Social Catfish Reviews

Social Catfish is a verification service primarily designed to prevent catfishing and other types of scams in online interactions. Its database includes search results from various sources like Google, publicly listed personal and business phone numbers, corporate contact details directories, address change records, government databases, and even social media platforms like Facebook. The service’s main features include reverse searches for name, images, social media profiles, emails, phone numbers, addresses, and usernames.

Social Catfish's background check results retrieve information such as phone number, email and physical address, relatives, aliases, job and education information, and photos. Depending on the subscription, you can also access more sensitive information primarily tailored to businesses, like bankruptcies, liens, and criminal records. However, Social Catfish is not compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), so it can’t be used for employment, promotions, or recruitment purposes.

Searching for criminal records is straightforward. You only need to provide a person’s full name, the state they’re in, and (optionally) their date of birth. While this process can reveal if someone has a criminal history, users should not expect to receive complete reports on specific crimes, as such details are not available to the public.

The platform includes other great tools like the AI Chat Checker, which lets you check if you’re being targeted by scammers. It features scam checks for emails, fake content, and text messages. It’s straightforward to use, requiring you to paste the received message or upload a screenshot with the message content.

Users looking to keep their data protected at all times can use Social Catfish's privacy lock. It’s a live monitoring system that scans public data and the dark web for your information. Plus, it’s not limited to your information as it allows you to add protection for your family and friends.

This service’s primary goal is to help users avoid scams, but its vast database also makes it an excellent tool for other purposes, such as:

• Double-checking information: Verify a person’s identity by accessing information on social media profiles, jobs, pictures, aliases, and more. This is Social Catfish's primary purpose – to avoid catfishing.
• Reconnecting with relatives: Use reverse search to reconnect with long-lost friends and relatives.
• Discovering property details: Get information on properties, such as property history, specifications, and homeownership.
• Finding out about neighbourhoods: Find out if a neighbourhood is safe by checking its criminal history.
• Checking a business’s reputation: Verify a business’s authenticity with reports that include specific information on it, like how long it’s been operating.

Social Catfish claims to have over 300 million records, but the availability of information is not always guaranteed. It varies depending on what data is being searched, as not everyone leaves a digital footprint. Consequently, it’s impossible to guarantee results for every query. This limitation applies universally to all background check solutions.

Social Catfish's reports organize the collected information into info cards for each data type, making it easy to digest. We particularly appreciated that at the beginning of each report, there’s a summary of how many matches were found for each category. Plus, it allows you to save, archive, and organize reports, and keep track of results for future reference in case of changes.

Regarding the quality of reports, users won’t be disappointed. Social Catfish's reports are extensive and provide clear and detailed information for each category. For example, the address info card includes a map marked with pins, highlighting the locations matching the query.

Another example is how the relationships are shown. Depending on the available information, you might get detailed information on relationship connection matches for parents, siblings, and even neighbors. All the categories offer the same level of precision as long as there’s information available. For added convenience, Social Catfish lets users add custom notes to reports.

Social Catfish has a handy search bar with options to search for names, emails, phones, usernames, addresses, and images. Besides the search bar, you can customize results by country. After initiating a search, you can refine the results by state, city, and age.

The age filter is divided into six category ranges: 18-25, 26-35, 36-45, 46-55, 56-65, and 65+. There’s also a search history with all your previous searches .

The platform has an alternative lookup option for finding the best professionals for specific industries. This consists of a database for quick access to a selection of dentists, lawyers, accountants, surgeons, and others.

Social Catfish can only be accessed via the web app as there aren’t any mobile apps. Designated apps are always much more practical, and since many of its competitors offer them, it’s a shame this company doesn’t.

However, the platform is mobile-optimized and user-friendly, so you can use it on any device with a browser. While Social Catfish is accessible via mobile, we still recommend the desktop version for a smoother experience.

According to Social Catfish's privacy data, it sources its information from:

• Public records, such as court and property records.
• Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
• Online directories, including people search engines like PeopleFinder.
• Government databases, such as the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Web scraping uses scraping technology to retrieve data from online sources like forums and websites.

It’s important to mention that all the sources are publicly available and can be accessed by anyone. The difference between searching for the information yourself and using a solution like Social Catfish is related to how these services process data. In this case, it uses machine learning and natural language processing. This allows it to quickly identify patterns and connections between data that you would likely take weeks to find.

We evaluated the thoroughness of Social Catfish's reports by searching for a few celebrities. The information we received was accurate, and we were impressed by the level of detail provided.

If we were cross-referencing data to determine if we were being scammed, the information would have been more than sufficient to reach a definitive conclusion. However, it’s important to note that not all searches yield the same level of detail or quantity of information, so keep this in mind.

Moreover, Social Catfish complies with privacy laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You can request access to your data, corrections, and even delete it from the platform. This can be requested via an opt-out form available on the company’s website.

On top of this, Social Catfish follows the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

It’s not straightforward to find out Social Catfish‘s pricing options. The only way to access them is by doing a search and trying to access the advanced results, which takes too long to load. After waiting, users have to provide their email address to unlock information, and only then can they access its pricing structure. This is unfortunate for anyone who values transparency like us.

While you can perform basic searches for free, accessing reports requires a subscription. Social Catfish's regular plans are the cheapest options, with Social Search being the most affordable, costing $27.48 per month. However, the first three days are charged at a higher rate of $5.73.

Since there’s no free trial, this is the only way for users to try the software for a limited time without paying the full month of service. This subscription includes 100 social searches per month and search by name, email, phone, username, and address. On top of this, search history and hassle-free cancellation are on the table.

For unlimited social searches and reverse image searches, you can choose the alternative regular plan, which costs nearly the same but doesn’t include search by name, email, phone, username, and address.

Other plans include Social Search Pro, which is similar to the Social Search plan but with different search limitations. The cheapest option is the 250 Social Search option, which costs $41.90 with annual billing and includes a 20% discount. The plan’s name corresponds to the limitation in the number of social searches.

In addition, there are many more advanced plans, catering to ID verification, crypto and financial insights, and white-labelling investigation. Not to mention that Social Catfish offers a service for hiring professional online research investigators, with the option of starting with a 10-minute free consultation.

Regarding refunds, the company isn’t clear about this as it evaluates refund requests on a case-by-case basis. Social Catfish accepts PayPal and credit cards for payments.

Social Catfish's support resources include a blog on catfishing and other scams, FAQs, and how-to videos. Regarding customer support, you can contact them via phone from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time daily or via email through a contact form.

Users mostly praise the company’s support quality for its representatives’ professionalism, helpfulness, and responsiveness. When it comes to its downsides, most negative complaints are related to billing issues, particularly regarding the ‘trial’ period and subscription charges.

In our experience, after contacting the company via email, it took seven days to get a reply. Due to this, we recommend trying Social Catfish's phone line or chat within its working hours.

The company is active on social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and TikTok.

While Social Catfish's platform is intuitive and mobile-optimized, we were dissatisfied with the lack of a dedicated mobile app and upfront pricing transparency. Finally, we recommend Social Catfish for dating app users wanting to verify the authenticity of their matches. This process contributes to a safer and more secure online dating experience.