Woman learned she’d been catfished for a month by a man posing as a lesbian — her one phone call exposed his lies and upended his life
Online connections can feel genuine, but deception can quickly change the nature of a relationship. TikTok creator AJ, who goes by @isitgay, was 19 at the time and spent about a month talking to “Catherine” before arranging a date. Because AJ didn’t drive, she had planned for “Catherine” to pick her up, but she never showed up. AJ checked the Facebook account linked to the email and found six friends, several of whom had apparently met “Catherine” through dating apps. That clue led AJ to a truth that completely changed her understanding of who she had been talking to, as she revealed in a post on August 13, 2026.
One of those six was a cybersecurity student who asked AJ for the email address and reverse-tracked it. She called AJ and revealed that “Catherine” was actually Joshua, a 22-year-old man she knew from her dorm, and that he was also involved with other women. The cybersecurity student contacted his two girlfriends and campus security, and they went to Joshua’s dorm to confront him. According to AJ, they “banged down the door,” and “bro was crying.”
When AJ discovered that Joshua had a girlfriend and that another woman had also been involved with him through a dating app, she decided to confront him. She got "extensive information" about him from the cybersecurity student and his girlfriend. She messaged him, “You’re not Catherine, you’re Joshua,” then listed details she had learned about him, including that he was 22, had three brothers, and was on the hockey team.
He blocked her almost immediately, so she got his real phone number and called him, saying, “I am a lesbian, and you are a man,” while also telling him that his girlfriend knew about this and his other girlfriend. Afterward, AJ said the reality of the situation hit her. Joshua knew where she lived, and she realized she had been provoking someone who could potentially find her. She called the non-emergency police line and said, “Hi, I’ve been catfished,” before telling them, “I think he’s going to murder me.”
After the police response left AJ without much reassurance, the Facebook friends teamed up and knocked on Joshua's door to make him regret his actions. Recalling her story after nearly a decade, AJ now clearly sees all the red flags she ignored while being catfished. "Catherine" had turned down FaceTime because her camera didn't work, and she only used her email account to message AJ, which should have made her more cautious.
A 2020 study published by Taylor & Francis found that catfishing can affect people on both sides of online deception. Among 1,107 adults who had experienced catfishing, women were more likely to be targeted, while men were more likely to be behind the fake profiles. TikTok users took to the comments section to share their opinions.
@annadabanana0 remarked, "Love how you stressed Joshua out." Some viewers were stunned by the fact that AJ had been led to believe she was dating a woman while the man behind the account was allegedly also involved with another girlfriend. @emmaisntcool420 summed up the sheer absurdity of it, joking, “Two girlfriends and lesbian catfishing? This is biblical-level greed, for real.” @AlpacaPanini said, “Don’t give people your address, because they could actually be men and not lesbians.”
For more stories, you can follow @isitgay on TikTok.