[crazytony]

Tragic. I still don't get the objective of the person pulling these scams: it doesn't seem they want money or fame or any of the 'normal' drivers. Are the scammers typically lonely individuals or are they suffering from some social disorder such that they are rewarded by others' pain?

[aaaaaaaaabc]

The objective isn't necessarily malicious, for people with very low self esteem and disdain for themselves it can be nice to talk to someone without any personal baggage, it can be nice to be someone interesting for once and once your in too deep there's no coming back, admitting your identity is fictional is a death sentence for the relationship.

[fallinghawks]

I agree with this. Someone who doesn't want to be who they are -- which is sometimes a reason people to into acting -- or wants to have, as you said, no personal baggage. I kind of see it as fiction writing for lazy people: instead of creating a cast of characters, the "scammer" focuses on one in great detail. This person has the excitement of studying another person's identity through their photos and/or videos and making up an entire fictional identity around it.

[aestra]

I can only speak for the people portrayed on Catfish: The TV Show

They all have various somewhat complicated reasons for "catfishing." These are people who 1)agree to meet/give up their true selves 2)agree to appear on TV

Some people do it for revenge.

Some do it for escape.

Some do it because they have self esteem and body issues and don't mean any harm to the person they catfish.

One guy admitted doing it to "brush up on his game" or something of that nature.

One person was catfished by her best friend who set up the fake profile to help get her out of a serious depression after (if I remember) a death of someone close. The friend even went so far as to have her male cousin be the voice.

Some people do it because they know the person in real life, have secret feelings for them but won't admit it to them, so they create a fake profile to catfish the person and act out their fantasies that way.

It is an interesting look into human nature if nothing else. Some mean harm, but many do not. It is a common theme in the body image catfishers to say "Everything I told you is true, my feelings are real, I just look different."

Of course - some will also do it for money!