catfish

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The New Frontier in AI? Helping People Get Dates
Now Infiltrating
Dating Apps: AI

Now Infiltrating Dating Apps: AI

Chatbots are being used to flirt, create profiles, and provide dating advice

(Newser) - If dating wasn't hard enough, AI has quite literally entered the chat. NBC News reports that people are now using artificial intelligence to flirt and send messages on dating apps to unsuspecting prospects. Now that singles must worry if they're being catfished by a robot in real time,...

'This Guy Stalked Me and Groomed Me When I Was a Child'

'LA Times' talks to woman who says she conversed for years as a young teen with Austin Edwards

(Newser) - Austin Edwards is dead, as are three others he murdered in November in California after catfishing one victim's teen daughter . But his story has been revived once more, thanks to a woman now speaking out who says the former Virginia cop similarly groomed her, pressuring her to share nude...

State Police Messed Up in Hiring 'Catfishing' Cop

'Incomplete database query' cited in hiring of Austin Edwards, who'd been on psych hold in Virginia

(Newser) - Virginia State Police hired a state trooper, later accused of killing three people and himself , as a result of "human error." An administrative review found "human error resulted in an incomplete database query" in the hiring of Austin Lee Edwards, who allegedly killed the mother and grandparents...

'Catfishing' Cop Made Odd House Purchase

Austin Lee Edwards blacked out its windows

(Newser) - The Virginia law enforcement officer who allegedly abducted a teenage girl after killing her mother and grandparents in California had threatened to kill people before. A years-old police report obtained by the Los Angeles Times describes a Feb. 7, 2016, incident in which Austin Lee Edwards refused medical treatment for...

Cops: 'Catfishing' Leads to Triple Homicide

Former Virginia state trooper accused of killing 3 people, taking teen girl

(Newser) - Four people are dead in California after police say a man's internet catfishing scheme turned violent. Authorities in Riverside say Austin Lee Edwards, 28, struck up an online relationship with a teenage girl in the city by using a false identity—a ruse known as catfishing, reports USA Today ...

Inside the 'Real Tragedy' of Manti Te'o Catfish Hoax

Netflix doc shows 'just how easy it was for him to get hoodwinked,' writes SI's Jimmy Traina

(Newser) - In 2013, the sports world was turned upside down when Deadspin reported that the girlfriend of Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o, who was said to have died of leukemia, didn't exist . Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who has since come out as a trans woman named Naya, admitted to creating...

Broken Hearts, Empty Wallets: Seniors Catfished for $139M

FTC report says there was a 'surge' in 2020 in romance scams bamboozling Americans 60 and over

(Newser) - Last month, the Department of Justice announced money laundering and wire fraud charges brought against nearly a dozen "romance scammers," and that's only scratching the surface of what the Washington Post calls a "surge" in such deceptions made worse by the pandemic, especially for the senior...

Undercover Probe Finds Catfish 'Gasping,' 'Slowly Suffocating'

Investigator at Simmons farm in Mississippi found 'numerous instances of animal abuse and suffering'

(Newser) - "I remember as a kid the moment I learned that there was an awful place animals were sent to be killed called a slaughterhouse. If you had told me back then that I would be working in one someday, I would've never believed you." So says an...

GOP Rep Resigns After Ex Says He Used Nude Pics to Catfish

Former girlfriend says Ill. state Rep. Nick Sauer posted 'sexually explicit' pics of her online

(Newser) - Illinois state Rep. Nick Sauer is out of a job after his ex-girlfriend accused him of posting her nude photos on a fake Instagram account, then impersonating her in "graphic" conversations when men corresponded with who they believed was Kate Kelly, Politico reports. "As a result of the...

When a Catfishing Nightmare Becomes a Dream Romance

She was tricked by man using model's photos; then she met the model

(Newser) - This tale of loneliness, catfishing, Turkish models, and, yes, love sounds like it should have been written by Nicholas Sparks or star Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, but it's true and absolutely engrossing. French-born Emma Perrier, 33, was living outside London, struggling with English and heartbroken over a recent...

Stanley Cup Catfish-Tosser Had a Very Elaborate Plan

Jacob Waddell won't face charges, says he's just 'a dumb redneck with a bad idea'

(Newser) - Prosecutors are dropping charges filed against a Tennessee man for throwing a catfish onto the rink in Pittsburgh during the opening of the Stanley Cup Final, reports the AP . Thirty-six-year-old Jacob Waddell was charged in Pennsylvania's Allegheny County with disorderly conduct, possessing instruments of crime, and disrupting meetings or...

Catfish Falls From Sky, Hits Woman on City Street

Bird probably dropped fish over Philadelphia

(Newser) - Falling catfish weren't generally considered to be one of the hazards of life in Philadelphia—until now. Lisa Lobree tells the Philadelphia Inquirer that she was walking near the city's art museum on the morning of Labor Day when she heard a "rustling" in the trees above...

Rare Blind Catfish Found in US for First Time

The Mexican blindcat is small, translucent, and eyeless

(Newser) - Two new Mexican immigrants have been discovered in Texas: a pair of super rare blind catfish. According to a press release , until last month the Mexican blindcat was only confirmed to exist in Mexico. Then two were found in a limestone cave at Texas' Amistad National Recreation Area and identified...

Woman Forced to Undergo Catfishectomy

 Woman Forced 
 to Undergo 
 Catfishectomy 
in case you missed it

Woman Forced to Undergo Catfishectomy

Fish embeds itself in woman's abdomen

(Newser) - A tourist swimming at a Sao Paulo beach resort ended up needing surgery ... to have a catfish removed. The fish embedded itself in the woman's abdomen while she was in the waters off Itanhaem; the Independent reports that a catfish's barbed spines will "sting and lock in...

Man Claims He Knows Nessie's True Identity

Nessie is probably a catfish, says Steve Feltman

(Newser) - In 1991, Steve Feltham said sayonara to his girlfriend, home, and job in England to hunt for the Loch Ness monster in Scotland. His big revelation after 24 years of searching: The beast is probably a catfish—though a big one, obviously. Feltman, 52, has spent much of the last...

Scientists Unravel Mystery of Electric Fish's Jolt

6-foot electric eel is 6-inch fish attached to a 5.5-foot cattle prod

(Newser) - For the first time, scientists have assembled the complete genome of an electric fish—the potent South American electric eel—and in doing so have identified something much larger: Exactly how this fish, along with electric fish from other families, evolved to create their jolt-delivering organ. The findings, out of...

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