What went wrong?

In the movie Catfish, Yaniv Schulman builds a romantic relationship with Megan Faccio and learns about the dangers of online dating. The first mistake made by Angela, who orchestrated all of the lies, was her attempt to impersonate her eight-year-old daughter. She signed her artwork with the name Abby so that she could build a web of lies that centered around her daughter to gain Nev's attention. What should have she done instead? If Angela wanted to form a real friendship with Nev, she should've been open and upfront with him in the beginning and not pretend her paintings were created by her daughter. Nev probably thought to himself that he had a wonderful and innocent friendship with an eight-year-old girl; in reality, he was being conned by a middle-aged woman who was exploiting her daughter.

The second mistake Angela made was her elaborate scheme that she used to create Megan Faccio. She had around fifteen Facebook accounts that she had to manage in order to make the imaginary Megan seem real. She could've used this time and passion in a different and better manner instead of using them to seduce a relatively younger man. However, Angela uses her fake profile to make Nev fall in love with her. She continues on with this charade even after Nev figures out the songs she sings for him were stolen off of videos on YouTube. When she does not admit to Nev about her lies, it makes her seem too desperate. She might be lonely but she lost most of my pity when she continued to keep up with her deception.

The third mistake she makes occurs when Nev surprises Angela by visiting her house. Angela has to form several lies in order to explain all the holes in her scheme. For instance, she tells Nev that the chemotherapy for her uterine cancer explains why she does not look like her Facebook picture. In addition, "Megan" tells him that she could not meet him at the moment because she decided to go into rehab for her alcohol addiction. Even with her back up against the wall, Angela does not want her secret being found out and does not reveal the truth until Nev directly confronts her, telling her that he knows she has been lying to him. After telling him how she created Megan and the others, she deactivated her accounts and used a real picture of herself for her profile. I thought it was sweet that Angela and Nev continued to be friends even after what happened between them.