While some instances of catfishing seem to be the product of nothing more than bored people messing around, other catfishers have far more nefarious ends in sight. Bingham calls romance cons "some of the most vile types of scams out there," explaining that this is because "not only do they cause fear and shame for victims, but they play on another vulnerable emotion — love."

Each scam begins with some type of impersonation, whether the person is completely misrepresenting their age, gender, financial status, etc. or they are just putting on a different (and obviously more agreeable) personality. Eventually, however, these scams all tend to lead toward one goal: separating you from your money. "Sometimes," says Bingham, "it's as simple as them asking for gift cards to fix their phone. Other times," he goes on to say, "it's much more elaborate — convincing you to give them your personal banking information, Social Security number, or wire transfers of large sums of money."

As to how scammers achieve their desired results, Kulik says they "connect with you on various dating apps, develop 'relationships' with you, [and] play on your emotions. Basically, he explains, scammers will try to "work any angle they can to get you to send them money and/or personal information."