Think You’re Live-Chatting With a Porn Performer? You Might be Getting Catfished

If someone you cared deeply for was in danger and desperately needed you, would you answer their cry for help?

The answer is probably yes. But what if you later found out that person wasn’t real?

An increasing amount of porn consumers are so engrossed in synthetic “relationships” that they’re willing to go to great lengths—even give up their life savings—for the persona of a porn performer.

Thousands of these lonely fans are being conned, lied to, and scammed out of thousands of dollars by “porn performer” catfishers every day.

Porn performer’s strategy on social media

There are a lot of reasons why porn isn’t healthy, even if someone isn’t in a committed relationship. But the landscape of porn performers on social media brings on its own set of risks.

Related: Why Porn Performers are Working to Become the Newest Social Media Influencers

While content on a social media feed is free, there is a high cost to consuming porn—and followers are often bombarded with links to paying services. Some performers even take requests via social media to make pricey custom videos where they call fans by name in an attempt to feign an intimate connection and keep their content from being pirated.

This happens a lot on OnlyFans, too. Not every conversation on OnlyFans is with the actual content creator—a lot of the time, it’s with one of their social media managers.

Porn performers open up about their personal lives, talk current events, and sprinkle inspiring quotes or insights alongside explicit content—even if their reality isn’t as glamorous as they portray it to be online. These are all attempts to make lonely viewers feel closer to them—like an intimate, boyfriend/girlfriend relationship—so they’ll be more likely to purchase their content.

How catfishers trick porn consumers

Kira Lee Orsag—better known as porn performer “Dani Daniels”—is one of these personas with a loyal social media following. She says her performer identity is stolen online every day.

For years, catfishers have been using her photos and performer name to create social media accounts and scam followers out of money. Orsag reports that dozens of fake “Dani Daniels” Instagram accounts are created each week— spreading the lie that Dani is trapped in Ghana and desperately needs their financial support in order to come home.

James Weidenborner, a 56-year-old Uber driver from Connecticut, even filed a legal complaint claiming that Dani Daniels had conned him out of nearly $2,000 by pretending to be stranded in Ghana.

But here’s the most telling part: Weidenborner’s perception of reality was so misdirected and skewed that he filed the lawsuit against Dani Daniels—someone who technically doesn’t exist—instead of Orsag herself. In his mind, and in the minds of so many other deceived consumers, the character “Dani Daniels” is a real person.

Would verified performer accounts eliminate catfishing?

So what makes porn performers and their social media followers easy targets for catfishers?

For one, it’s extremely difficult for porn performers to get their accounts verified on social media platforms like Instagram due to the sexul nature of the content they post.

Catfishers (along with regular social media users) often report unverified profiles for nudity and violation of community guidelines and get those accounts taken down. Next, scammers create an Instagram handle and profile that closely resembles the real one. Then boom— the new account pops up in the search results and followers start trickling in.

Since it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between a performer account and a copycat, how can you ever really know who you’re talking to?

But here’s the catch: Orsag ultimately took an aggressive approach to get her performer Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts verified—and she was successful. But those magical blue check marks didn’t quite do the trick as expected. In fact, the opposite happened—catfishing scams didn’t stop or slow down after profile verification, but rather intensified.

Aren’t all porn consumers being catfished?

Have you caught on to the irony of this issue?

Porn performers are real people, but their personas aren’t. They sell unattainable fantasy in an attempt to profit off of consumers. But when their fake depictions of reality are replicated on social media into more “fake versions” that their fans then connect with and give their money to, performers feel cheated.

Related: The Porn Industry Profits from Deceiving Millions of Consumers. Why are People Okay With It?

Isn’t falling for something that isn’t real the entire premise of porn in the first place? If we follow that logic, isn’t it reasonable to conclude that all consumers of porn are really being conned and catfished?

Money isn’t all that’s stolen from consumers

What’s especially concerning is that these consumers believe they’ve fallen in love or bonded with a performer on a screen—so much so that they’re willing to give up their life savings in an attempt to “save” her.

What if instead of investing so much into something that isn’t real, this loyal devotion, desire to give, and willingness to sacrifice was directed to a real person who could actually love them back? We know many of these consumers probably feel like love is hopeless, or have given up on relationships due to personal experience—but what if their unwillingness to “get out there” and find a mate in real life is a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Even if a consumer isn’t in a real relationship and this escape from reality seems to temporarily fill the void, reliance on porn reduces the likelihood of meeting someone in real life and impacts a variety of relationships.

Don’t buy the lies—seek what’s real

When it comes to porn, you can never know for sure who you’re viewing or talking to online—or where your money really ends up. Or if you’re webcamming with or consuming images of sex trafficking victims.

Thanks to science, research, and real people who have experienced the heartbreak that consuming porn can cause, we’re able to see through the lies. We can call out deceit, help others discover the facts, and turn each other to real, mutually-fulfilling, healthy relationships.

Real love can lead us to sacrifice, give, and lay it all on the line for those who mean the most to us. Choose to not give it away to something that can’t and won’t love you back.