ELKHART — Crime Stoppers of Michiana has released tips on how to avoid getting caught in a “catfish” scheme.

Catfishing is when a person creates a fake online profile with the intent to deceive someone, usually to create a fantasy life and not to defraud a person financially. However, some catfishing could rise to being a criminal offense.

Scammers tend to target vulnerable or gullible people, according to Crime Stoppers, but doing some online investigating can help people protect themselves.

Crime Stopper’s tips are as follows:

• Be suspicious if contacted by a stranger to engage in a relationship, particularly if they’ve created a glamorous life story.

• They often claim to have a traumatic injury or illness as an excuse not to be able to meet.

• How much do they seem to know about their illness? (Legitimate sufferers are usually very knowledgeable).

• Be suspicious if they ask for money, any account information, too much personal information.

• Be suspicious if they can’t readily provide a photo of themselves, (or ask you not to post it if they do), or avoid video chat.

• Research how recently they activated their Facebook/Twitter account.

• Pay attention to how many friends/followers they have.

• On their accounts, do they have photos of friends and are they tagged?