NEW YORK, NY – A concerning, yet novel, trend in the realm of online scams has recently surfaced amid those who partake in the use of dating apps, with various eateries allegedly setting up fake dating profiles only to extend dinner dates and leave the would-be romancer alone at the dining establishment. The goal? To get these desolate diners to order a meal amidst their misery.
The term catfishing, which relates to communicating with someone online who isn’t who they proclaim to be, came into the mainstream lexicon largely due to the 2010 film Catfish which documented the real-life experience of someone who spawned a romantic relationship with a woman online only to learn he’d been duped by someone posing as another woman.
After the breakout success of the film- which led to an MTV spinoff reality series documenting other such cases- most are pretty hip to when they’re being catfished online by would-be romantic partners due to a habitual aversiveness to wanting to meet in person and other telltale signs.
But an innovative catfishing-lateral scam of sorts which has cropped up on dating apps as of late has managed to catch some by surprise, leaving romantics all by their lonesome at eateries with only one of two things to do: order a meal amidst their misery or simply leave.
What some people are theorizing is that these ghosting-date scenarios are set up by none other than the eateries themselves in the hopes that the disappointed folks will indulge in a meal before venturing back home to lament their absent date.
One such woman who believes she was the victim of this scam, known as “food digging”, took to TikTok to detail her evening of being stood up by her date established online.
Taylor Paré, a 33-year-old woman out of New York City, had at first assumed she was just ghosted by the fella with whom she'd set up a date online. Since she was already seated at a moderately ritzy bistro, Paré figured why not have a decent meal by herself before heading home.
It wasn’t until a few days after the ghosting experience that Paré had stumbled upon a Facebook post of someone who detailed being stood up by an online date at the very same eatery where her date was meant to take place.
While Paré couldn’t say it with one hundred percent certainty, she was fairly confident that she and this other person on Facebook were duped by none other than someone operating on behalf of the eatery to get keisters in seats.
Speaking to the New York Post about the debacle, Paré said, “We’re all out here just trying to have a meal with a cute date, and the restaurants have caught on. They’re using it as a tactic to increase their business, which is kind of like as dystopian as it gets.”
The term catfishing, which relates to communicating with someone online who isn’t who they proclaim to be, came into the mainstream lexicon largely due to the 2010 film Catfish which documented the real-life experience of someone who spawned a romantic relationship with a woman online only to learn he’d been duped by someone posing as another woman.
After the breakout success of the film- which led to an MTV spinoff reality series documenting other such cases- most are pretty hip to when they’re being catfished online by would-be romantic partners due to a habitual aversiveness to wanting to meet in person and other telltale signs.
But an innovative catfishing-lateral scam of sorts which has cropped up on dating apps as of late has managed to catch some by surprise, leaving romantics all by their lonesome at eateries with only one of two things to do: order a meal amidst their misery or simply leave.
What some people are theorizing is that these ghosting-date scenarios are set up by none other than the eateries themselves in the hopes that the disappointed folks will indulge in a meal before venturing back home to lament their absent date.
One such woman who believes she was the victim of this scam, known as “food digging”, took to TikTok to detail her evening of being stood up by her date established online.
Taylor Paré, a 33-year-old woman out of New York City, had at first assumed she was just ghosted by the fella with whom she'd set up a date online. Since she was already seated at a moderately ritzy bistro, Paré figured why not have a decent meal by herself before heading home.
It wasn’t until a few days after the ghosting experience that Paré had stumbled upon a Facebook post of someone who detailed being stood up by an online date at the very same eatery where her date was meant to take place.
While Paré couldn’t say it with one hundred percent certainty, she was fairly confident that she and this other person on Facebook were duped by none other than someone operating on behalf of the eatery to get keisters in seats.
Speaking to the New York Post about the debacle, Paré said, “We’re all out here just trying to have a meal with a cute date, and the restaurants have caught on. They’re using it as a tactic to increase their business, which is kind of like as dystopian as it gets.”
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