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Catfishing – jako przejaw przestępstwa kradzieży tożsamości

Gądzik, Zuzanna (2024) — Krytyka Prawa

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DOI: 10.7206/kp.2080-1084.735 (opens in a new tab)

Type:   Journal Article
Country:   Poland
Tags:   Catfishing, Criminal Law, Cybersecurity, Deepfakes, Fraud, Grooming, Identity Theft, Online Fraud, Online Impersonation, Social Media
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Synopsis

            
This doctrinal legal analysis examines Polish criminal law governing identity theft (Article 190a section 2 of the Penal Code) and related offences. The article defines catfishing, applies statutory elements to variants of impersonation, and discusses potential liability for fraud, phishing/information offences, grooming, and stalking. Catfishing involves stealing another person's existing identity or creating a false identity and using it as one's own for financial or personal abuse. The paper concludes that separate criminal-law rules for catfishing are not currently necessary and gives priority to prevention through safe internet use and awareness of offline consequences. This is a legal-conceptual analysis rather than an empirical study.

          

        
                  

            
Identified Gaps

            
Catfishing’s exact scale is difficult to assess: creation of false social-media profiles is not itself criminalized, so some conduct is absent from crime statistics. Underreporting is also likely because many people whose data or image are used do not know about it. The diversity of offender conduct further impedes uniform assessment and decisions about criminalization.

          

        
                  

            
Methods

            
Doctrinal legal analysis of Polish criminal law governing identity theft (Article 190a §2 of the Penal Code) and related offences. The article defines catfishing, applies statutory elements to variants of impersonation, and discusses potential liability for fraud, phishing/information offences, grooming, and stalking. It also notes civil remedies and platform account-integrity rules.

          

        
                  

            
Limitations

            
This is a legal-conceptual analysis rather than an empirical study. It cannot determine catfishing prevalence because false-profile creation is not separately criminalized, relevant conduct may be absent from criminal statistics, and victims may not know impersonation occurred or report it. The broad variety of offender behaviours also makes a single legal assessment difficult.

          

        
                  

            
Future Work

            
The paper does not state a formal research agenda. It supports research to establish catfishing’s actual prevalence and reporting levels, because false-profile creation is not separately criminalized and many impersonated people are unaware. It also supports examining whether evolving platforms, applications, and deepfake techniques create legal or preventive needs beyond current arrangements.

          

              

    
    

        
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