Not many celebrities date ordinary fans or just random people. Taylor Swift has been known to only date celebrities, though Harry Potter star Emma Watson has stated that she prefers the common man. Sadly for a man in Tennessee, a Katy Perry catfish scheme had him believing he was dating the “Dark Horse” singer herself.
Catfishing happens more often than you might think, especially in an era where most men and women simply don’t have time to go out and meet people. Instead, they opt to keep online correspondence going, thinking that the person on the other end is being honest. Where schemes like the one Spencer Morrill of Tennessee fell for come into play, a complete stranger uses a collection of photos often taken of a celebrity or model and uses them to lure the unsuspecting hopeful.
Many of us might be amazed that Spencer had gone so long being fooled by the Katy Perry catfish scammer since the singer is almost everywhere in the media. It turns out the scammer just happened to be a big fan of the singer and kept up with her.
So in the latest episode of Catfish a guy genuinely believes he has been dating Katy Perry for 6 years
Sure pic.twitter.com/65KO1lR65a
— OpTic Xobe (@OpTicXobe) August 19, 2016
In the case of Spencer Morrill, it seems ignorance was bliss. In fact, according to Independent , the woman posing as Katy Perry in the catfish scheme was actually starting to feel a kind of friendship. The woman, whose real name is Harriet , hails from Gloucester, England, and appeared on the online TV series Catfish , meeting Spencer for the first time. She apologized on the air for what she did, even revealing problems of her own.
“I just got to a point to where I couldn’t imagine like not talking to you. I’ve been through some tough times throughout the time we’ve been talking the past six years. Like my dad died two years ago… I’m like genuinely sorry. I can’t change what I did, but I understand that it was really wrong.”
It could have been so much worse, of course. Spencer could have fallen for someone in Russia or Nigeria posing as a love interest and lost several thousand dollars in hopes of finally meeting her. Apparently, the Katy Perry catfisher had cost him enough. He put a quarter of his savings into creating an engagement ring for the singer, a by-product of six years having believed that all of the text messages had come from Perry. He and Harriet had even shared a phone conversation, making him further believe the relationship to be real.
Had Spencer thought of possibly a video chat using Skype or something, he might have actually seen who he was talking to. Even then, the video might have been recorded and heavily edited to make it seem real. The reveal came when Spencer contacted the hosts of Catfish , and they decided to help the Tennessee man meet who he’d thought was Katy Perry for the first time, according to Go Knoxville .
This guy on Catfish thinks he’s dating Katy Perry https://t.co/FM4Tx8iowW pic.twitter.com/Bij8b1A8qj
— Stereogum (@stereogum) August 18, 2016
It turned out that Spencer Morrill had been talking to a lesbian with a fake online profile who had developed a genuine kinship with him. Catfish host Nev Schulman attempted to console him, meanwhile telling him straight in front of Harriet that he was not talking to Katy Perry. The host also had some choice words for Harriet.
“[You] need to start thinking about the fact that this is the actual human being. As weird and crazy as he might be, (he) has a heart and was giving it to you 100 percent for six years of his life.”
Spencer feels hopeful that the past is behind him and the future still holds good things. The real Katy Perry has not weighed in on the situation.
[Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images ]