Online dating can be a great way to meet someone — almost all of us know a friend who spent a while talking with their romantic partner on the Internet before meeting them.
But for all the success stories, there are also the nightmares. And we don't mean the situations where the person looks a bit different in person than in their profile picture.
We mean the British woman who pretended to be a man online so she could convince her female friend to have blindfolded sex with her, or the former Notre Dame football player who thought his online girlfriend had died only to learn that she never existed.
The practice of seducing someone using a fake online persona is called "catfishing," and it's shockingly common.
Lifehacker has some helpful tips to avoid getting scammed. Try Googling their name if they have other social media accounts, and be wary if the photos on their profiles are mostly modelling-type shots. You should also be on guard if they frequently contact you asking for help, or declare their love soon after making contact.
But the victims in the video above did not do their due diligence — that, or the scammers were just very professional.
You can check out 10 crazy catfishing stories in the video above.
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