Is Catfishing Illegal? Investigating Whether Legal Action Can Be Taken Against Online Scammers

Scam artists have been a burdensome blight on polite society for as long as men and women have desired wealth. Some of the earliest recorded instances of fraud actually date back to ancient Greece, but swindlers and cheats have only gotten more creative with time as technological advancements continue to present them with fresh ways to dupe people. 

The advent of the internet gave con artists a wider reach to millions of potential victims around the globe. While “romance scams” have been around for eons, the practice of “catfishing”—nefariously using strangers’ photographs to establish fake online personas, all with the intent of misleading and sometimes extorting others—didn’t crop up until the eventual rollout of social media platforms like Facebook in the mid- to late 2000s. 

While a household phrase today, filmmaker Nev Schulman actually coined the term in his 2010 documentary, Catfish, which got its name from a 1910s practice of shipping a single catfish with live cod to prevent them from becoming pale and languid. In the movie, Schulman tracks down the 19-year-old girl he’s been in an online relationship with for nine months, only to discover he's been duped by a middle-aged housewife.  

Today, Schulman hosts a successful reality series, now with nine seasons under its belt, where he helps other catfished victims get to the bottom of the truth. In 2014, “catfishing” officially entered the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. 

One of the higher-profile catfishing cases involved Notre Dame and NFL football star Manti Teʻo, who, in late 2012, told reporters his girlfriend, Stanford University student Lennay Kekua, recently died of leukemia shortly after the linebacker’s grandmother’s unexpected death. Many major media sports outlets reported on the story, but months later, investigative sports reporters discovered Kekua was a fabrication, concocted by “family friend” Naya Tuiasosopo. Teʻo ended up being the butt of late-night host’s punchlines for months. 

As detestable as catfishing may be, it is not—and likely will never be—illegal in the United States, thanks to the First Amendment. 

“The Constitution protects our lies,” author Meg Leta Jones, who also serves as a Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor in the Communication, Culture and Technology program at Georgetown University, tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “The government is basically prevented from punishing or even chilling most of the lies people tell in our lives, unless there’s some kind of legally actionable harm done.” 

Cops can and do pursue perps for crimes like fraud, identity theft and sextortion that frequently go hand in hand with catfishing. Unfortunately, though, most police departments lack sufficient resources to identify and track down catfishing crooks. 

“Civil claims are often the only option available to victims, and it isn’t a good option,” Jones says, noting that victims sometimes file lawsuits for defamation or intellectual property violations. 

According to the Federal Trade Commission, Americans reported losing $1.14 billion to romance scams in 2024, but experts believe the true amount is far greater. Data indicates 23% of social media users admit to having been catfished at least once. While the majority of catfishing—a staggering 83%—occurs through Facebook, it can even happen on sites like LinkedIn, where catfishing attempts spiked approximately 37% between 2020 and 2023. 

Legislators in Illinois and Utah tried introducing legislation to criminalize catfishing in 2021, but both bills failed to get enough votes. 

James Grimmelman, a professor of digital and information law at Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School, tells A&E Crime + Investigation that catfishing can’t really be legislated due to the 2013 Supreme Court case United States v. Alvarez.  

In 2007, Californian Xavier Alvarez was indicted for allegedly violating the federal Stolen Valor Act, which was first enacted in 2005. Alvarez falsely claimed at a public meeting to be a retired Marine and a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. 

“The Supreme Court, in essence, said that you can’t punish lies unless there’s some concrete harm,” Grimmelman explains. “And the courts are very reluctant to punish romantic lies out of a fear—and you can decide if this is reasonable or not—that it would lead to lots of lawsuits and prosecutions from relationships gone bad.” 

A jilted lover, for instance, could claim an ex lied about their finances—and then argue in court they never would’ve dated that person had they known the truth. 

“Are you going to send that person to jail?” Grimmelman asks. “Allowing these extreme versions of catfishing, where the lies are much more blatant, it just seems to judges like it’s a natural consequence. And if you’re punishing these lies, where would it stop?” 

Grimmelman and Jones say scammers usually reveal themselves to their victims—by not revealing themselves. 

“The thing about catfishing is, it’s the obvious,” Grimmelman says. “If you never see the person, or they have an unwillingness to have phone conversations or video chats, that’s a huge red flag.” 

Jones notes another major warning sign: “If they ask for cash, you should take some extra steps and determine if the person really is who they said they are.”