A warning to all adults; Catfishing

'Catfishing' is when someone creates fake profiles on social media sites to trick people into thinking they are somebody else. They make up life stories and use photographs of unsuspecting victims to create fake identities.

This is subject that we feel needs addressing. Not only are children's profiles open for predators to have their fun with, adults profiles are open too. You may think that your pictures are safe because you're an adult but they're not. On several occasions now, innocent peoples images have been used to fool not only decoys but more worryingly, real children. Predators scour places like Instagram and Facebook, dating sites and more- looking for open profiles to take their images and use them to make these fake accounts.

For Example.. Paul Hilton, not only did he use a fake name but also stolen pictures and he is a reoffender (now jailed after our sting).

S.T.O.P also had Kieth Crook who had stolen an ex coworkers photo and used them to explicitly groom real children and STOP's decoys (still under investigation as of 09/03/19).

The point is, is that your accounts that are open, are freely giving these predators free use of your images. They use your photos to groom innocent children.

Ask yourself how you would feel if a predator groomed a child using your images. They lure that innocent child into meeting them, that child goes to somewhere unknown expecting to see you, looking for you, then met with the real monster behind your innocent photos...think about that.

Moral of the story; Simply lock YOUR profiles down. Don't accept anyone you don't know and do not send any indecent images of yourself through ANY apps. On Facebook, limit past posts, remove any old cover photos (these are set to public and cannot be changed) and make sure all albums are set to friends only.

This not only protects you but it also protects children.

The below site has some helpful tips for children but the same can be applied to your own account:

https://www.wikihow.com/Protect-Your-Kids-from-Online-Catfishing