If you have engaged with internet culture at all in recent years, you have probably come across the term “catfish”, first coined in the 2010 documentary of the same name. A catfish is someone who uses false information to cultivate a persona online that does not represent their true identity. This commonly involves using stolen or edited photos, usually taken from an unwitting third party.

Catfish will use this information to create a more appealing version of themselves, then engage in continued one-on-one interactions with another person (or people) who are unaware of the deception.

Travel inherently includes some security risks, because part of security is knowing how things are supposed to work, so you can recognise what's sketchy. Go to a new city and you might fall for a taxi scam, get pick-pocketed — or get your money stolen by an ATM skimmer. We talked to Daniel Smith, security researcher at cloud security company Radware, about how to avoid sketchy ATMs when you travel.

Millions of Twitter users are actually fraudulent bots, sold to real Twitter users (including many celebrities and media personalities) to inflate their stats and make them look more influential. Last week the New York Times investigated one of the most influential bot sellers and called up their celebrity clients. In the fallout, the Chicago Sun-Times suspended film critic Richard Roeper for a couple of days.

Dear Lovehacker, my wife of 17 years has been Snapchatting a singer from a well-known Texan A Cappella group. He has said he will fly her to LA to marry him and take our four kids in. This guy is 25 and my wife is 42 -- it's not about the age, it's just hard to believe this from a guy who will not video chat or send live videos. And he can't call because he's afraid to talk. This guy is in a band that travels the world, and I can't convince her it might be false. She is wanting to divorce me. I just don't know what to do. Should I let it play out or what?

With yesterday's news that notorious spammer Severa has been arrested in Spain, I was wondering what sort of sentence he can expect if he is found guilty of spamming and hacking crimes. Here's a look at five famous hackers and how they paid for the crimes.

When you buy stuff online, most retailers give you the option to check out as a guest or register with them. The latter can make it more convenient to check out next time, but here's the case for buying as a guest.

They say a sucker is born every minute, but shady businesses are good at convincing you you're a genius, not a sucker, for giving them your money. Many of these outfits prey on people want to improve their finances, which adds insult to injury. You know to stay away from Nigerian princes, but there are some less obvious, perfectly legal scams people fall for all the time.

If you ever search for a popular application in Apple's App Store, you'll inevitably see a bunch of copycats trying to use the name recognition to fool you into downloading their app. It's usually pretty innocuous, but it can become a more pernicious problem during the holidays.

As long as there's money to be made in apps, there will be companies trying to inflate an app's rating by faking statistics. Now, Google's taking aim at developers who try to artificially push their app up in the Play Store rankings.

"Vishing", or voice-based phishing, is a method used by identity thieves to steal your credit card number and other personal information over the phone. Here's how to tell if a call is actually from a scammer, and the best way to handle the situation if you're not sure.

Having your identity stolen is an unnerving, stressful experience. According to a recent study from consumer site ID Analytics, there are a few factors that make you more likely to be a victim of fraud.

Reporting a crime should not be as traumatic as the experience of the crime itself. But unfortunately this is the sad reality for many victims of online fraud. Australians reported more than $229 million lost to fraud according to a report published last year by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

But behind every statistic is a person, and there are millions of victims globally who experience a wide range of online fraud. Read on to find out more.

Identity theft rates are on the rise, so you should always be vigilant of the threat, and that means taking the necessary steps to protect yourself. As author Adam Levin points out, you should be especially careful to secure your personal information during a big move.

Dear Lifehacker, What can I do about someone giving out my phone number as their contact for financial matters? I keep getting phone calls looking for an old housemate from debt collectors. I tell them that this isn't his phone number, but they keep calling anyway. I don't want to change my phone number as I have had it for a very long time. Is them giving out my phone number illegal?

Online fraud is rampant, and many Australians end up duped into sending money overseas as a result of romance or business scams. But as Cassandra Cross from Queensland University of Technology explains, it is possible to stop these crimes before they send people broke.

Badly-implemented or outdated IT isn't simply a pain for the IT pros who have to manage it and the end users who have to grapple with it. It also makes it much easier to carry out fraud.

Scams on the Internet come in many forms -- phishing attempts, email hoaxes, online selling and buying cons. Have you been the victim of any?

We frequently worry about our credit card details being stolen and misused, but how common is the problem and how much might we lose? New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) suggest that while credit card fraud is a large problem, we're almost as likely to be sucked in by other scams.

Sony hasn't been out of the headlines in recent weeks, with hacks into both the PlayStation Network (PSN) and its Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) net gaming platform. While the numbers involved are pretty small, they're a reminder that the convenience of paying for entertainment services with a credit card does come with some risks.