- There's a kid over there.
- Hey bro, how's it going, my name's Kelsey.
I'm Adam the gambler.
- Oh wow.
- We were contacted by a young IT worker named John
who had thought he'd finally met his perfect mate,
Kelsey, in an online chat room.
We met with John in person.
He revealed that Kelsey had a very convenient excuse
for why she could never video chat.
- She actually has body dysmorphic disorder.
- She looks in the mirror and see someone that's not her.
- We soon discovered that John did not
share the same problem.
- I've sent her a (beep) pic once.
- With your face in it?
- No, I'm not that foolish.
- You sent her a (beep) pic?
- Yes.
- You don't even have her phone number.
- I was in the mood.
- We've said it a million times people-
- A million times
- don't send (beep) pics to people who you've never met.
How do we get this through your heads?
- Get it?
- (beep) heads
- As we investigated we found several people from
John's chat room who also considered Kelsey to be
a close friend despite never video chatting or
speaking with her.
- And we spoke with one girl in particular named Ellie
who considered herself best friends with Kelsey and was
also dating a dude from the chat room named Adam
with whom she'd never video chatted or spoken to either.
- Wow, how come, why haven't you video chatted?
- Just like, it never worked out, I don't know.
- Something was definitely up.
So finally we tracked Kelsey down but none of us
were prepared for what we walked into.
(tense music)
You can gamble in here.
- It's a casino?
- Yeah.
- Where's the girl in here?
- There's definitely no attractive, young woman in here.
That's for sure.
- Hey bro, how's it going, my name's Kelsey.
- That (beep) eating grin on his face.
- He stood in front of the mirror and was like,
"what's up bro, I'm Kelsey"
- [John] So what's your end game here?
- Just have fun with you man.
That was it, you know it was a game.
It's over now.
- So this was all just fun and games.
- Yeah, really it is, yeah.
- Is there something else more meaningful that you think
you proved with this?
- No, there's no deeper meaning to any of this.
- Whose pictures are you using?
- Actually a girl I know from high school.
- Do you have a job, are you in school?
- Yeah this is like my job right now.
I go here, I time the jackpot.
So I'll just do whatever I want on my phone,
time the jackpot, win about 60 bucks for the night
and go home.
- How do you know you're gonna win the jackpot?
- I have an algorithm, you see.
I count the number of people in here right,
and then I have like, all the times on my phone,
I can even show you that, I have all the times they've
ever gone off
- He's rigged it
- Yeah, in between jackpots there's like a transition
period where you're waiting for the thing,
I'd log in here, pretend to be Kelsey talk to him a while.
It was just something to do to pass the time.
- Did you create that psychology group to lure
people in to then mess with them
and carry on fake relationships with?
- No, I took advantage of the fact that I had this group up
and you know let's add this other account of mine in there
and let's see who we can mess with, you know.
- How many people do you think you've catfished?
- I would say about maybe 30, 40 around there.
It's interesting to me, and fun.
- Is your relationship with Ellie something
that you even care about or are you just using her?
- Oh no, I care about Ellie.
You know she's my girlfriend, it's not a cover up
or anything like that.
I have genuine feelings for her.
- I've talked to Ellie before, sweet girl, amazing girl,
what in the (beep) world makes you think you're
getting anywhere with that?
- I can justify anything, I can justify anything.
- How'd you like my (beep) pic?
- That was uh, interesting.
Thank you for sending it to me,
I really want that on my computer.
- You (beep) yourself of to this (beep)
- (chuckles) no I deleted it quickly after.
- Did you just wake up this morning and say,
"you know, I wanna play a bad guy on tv?
"I just want to be the worst version
"of myself that I can be."
Is that what you decided?
- Yeah, that was what I
- Is this really who you are right now?
- This is really who I am.
I'm the joker.
- I mean
- This is the kind of loser that gives our show a bad name.
I mean are we really sitting here giving him any air time?
- I'm the king of catfishes, alright
- No you're not.
- I am, I am the king catfish.
- You're really not.
- I am.
- I'm done here, I'm done.
I'm done.
(chuckles)
- It's just a big waste, that's all.
- I mean, I kind of expected this as a scenario here.
Something like this, some kind of
internet troll of some sort.
You live and you learn and you won't make
the same mistake twice.
- Is that the reaction you were hoping for?
- No, no, it's not actually.
I was really hoping that you'd get really angry.
I wanted to boil you, but didn't seem to happen that way.
It's too bad.
- I can understand you thinking you're this, sort of,
mastermind but it's going to be a long and boring
and sort of meaningless life.
- I have a good job, a good life.
I'm happy with myself.
I can say that.
I can manipulate this fool right here
and say that I'm happy with myself.
- It's pitiful man, it's pitiful.
- Adam tried to make himself out to be this
catfish super villain, but the truth turned
out to be much more calculated and devious.
- I had Kelsey tell Ellie to make an OK Cupid profile.
So I could get her questions and stuff like that
so I'd be able to seduce her as my Adam account
by knowing information about her.
- Another thing you just shouldn't tell people.
- So you were concerned about what we may or may not
have said to Ellie, it would be good for you just
to explain for yourself.
So we've got her here
- Oh my god.
- I've maybe, my favorite moment in all the episodes
of catfish is when we told Ellie the truth.
- [Ellie] Hey
- Hey, Ellie
- So, you have some explaining to do.
- It's true, um, you know, I'm Kelsey.
I made Kelsey because I really just wanted
to get to know you more.
I had no intention of ever manipulating you
or anything like that.
I care about you so much.
- The weirdest part is ya, it's twisted you know?
- Yeah
- Okay, thank you guys.
- Bye
- This moment right here always makes me smile.
- There was something satisfying about that.