HOOKED ON ‘CATFISH’
Schulman & Crawford back, say some are born suckers
“Catfish” is back and that’s the whole truth.
The investigative MTV show in which Nev Schulman and Kamie Crawford suss out the truth behind people’s online identities and relationships is back Tuesday — along with plenty of red flags.
Merriam-Webster even added a new definition for “catfish” after the show’s success: a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes.
“I think that, you know, anyone can be a victim of catfishing,” Crawford, 28, told the Daily News on a conference call with Schulman. “And I think now more than ever, people are turning to dating apps and talking to people online that they may not have entertained before, but because of the pandemic, [can’t] necessarily go out and meet someone out at a club or a bar.”
“What does surprise me is the way that people will make excuses for things that are so blatantly obvious,” she said.
Schulman, whose intricate catfishing experience was the subject of the 2010 documentary “Catfish” — the show premiered two years later — believes it takes a certain kind of person, or “hopeful,” as the hosts call them, to fall prey.
“I think that people who are people who are going to get catfished, are gonna get catfished no matter what,” Schulman, 36, told The News.
“Look I’m one of them, so I have no shame about it,” he continued. “And you can call them dreamers, you can call them naïve, you can call them gullible, maybe just people who assume the best in each other . ... When you wanna believe something and when you’re looking for some sort of distraction or positive, you know, influence in your life, and you think you find it, you don’t want to give it up.”
Because of the pandemic, “Catfish” has, like most everything else, taken on a largely remote format. But the duo, Crawford says, is ready to get back on the road.
“Part of the fun for us is being able to travel and meet people where they’re at,” she said, noting the isolation of quarantine makes it easier to “empathize and understand” why people might find themselves in these situations.
“But when you actually go to some of these towns where, you know, people don’t get to meet anyone that they haven’t known since kindergarten and there’s only one stoplight and the best food to get is KFC nearby, it’s a lot easier to understand why people fall into these traps and even end up catfishing,” Crawford said.
Crawford and Schulman have some advice for those inclined to believe a liar.
“It’s 2021,” said Crawford. “There is not a person that I can think of, that I have ever seen, that does not have a phone with video chatting capabilities. ... And if they don’t have it, they know someone who has it. And I just feel like at the end of the day, if someone wants to, they will.”
“I would say if you get a phone call from me, that’s probably a good indication that it’s not gonna work out,” advised Schulman.