or social media platforms you connect with them on. If you want to be even more thorough, you can check out who they’re friends with or who they follow on social media to learn more.

While social media is effective, it only reveals surface-level information. Plus, if someone has initially connected with you on social media, there’s a good chance that they’ve taken the time to disguise their profile. Therefore, we always recommend digging deeper with a reliable people search tool like Information.com.

3. Google Search

Google is one of the biggest search engines in the world and contains just about anything you could want to know about someone. When you run a search with Google you can enter the name, username, or any other information you have available about the catfish to run a catfish background check on them.

If you don’t find anything about them, that’s not a good sign. However, Google is a massive search engine, so it might be possible that information about them is too deep within the search results for you to find it.

In these cases, we recommend running an advanced search and adding more information you know about them. Doing so can help you narrow the search results.

That said, if you can’t find them on Google your search shouldn’t stop there. Make sure you also run their information through Information.com to be sure.

Stay Safe With a Catfish Background Check Today

Catfish background checks are important if you want to stay safe online. Unfortunately, millions of catfish are active around the world, and you may run into one if you use social media platforms or dating websites.

The good news is that plenty of tools are available to help you uncover the true identity of someone you’re speaking to online. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to run one of these searches on someone, even if you don’t believe they’re a catfish. For example, tools like Information.com can help you find out if someone is married.

At the end of the day, it’s better to remain protected when you’re online.