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Home / Lifestyle

‘My hobby is chadfishing’: Man shares vile scheme to stand up Tinder dates

news.com.au
20 Feb, 2023 11:56 PM5 mins to read

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A man has shared his step-by-step guide to setting up fake profiles as well as screenshots of conversations with his many devastated victims.

A man has shared his step-by-step guide to setting up fake profiles as well as screenshots of conversations with his many devastated victims.

A self-confessed “chadfish” is targeting Australian women as part of an elaborate scheme to humiliate Tinder dates for his own cruel amusement.

Chadfishing – similar to catfishing – involves men from the “incel” (involuntarily celibate) community who set up fake online dating profiles posing as a “Chad” – a conventionally attractive male – in order to prey on women.

Incels typically blame women for their lack of romantic or sexual prospects, and often develop extreme resentment towards the entire gender.

But one Australian man has taken it to the next level, sharing a step-by-step guide to setting up fake profiles as well as screenshots of conversations with his many devastated victims.

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Taking to an online incel forum recently, and using a profile picture of Australian jihadist Neil Prakash and the user name abujihadalaustrali, the incel wrote: “My hobby is chadfishing.”

“I arrange dates and stand them up at bars,” he continued.

“It’s fun to deflate their ego, and make them waste money on Ubers, fuel and parking.”

He explained he had set up a fake Tinder account by stealing a photo of well-known American social media influencer, Brett Maverick.

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The 'chadfish' profile, using Brett Maverick's picture. Photo / Supplied
The 'chadfish' profile, using Brett Maverick's picture. Photo / Supplied

“I verified the Tinder account by photo-shopping the hand gesture onto his picture, enlarging it on my computer screen and taking a picture of that with my phone. It was instantly verified kek (lol),” he explained.

If you’ve never used Tinder before, the platform’s photo verification system requires a potential user to take a selfie in real time that matches a pose shown by a model in a sample image.

Those images are then sent to Tinder’s community team, which verifies that each user matches both the given pose and their chosen profile photos.

“With a verified chadfish, a fake Instagram account, a Snapchat with a camera roll pic sender add on, and a WhatsApp account … I declared war,” the chadfish continues.

He went on to share a string of screenshots of conversations with his dates before and after standing them up after making them wait for him in venues across the city including art galleries and bars.

In some cases, the women waited for more than an hour after already travelling long distances.

“Am I having this date by myself? Lol,” one of his victims messages him after waiting in vain for him to show up.

In another conversation, a jilted woman arrives for their date at 9.33pm, only to be told at 9.40pm that he left because he “met another chick instead”.

“What. So rude,” was her shocked reply, only to be told: “Not my problem”.

The woman demanded to know why he didn’t tell her before wasting her time, explaining: “I took a Uber for this”.

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The chadfish enjoys wasting women’s time and money.
The chadfish enjoys wasting women’s time and money.

In another, a woman took the bus to their date, only to be told the chadfish had left “ages ago”.

“Wtf. Why would you treat someone that way?” she demanded, before adding: “That hurt actually, I’ve never been stood up before.”

On another occasion, the troll went to the effort of creating fake Ticketek tickets to an art exhibit, which his date was “so excited” for, before leaving her waiting for half an hour with no explanation.

In yet another example, he let his date wait for a tram and then catch an Uber to their date before announcing he “got sick of waiting and left. Sat at bar with another girl now.”

And in possibly the worst example, the incel targeted a recently divorced 41-year-old woman who had told him she was “a little lost”, eventually standing her up three separate times and describing it as his “best one yet”.

“After I stood her up first time, she concocted a story about receiving bad news … as a reason to leave. She apologised and hinted at another date another time,” he told his twisted followers.

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“I knew she was desperate for chad … so I started testing her reaction to chad’s multiple women stashed around the city. She said teehee you’re so funny chad.

“So I stood her up a second time. And I have a third time with a different chadfish kek.”

He also shared several examples of targeting trans women on Bumble, Tinder and Grindr, and promised to share a new thread on the topic.

A Tinder spokesperson told news.com.au catfishing was “a violation of our community guidelines and terms of use and members who are discovered catfishing are removed from our platform”.

“We encourage our members to report anyone they suspect of breaching our terms,” the spokesperson said.

“Members can report someone directly from a profile or reach out through the Safety Centre in the app at any time. We take reports very seriously.

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“Our Dating Safety Guide outlines all of the safety features available on Tinder as well as tips for staying safe both online and offline.”

While misogynists are nothing new, experts now recognise the growing threat.

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