After previously breaking down the recently popular ‘Tinder Swindler’ to outline the ever-growing trend of ‘catfishing,’ security systems provider, Expert Security has surveyed the nation to find out exactly how prominent the problem is.

The term coined by the now well-known TV programme following the lives of people who have been misled by online dating profiles, has now become a popular term in everyday life. This rising popularity has brought with it unwanted attention from opportunists jumping on the trend and victimising people through the use of fake social media accounts.

According to the survey results, the ‘catfishing’ conundrum is visibly more prevalent in the millennial generation as almost one quarter of under 24 year olds have been involved in some way, whether it be being catfished or the catfisher themselves.

Digging deeper into the data, men of this age are actually more likely to be catfished than women, with the latter being more likely to be the ‘catfisher’.

Whilst this could be viewed as a problem for under 24s, and maybe even all the way up to under 45s, with 14% of this generation also being involved in catfishing in some way, shape or form. It is not much of an issue for the older generation at all, with only 4% of the over forty fives ever being involved in the trend.

Although when you look at the wider numbers, only 11% of men in total have been involved in catfishing one way or the other, which still paints a grim picture due to the fact that based on these statistics across the whole of the UK, this still equates to 7,467,900 people.