A friend recently joined a dating site. Most of the men were trim, athletic, and handsome. She started a conversation with one who shared a collection of snazzy photos, one with him standing by a horse.
After a few weeks of corresponding, she grew suspicious and ask about his horse, which he shared was a special “riding horse.” Amused, she promptly navigated to Pimeyes.com, an AI-powered image search application, and discovered the photos belonged to an unnamed model.
Jeepers.
Channeling the spirit of immersive reporter Nellie Bly, she continued her foray into the shadowy world of online dating. She erased her profile when a man, supposedly doing business in Dubai, asked her to immediately write him a check for $38,000, so he could pay for some goods in a port.
Number of deepfakes grew from 500,000 to 8 million between 2023 and 2025*
When she laughed, he called her nasty and said she should be spanked.
While AI has added multiple wrinkles from the ability to create and post fake images to using chat to knowledgeably and convincingly respond to prospects, it’s still a person, manipulating a profile and catfishing.
Wondering how we got here, I had a chitchat with Copilot about the increase in machinations, harmful schemes to achieve a goal. Copilot explained it’s always existed, especially during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror with factions plotting assassinations, coups, and betrayals to control power.
500,000 to 750,000 catfishing-related reports worldwide from 2020 to 2026*
Okay, but that’s people at the top like Niccolò Machiavelli, Catherine de’ Medici, and Cardinal Richelieu. Were common folks equally manipulative and without morals? Interestingly, it’s estimated 15,000 to 17,000 people were guillotined across France during the revolution, with 85% being the Third Estate, non-clerics and non-nobles.
That’s violence and dissent, and not machinations.
Back to Copilot, which claims the internet, social media, and global interconnectedness have amplified the visibility, speed, and complexity of manipulative acts. Manipulation starts with feelings of powerlessness, insecurity, and threat.
Manipulation has been in humankind’s emotional toolkit from the get-go, used to coerce cooperation, subjugate competition, improve social status, win over allies, and gain social support. Science confirms are brains are wired with the hardware for it, and certain conditions activate that wiring more than others.
8x increase in losses from social media from 2020 to 2025, reaching $2.1 billion in 2025*
Even if a small percentage of a population is triggered, it means no one is immune from being catfished, phished, baited, and subject to other nefarious social cybercrime. While AI makes it easy to create fake profiles, videos, and more, behind each scam is a person.
And don’t get me started on the manipulation in the current employment environment with misleading job descriptions, ghosting, multiple interviews that go nowhere, money-making resume-writing services, and much more.
*2026 Catfishing Statistics – Most Targeted Platforms, Victims & Financial Losses – CatfishNumber
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