Catfished: She Wanted to Leave Her Boyfriend for a Fantasy @CatfishedOnline

Watch on YouTube · 2024-11-09 · 23 min

0:00 Hi everybody, a lot of you liked my review of the guy getting catfished a few months ago, which is why today I'm going to do another one like that, except that this one is about a woman getting catfished by a guy. We'll see what the difference is.

[video] 0:16 This woman wants to know the truth about her internet boyfriend. He's very, very good-looking, man. Almost like a model.

0:22 Okay. That's it then. It should already be over right there. It's the biggest red flag.

[video] 0:30 He's sweet and caring. He said all his sweet words to me. He was handsome, accomplished, and loved animals. He's a vet.

0:38 They are always handsome. That's how they get you, with their looks. Except, of course, that it's not actually them, but the people behind it know exactly what they are doing.

[video] 0:49 Oh my god, man. Oh my god.

1:19 How can you believe that? I get that you want to believe that, I get it.

1:25 The belief is so strong that it just overtakes reality.

1:48 The people behind it, they don't care if you lose your money, if you leave your boyfriend for them.

[video] 1:54 And like, could help stop someone from being scammed. Let's get into it. Always the same of course, because that's how you get most of the money out of somebody.

2:23 You've got to understand that for a lot of people, it's a dream to be together with somebody who's beautiful or handsome, which is why they would do just about anything just to keep this pretty much delusion alive. And then, of course, these guys behind it know it. Usually it's guys, sometimes also girls. And they will, of course, tell you that they want to fly to you. And then you buy the plane ticket. Usually, it's the biggest amount of money that you can get out of somebody. They come up with some stupid amounts, such as needing $2,000 for it. But then again, some people spend $100,000 just wanting to keep this delusion alive.

[video] 3:08 Yeah, she says the numbers... Oh, 234 area code. And so she thinks he's from Nigeria based off of the country code. Yeah, that's Nigeria. I would like it if you guys could reach out to me. Thank you, Virginia.

3:24 Well, come on. She even had the country code of the number. That's it. It's already over. What do you still need?

[video] 3:33 Hi, my name is Virginia. I am 46 years old. I live in Canada. Well, I like to play video games. Go online, of course. I do some adult coloring. Pencil crayons, markers, relaxing. I work in healthcare, working with seniors. It's hard, emotionally and physically. It does give me a form of satisfaction to make them happy, and I love it. Virginia didn't sign up for a dating site to meet this man she reached out to us about.

3:55 This guy got in contact through her ins- It's just like the last video. They don't fit together in this dimension. It's basically impossible for this to happen.

[video] 4:08 Ugh. I reached out to Sosa Catfish because when I saw your stories online, I knew you guys would help me. His name is Alex Richard. I met him on Instagram. We started talking and then he added me as a friend right away. So then we started chatting through the messenger and then we follow each other over on TikTok. He's in his 40s, dark hair. He had a beard. He has dark brown eyes. He's tall, well-built. So my friends...

4:34 Tall, good looking. What else do you need? Perfect.

[video] 4:37 I think he's really good looking. Almost like a model. He's very, very good looking.

4:41 Yeah. It's done on purpose.

[video] 4:45 Virginia was excited to see this handsome man interested in her.

4:49 Why would he message you?

[video] 4:53 The two hit it off right away and began to get to know each other more. We both love animals. He's a vet veterinarian. He holds a lot of animals like dogs and cats. He says he's a surgeon. He's all over TikTok with it. He told me he's from Germany. He's very good at wording things. Very pleasant, very polite to me. And he was interested in me.

5:10 Maybe he's from Germany and he just works in Nigeria. It's possible.

[video] 5:15 Yes, and by charming you mean good looking.

[video] 5:28 The first time he told me he loved me was when I told him that my relationship was going to end. He said, oh, great, I love you, baby. I want to have a relationship. He's passionate, caring towards me. He would always text me, good morning, baby, good evening, baby. We did that for a while. Are you home from work? Have you eaten yet today? I love you. I want to come meet you in Canada. You're beautiful. I felt good. Like this good looking guy wants to date me. I was in love with him. Yes. And I was very calm.

5:54 Yes, exactly. As I said in the last video, you as a human, seeing as there is no internet in nature, no photos and videos, actually really fall in love with somebody because you fall in love with the looks. And falling in love really just means that you're attracted to somebody and you want to reproduce with them. Of course she fell in love with him. How could she not? It's a delusional kind of love. It's not real, obviously, but it happens.

[video] 6:21 After a few weeks of chatting, Virginia had fallen head over heels for Alex. She would do anything to make this man happy. This is when the request for money kicked in. First time he asked me for money, I remember this clearly. He was trying to ask me for cards. Can I get some Apple cards? Okay, well, there's a lot of gift cards that I did. He was saying he was low.

6:36 That's it? You should be out. I'm low on food. How? It makes zero sense.

[video] 6:43 On food. It's like his phone. I'm afraid I'm going to lose connection with you. You're sending me over money.

6:49 Yeah, exactly. It's perfect. It really works when you're naive like that.

[video] 6:56 He was in the hospital at one point for two weeks, then he needed medication. He didn't give any Pacific, he just said he was in the hospital. I started doing $100 after cards, $200 after cards. Scratch the code on the back of the card and give it to him. Virginia would send gift cards to Alex daily to fulfill whatever requests he had. Her money was running dry, but Alex's problems kept popping up by the day. She went through great lengths to send these gift cards, especially when he claimed he wanted to visit her in person. I don't drive, so I walked in the middle of all of last year, and our winters are terrible, and I would go to each store. As a matter of fact, when I had COVID last year, he made me go to the store when I had COVID. He said, you can't put on a mask. Well, guess what I did? I did go. I was very forceful on that. One week, I went almost every day. I tallied it up, and the total amount that I have of all my cards are 3,000, maybe a little bit more. So it was last year, before Christmas, when he wanted to meet me in Canada, and I had to pay for his plane ticket, which was going to be $11,900. I sent $1,000 through wire transfer for his plane ticket.

7:52 11,000 for a plane ticket? What kind of a sum is that? I get that the Canadian dollar doesn't have that much worth compared to the US dollar, but still 11,000, that's like 7-8 US dollars, 7-8,000.

[video] 8:12 He wanted to come for my birthday, which was this month, which never happened. He was planning to come to Christmas last year to meet me. That never happened. But if he were to come now, I'd still want to meet him. Virginia has grown suspicious of Alex, especially after he promised to visit her, but never followed through. Too many things just weren't adding up. Later on, he wouldn't respond to my answers through texting. And then he'll come back on, oh, baby, I'm sorry I was busy. But can I ask you a favor? I said, sure. And then it'd be like another hour later. Can you go out and get me a card?

8:41 A lot of the... Oh my god. They're so busy scamming people, they just get back to some of them. Oh, hey baby, what's up? I love you. Can you get me a card?

[video] 8:52 Video calls that I got from him, I couldn't see his face. He would leave the screen black, so I wouldn't see him. I had one really weird one that he was having surgery. I turned the camera around, his mouth was like, it wasn't right at all.

[video] 9:07 I asked him for my money back and he said he will. And then he was doing excuses like, but I got to access my bank account. You got to go get me an Apple card. I did tell him.

9:17 Roofless.

[video] 9:18 I said to him, you don't need a card to access your account. Come on. I did text him that.

9:25 How does that even make sense at all? I need an Apple gift card to access my bank account.

[video] 9:33 He had enough money to pay his own bills. He's a vet.

9:36 But then it turned... Yeah, but you sent him money the whole time. It already didn't make any sense, man.

[video] 9:42 ...when I stopped giving him money and cards, and he made me so anxious when he started asking me for more cards and money. I'm hoping he would be real. Actually, yes. If he turned out to be real and were to come today, I'd be very excited and happy, and I'd want to meet him. I think about him all the time, a lot, and then I reach out to him, and he's not responding to me right now. He hasn't been online all day today. But when I go through his videos on TikTok, I feel that he's real. I told a few of my friends, they're telling me it's fake. You need to move on. It's not real. I've actually gone to the police three times. They've told me the same thing. But in my head, I feel like it's real. And I just want some answers.

10:17 It's not that you necessarily feel that it's real. You just want it to be real. There's a difference.

[video] 10:23 I was blown away when I heard that Virginia actually has a significant other. The online relationship has affected my real relationship, because I am kind of Yeah, it's good that the face is blurred out.

10:38 Let's not embarrass the guy, but we can already see it. They are a looks match. I don't need to see his face. I can see his gut, and it's just clear. Yeah. They should be together.

[video] 10:59 in a relationship right now because I think my real life relationship is falling apart. To begin their investigation, they requested screenshots of the wire transfers that she sent to Alex for his plane tickets. They think it went through crypto, specifically Ethereum. They said that they can help.

11:15 Ethereum is quick, fast money.

[video] 11:18 How many episodes of our YouTube channel have you watched so far? Almost all of them. Really? Every single one. Wow. And you're still wondering if this guy's real? I want to know if he's real or not, and then I'll move on. I just want to know where my money went. How much did you send via transfer total? 1,200 total. I'm going to show you guys all these gift cards that I've saved. Wow. That's a lot of gift cards. $3,000 in total. Is that all of them there? That's all of them. There's no way you only sent $3,000. Oh my gosh. That's a lot of... That's a lot more than $3,000. Where'd all that money come from? Whenever I got paid, I would send it over. Are you tired of this? I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I'm emotionally exhausted. So why were you sending that amount of gift cards? I had a lot of stories from him, like different stories from him. And he was going to come to Canada and meet me. So that was a little over $1,000. He was hungry. He needed groceries. And some of them didn't even work apparently. That's what he told me. Every time he asked you for a card, you got him a card. I got him a card.

12:17 That's also a good one. Some of them didn't work. Send me another one.

[video] 12:21 Up until like May is when I stopped. What do you think you're going to hear from us today? To find out if he's real or not is what I'm hoping. But what do you think our answer is going to be? Not sure. I'm confused. What are you most confused about? When I go over to his TikToks and I see a lot of his videos, then I think he's real in my head. But then when I'm doing video calls with him...

12:38 Imagine they would say, he is real.

[video] 12:41 What? Yes, yes.

12:43 Just a prank.

[video] 12:45 Or talking to him on the phone. Sometimes he'll have different voices with different numbers. So that's where I'm confused. You think you're talking to the person in the TikToks? Yeah, sometimes. Brianne and the search team, they have pulled everything that you're looking for. All the answers are here today. We're gonna go through everything and you make a decision on if you wanna continue to keep communicating with this person, okay? Okay. Are you ready? Yes, I'm ready. I wanna talk to you about the phone numbers. I specifically looked at the phone numbers that are in the WhatsApp. The plus 49 number, we ran a phone search on that number and we were able to confirm that this is indeed a wireless phone number and it is linked back to Berlin, Germany. The other phone number, the plus 234 number, we were able to confirm that this is also a wireless phone number, but it is linked to Nigeria. Do you think it's a little strange that he's contacting you on multiple numbers? Yes. We created an IP tracker. We made it look like a legitimate gift card, remember? And you sent it, and he clicked on it. He clicked on it four times, and he's from Lagos, Nigeria. That has been confirmed.

13:42 They don't even use a VPN or anything. Why would they if nothing is being done to them in Nigeria? If they can just keep doing it, they don't even care if you know where they live or whatever provider they use. It's kind of funny.

[video] 14:00 I feel hurt and sad. My heart's racing. The search team was also able to figure out who this person was in these images that you've been getting from this person that's claiming to go by Alex. So we ran all of his images through our reverse image search and we were able to confirm his true identity. The real man in the image, his name is Manu. Manu . He really is a veterinarian, but from Spain.

14:25 Well, yeah, he talked Spanish in the videos.

[video] 14:31 What's going on in your head right now? I'm upset.

[video] 14:40 because I thought that was his real name.

[video] 14:45 You were sent all of this man's images that are on his Instagram page. Here are several pictures of Manu. Have you seen any of these? Yes, I've seen them all. This guy doesn't know you. He's got his own life. You know, he's got his own Instagram profile. You can see that he's a well-known person. He has over 100,000 followers on Instagram. Every time he told you that the code didn't work and he didn't receive the funds, he was lying to you.

[video] 15:12 Okay. He's been lying to you about his name. He stole someone else's pictures. He's been lying to you every time he tells you that the gift card code didn't work and then you would have to send him a new gift card. He's been lying to you this whole entire time. And saying he was going to come to Canada and meet me. He's not coming to Canada. He posts on his social media all the time. He's not going to Canada. Manu doesn't know who Virginia is. He's never spoken to you. He's never seen you. He has no clue who you are. My heart's racing.

15:37 The very interesting thing about these cases or any of these cases If she would actually get to talk to the real guy, or not even talk, just see him, even though he talks Spanish, let's just say that they don't understand each other whatsoever, he doesn't speak English, she would still be just as in love with this guy. And that's because, as I said, you fall in love with the looks, she is very attracted to him, and really that's all that she cares about is this guy. She doesn't actually care about what messages the guy from Nigeria sent her, Anything. It doesn't matter. Because all that matters are the looks and that's what she fell in love with. And she would do anything to be together with this guy. No matter if he's from Canada, Germany, Spain. It's irrelevant.

[video] 16:26 Virginia, I understand that you felt let down, but this is a person that you've put in between you and your boyfriend. I feel stupid for that too. And I apologize to him huge.

16:35 Well, it's good because you clearly don't like your boyfriend. He should not be suffering together with you. It's just already done. It would be absolutely stupid for them to try to work it out now. ...last night.

[video] 16:51 You also mentioned, though, that if this were a real relationship, that this person ended up being real, that you would leave your boyfriend for him.

17:00 I would have if it... Obviously. Can you blame her?

[video] 17:04 It was real, and I thought we ended it a long time ago, my boyfriend and I, actually. We had a huge fight, and he said, it's over, and that's when I started this. It just came off like that you're using your boyfriend as a backup. Did you tell him what you told us, that if this was real, you were going to leave him?

17:17 Obviously, she would not tell him that because she's using him.

[video] 17:21 I haven't told him, no. I think you should know. I'll tell him. I'll tell him tonight when he comes home. Throughout the duration of me and you speaking and working on this case together, I've told you personally to block this guy. The reason why I think I unblocked him a lot of times and other people have told me to block him as well, thinking I'm going to get my money back is what's going on in my head. I thought it was a scam at the later.

17:41 Sure, yeah. Totally makes sense for a scammer to give you your money back because they care about you.

[video] 17:50 And that's when I wanted to find out where my money was going. That's why I did the best refund. So you reached out to them? Yeah. Looking to figure out where your funds had gone? Yes, and to try to get some of it back. She did a trace of it, of my money, and she said it went to crypto. How did you find out about this website? I looked it up. So you reached out to them? Yeah. Did you share any personal information, bank details? No, nothing but first and last name. Did you pay them to do this for you? No. I'm just trying to get to the point where somebody would know that the cash is being converted to crypto. Like how would someone be able to find that? I don't know. She traced it and then she sent me an email and it was all about where my money was going. But Amelia isn't claiming to be from bestrefund.com. She's claiming to be from Atlanta Venture Fund. I didn't know that. I find that very strange. That is strange. Usually when you're representing a company, the email is going to mimic the company name. Yeah, I find that strange too. I don't know why I said that. She was bugging me and then I just blocked it. What was she bugging you about? Actually to pay her.

[video] 18:49 Yeah, you just have to be careful online looking for someone to help you recover funds, especially when you've wired funds or you've sent funds through gift card. Once you've sent it, it's gone. I would recommend not reaching out to them after this and not exploring where the funds went because you've already sent it through wire transfer and crypto. Okay. That was one of the reasons why you reached out to us. You wanted to know where your money went and went to Lagos, Nigeria. I'm just going to be extremely honest with you. You will most likely never see that money again.

[video] 19:19 I almost feel like it's more than just the money, though, because after looking at the chats, it seems like there's this desperation from you to maintain the connection with him. He just messaged me not too long ago when we were talking and I haven't responded. Yeah, he said he finally wants to pay you back the money and he's asking you if you have Cash App or Coinbase. I mean, it's not even a love relationship. He might say, hi, how are you here and there, that he is going to continue to ask you for money. Even after you block him, he will try to find ways to connect with you again and you have to be persistent and keep blocking him. Yeah, I'm not going to associate with him anymore. And I'm pretty broke from all of it too. What's the future look like for you? What do you plan to do with Alex, your boyfriend? I'm no longer going to talk to Alex. I'm going to completely block him off after this. I'm probably going to get rid of the WhatsApp app altogether and focus on my boyfriend and our relationship. Well, Virginia, we we wish you the best. You have a lot of work to do with blocking him and also with your boyfriend. I hope you end up moving on and move past all of this and you're able to make better decisions moving forward. But we thank you for reaching out to us.

[video] 20:18 We'll talk to you soon, OK? OK, thank you, guys. I appreciate all your help. Thank you so much. I feel at peace now with all this. Thank you. We'll check in on you, OK? OK. All right. All right. Bye. Bye.

20:31 Our team attempted to contact several individuals who claimed to be employees...

20:52 I think that she didn't tell her boyfriend about it realistically. She doesn't seem very honest. Alright, another one. There's so many of them and these videos have hundreds of thousands of views. And she even watched all of the videos. Maybe... during the whole thing, maybe not before. If before, then it's even worse. But then again, the delusion is so strong, they really want to believe that this handsome guy, or in the other case, this pretty girl, she wasn't that pretty, but the guy was obviously into the rest of her body, if you remember. Two specific things, obviously. They just really want to believe that they are attracted to them. That also kind of elevates you because you believe that you're good enough for them. You are just as attractive or close to that. That's why they find you attractive.

21:52 That's really the main thing that causes this delusion. Wanting to be loved by somebody so attractive. As I said, love means attraction, reproduction. Not sure how old she was. Maybe she looked older than she actually is.

22:11 It's just your hormones. It's biochemistry. It's human nature. It's just that, as I said, There's no internet in nature, obviously no videos, photos. You meet somebody, you're with them or you're not, whatever happens. It's of course different in nature. I'm not gonna talk about that on YouTube. My point is simply that you fall in love with the images and the videos, whereas in nature you would have this human in front of you and then it would happen or it would not, whatever would happen. It's just that today you don't know. if they are real, if they are not but still you see this human and you really fall in love with them of course Your body doesn't differentiate between reality or the internet. You simply, with your senses, see this human being. You find them attractive, and that's all that matters to you.

23:09 And then, of course, how can you possibly snap out of it? If, to your senses, they are real, then you maybe also hear their voice, And then, of course, you want it to be real so much that it becomes even more real. The delusion becomes even stronger. That's why you could see it's so hard for them to step out of it and actually realize that it may not be true. It's really messed up. Thanks for watching, guys.