[logfromblammo]

I have to wonder whether there is an easy technical countermeasure to catfishing, or whether human psychology will always be the insurmountable hurdle here.

It seems like it would be easy to verify that a given message is from a particular internet pseudonym, or to construct a challenge that would be easy for a real person to respond to, but difficult for a catfish. We've had proof of life from kidnappers seeking ransoms before the Internet even existed, after all.

If you ever watched the Catfish movie or the MTV show, you'll notice that the common element is that the victims all have an overwhelming desire for their relationship to be non-fraudulent, to the point where they actively ignore any and all warning signs. Is there something that people with low technical ability can do to verify online counterparties that cannot be affected by their desire for the results to come out in a particular way?

[MarkTee]

Video chat is probably the most effective.

[drivingmissm]

Google image search the user images

[badgod]

PGP.

[baddox]

PGP is essentially useless for verifying the identities of people you've never met who are not well-known.

[dllthomas]

Without a chain of intermediaries, anyway.

[PhasmaFelis]

"low technical ability."

[logfromblammo]

Exactly. A good portion of people appearing in episodes of the MTV show Catfish do not have non-phone computers, and carry on their fake relationships via Facebook, Twitter, SMS, and sometimes voice calls. It often takes only seconds for the two guys running the docu-drama reality show to determine that the victim of the week is being conned, and image search and reverse phone number lookups are always the first two things they do.

It would have to be something that social media companies or telecoms would do, on the same order of difficulty as poking a button on your iPhone app, or dialing a phone service code like *57.

[jlebrech]

proof pics

[catFishery]

time stamp and shoe on head

[jtheory]

Shoes don't belong on heads; don't you walk on the streets with those things?

But yeah, how about "write blahblah on a piece of paper, hold it up and take a pic, now" (no time for photoshopping...).

BillG did it for Reddit; surely an online romantic interest won't object if it'll settle your mind.

Or... they will mind, and that's not a good sign at all.