#282: Don’t Take The Bait.

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Time for a crash course on catfishing.

You, an innocent citizen of the internet, gallivant across the Internet going about your business. One day, you receive an innocuous message from someone you don’t know. Something like “Hi dear, how was your day?” or “Hey. How have you been?”.

Fast forward a bit and you’ve been sucked into online companionship, sent a trove of x-rated photos and videos, and swindled out of thousands of dollars.

Then, at some point, you realize you’ve been catfished.

The people behind the catfishing are online predators motivated by a variety of goals. Some catfish for money, using charm and manipulation to scam their victims out of money. Others catfish for attention, using a false identity to boost their own self-worth or gain popularity by using somebody else’s photos to create a fake profile.

In the case of Love, Janessa its a bit more twisted than your standard catfishing playbook. The face used with every catfishing profile (and the namesake of this podcast) is an adult entertainment star and believed to be the person most impersonated online.

Throughout the course of 8 riveting episodes, journalist Hannah Ajala investigates and seeks the answer to the question on every catfishing victim’s mind: who is behind the scam?

The investigation takes us from the UK to Italy, West Africa, the United States and Canada. We know these scammers use Janessa’s image to steal the hearts of their victims and take their money, but how do the catfishers get away with it? To what extents are they going as the prey on all their victims?

Ajala investigates how and why Janessa’s images have been misused to con people out of so much money – sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars – and speaks to victims who have fallen for the grift, as well as individuals who run romance scams for a living.

Buckle up, because there’s no way you’re not getting reeled in with Love, Janessa.

Have a listen and share what you think.

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