I recently watched a Dr. Phil show about “Catfish” and was floored by what I saw. A “Catfish” is someone who pretends to be someone they’re not. They create a false identity to extort money or goods from others. They find their victims by searching the internet for someone looking to find romance online. And evidently they are very successful– each year unsuspecting victims send millions of dollars to these people. I was astonished that anyone could be so stupid as to fall for such a scam, but they do. Some of the stories are unbelievable!
During the show they took a poll on Twitter seeing how many would ever send money to someone they’ve never met. 90% said “No” and 10% said “Yes”. Naturally it is those in that 10% group that these people are looking for, and with enough effort they find them! These “con-men” succeed by deceiving people and the “good” ones are very successful. They know that a large portion of the population is gullible and they keep searching until they find someone foolish enough to buy into their scam. They succeed for the same reason that the “Televangelist” bilk people out of millions, enabling them to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous. As I’ve said many times, it is easy to get a following. You can go to any street corner in America and stand on a soap box preaching anything, and if you do it loud enough and long enough you will finally get some people to follow you. It happens all the time. Beware of “Christian catfish”
Anyone with a charming personality, the gift of gab, an emotional presentation and patience can get a following of loyal supporters if they say what the people want to hear. And such people exist all across America. We live in dangerous times and what we see is exactly what Paul describes in 2 Tim. 3, especially vs 13, ” But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” That makes it more important than ever that we search the scriptures and build our lives on the firm foundation of God’s Word. Guessing isn’t good enough, tradition can be a trap, and those with charismatic personalities can be purveyors of poison. It is one thing to be hood-winked by a “catfish” and lose all your money, it is another thing to lose your soul. The worse case of identity theft in the world is the person who claims to be a Christian who isn’t and uses his influence to lead people into a Christ-less eternity. That’s as bad as it gets.
