You've been Catfished!

I found this short film very interesting. As a fan of the widely popular show, I was fascinated to discover the background to the idea of the show Catfish. Nev started an online relationship with what he thought was a sweet young girl aspiring to be an artist through Facebook. Abby, the eight year old artist, appears to be communicating with Nev Schulman through phone calls and messages. Nev sees a special talent in her and starts to buy some of her artwork. Abby is ridiculously talented and can paint like a professional. Nev would send her pictures he would take and she would paint a beautiful replica. He was a photographer and she was an artist. It was almost like they were a team working together. After receiving several pieces of artwork from this young artist, Nev began connecting with Abby's mother through Facebook as well. They would call and check in on each other and discuss how Abby's paintings were doing. Her mother would tell Nev large amounts that people were paying for her daughter's artwork. She also told him the bought a gallery with some of the money to keep her paintings in. Time goes on and Nev becomes friends with Megan who is Abby's much older sister. These two began messaging each other on Facebook and becoming friends. Nev viewed her pictures and she appeared to be a model and he was very attracted. So they developed a different more flirtatious relationship with one another. Megan began posting some of her music demos online and Nev was even more impressed with her. However, when listening to one particular song he recognized something sounded familiar. Him and his friends looked up the song and found the exact same recording from a professional singer. Nev was questioning everything at this point. This is where things took a turn. He confronted her about it and she tried to say she was doing a cover of the song. She became embarrassed and ending the conversation. This sparked Nev and his friends' curiosity so the came up with the idea to travel to Abby's house to meet this family they were suspicious about. Nev and the boys arrive at the house to find the Abby's mother doesn't resemble her profile picture and neither does her husband... They immediately know something is off. The couple also had two twin boys who were mentally disabled - they were never mentioned online or in phone calls. They come to find out that Abby doesn't paint, and Megan is not the girl in her Facebook pictures either. The real Megan has no romantic relationship with Nev. Abby's mother is the center of it all. She is the real artist and has been hiding behind her eight year daughter. Abby's mother also was using her older daughter's name to have a false online, romantic relationship with Nev. Everything was a lie. I think it takes a serious sense of negativity and loneliness to do this sort of thing. It it morally unjust in many ways. It is a form identity theft that people often times get away with. The idea for the show is great because it allows the viewer to get inside the heads of people who see it as okay to do these things.