A 22-year-old woman convinced her 23-year-old friend that it would be a good idea to catfish her own dad, who is in his 50s, but things quickly spiraled.
Her friend was complaining to her about how her dad only dates golddiggers and then has awful breakups with them.
She agreed with her friend that he’s never had great taste in women, and she remembered the not-so-great girlfriends he had while they were in high school.
“We thought it would be funny to set up an account on one of the dating sites that he uses, with the info that would intrigue him, find him, and then message him. I had brought up the idea,” she said.
So, the young women went ahead with their catfishing plan. They created a fake dating profile trying to appeal to this dad.
They intended it to be just a joke, but it has gotten completely out of hand.
“He didn’t respond that day we hung out, but she sent me screenshots of her conversations with her dad, that were originally supposed to be a prank, and they were a bit too raunchy for a prank.”
She decided to let it go and not say something at that time, but as things progressed she couldn’t hold her tongue any longer.
She went hiking recently with her friend, and at one point her friend asked her to hold her phone.
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It was then that she saw tons of notifications pop up, and they were all being sent by her friend’s dad.
“I had her phone and saw that there were multiple notifications from her dad on the same dating site, and the popup messages were REALLY inappropriate,” she continued.
“I called her out immediately and told her that it’s not funny anymore and she’s being really weird with her own dad.”
Her friend was so upset by what she said that she left her alone to finish the hike. She stopped for a bit before deciding to head home.
She was walking back and her friend kept sending her text messages accusing her of being the one who brought up the idea in the first place so she has no place to shut it down.
“I texted her back saying “Wtf is wrong with you to think that what you’re doing is a funny prank? You’re literally sexting your dad pretending to be a 50-year-old,” she said.
Her friend has not spoken to her since then, and she’s left wondering if she’s in the wrong here.
She added that this “prank” has been going on for 2 whole months, and her friend still lives at home with her dad.
Here’s what the internet had to say.
“That wasn’t a funny prank, it was a mean-spirited joke aimed at what seems to be a pretty lonely guy.”
“I can’t believe either of you grown adults thought this would be funny or a good idea. You’re not wrong for telling her to stop (I mean, what’s she’s doing, ew) but you don’t really have a moral ground to stand on here.”
“I feel very bad for her father. He’s going to find out somehow, and this will be so devastating for him.”
“You admitted your friend’s dad has had a hard time finding a relationship that works for him and still had the audacity to suggest catfishing him as a “funny joke,” – and your friend clearly has some very deep-rooted daddy issues.”
“This is someone else’s feelings and raw emotions you’re playing with here, and both of you are old enough to know that it’s the wrong thing to do.”
“Honestly you need to tell her dad that the woman is a catfish. I’m not going to say you have to say it is his daughter but definitely send an anonymous message about the catfish with proof.”
“As for you two. You said something stupid. Making the account was taking it too far. This has spiraled out of control to a place that is weird and gross.”
“Moral of the story is that jokes are only funny when the other person can laugh about it too.”
“Why do you think catfishing someone is a funny prank? Why on earth would you suggest a daughter catfish her own father? There’s no right way to do that. It’s always going to be creepy and weird.”
“This was never going to be a “funny prank”. It was always going to end up as being super humiliating. You were perfectly okay with humiliating her dad.”
“Your friend is escalating to the point where I’m wondering if she’s trying to scare him off of dating for good though. You have both played a hand in damaging the relationship though.”
“It is not funny, never was. It was messed up from the very beginning. But what she is doing is far beyond normal, like far, far in outer space.”
You can read the rest of what the internet had to say to her here.