If you’re between the ages of fifteen and twenty-two you’ve probably heard of a television show called “Catfish.” The popular website urbandictionary.com defines a “catfish” as “someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances.” The show follows hosts Nev Schulman and Max Joseph as they help everyday people track down who they’re talking to online and determine if they’re being “catfished” or not. Nev and Max work together to help the pair meet in person and figure out if the person on the other end is who they say they are. While the premise for the television show seems like a good idea, Nev and Max have some very simple ways for catching these “catfish.” After watching a few episodes, I’ve determined that literally anyone with a computer could do their jobs.

The first step Max and Nev take in catching a “catfish” is logging onto Facebook. They go to the profile of the person they’re looking for and attempt to determine if they are who they say they are. They do this by looking at the person’s pictures, reading the comments on their pictures, and looking at their friends list. This step is so simple it amazes me that the person who thought to contact Nev and Max in the first place did not think to search Facebook. I know if I had a friend request from someone I didn’t know, they only had one picture posted of themselves, and we didn’t have any mutual friends, I’d be a little suspicious. Maybe the people on “Catfish” are blinded by love and don’t think about these things but they seem like pretty obvious giveaways to me.

After looking on the profile for a while, Nev and Max usually message a few of the “catfish’s” friends. They ask them if they’re free to talk and can verify if this person is real. If the person is a “catfish,” they usually have a bunch of other fake profiles they use to comment on and like their own pictures. Most of the time this step doesn’t help them out at all because all of the profiles are fake. They basically just end up talking to a supposed friend who lies for the “catfish.”

The next step the duo takes is they complete a reverse Google image search. They upload the picture of the “catfish” to this search and it shows them everywhere the photo lives online. Again, this is something everyone has the ability to do. In pretty much every episode the picture pops up dozens of times on various social media sites. They browse the sites for awhile and usually don’t come up with a conclusion. If anything, they come up with a few possible suspects for who the "catfish" could be.

The last step is probably the most straightforward. All they do is type the phone number of the “catfish” into Google. Anytime I get a phone call from an unknown number I do this. I really don’t understand why someone wouldn’t think to do this themselves and would have to take the time to contact a television show. On most episodes of “Catfish” this leads them to who the person actually is. They probably don’t do this first because it would significantly cut down the time of this hour long show.

As you can see, the steps Nev and Max take are extremely simple. You wouldn’t even need to see the television show to replicate the steps they take to catch a “catfish.” I’d like to think that most people with common sense would think to do these things themselves.