There’s this person, I won’t name him, but he’s infamous online for stealing photos of red haired women to use for his avatars, “photos”, and his whole online persona. For instance, he will claim to look like the women, saying that he has red hair and pale skin.
People have called him out on this because a real photo of him accidentally got leaked which shows he looks nothing like how he describes himself, and his rebuttal was “I never said those photos are of me”
He also is known for repeatedly making creepy comments to a forum member who he knew was barely 14, (he’s in his 20’s) requesting a story being written of him going on a date with him, saying “you’re mine” to him, and “shipping” himself with him. When people call him out on this he says “it’s slander” even though there’s links to the things he posted. Then he’ll say things like, “you cannot speak for a person’s intentions because you aren’t the proxy of their mind”
Also, when people point out that the real selfie and the stolen selfies aren’t the same race, he’ll claim people are being transphobic to “transracial” people, and he’ll also claim that people are being transphobic to him, even though he has never once claimed to be trans and is known for sending death threats to trans people in private message sessions.
This person does this kind of tactic a lot, and people get the impression he thinks he’s being slick, and I’m wondering if there’s a name for it.
I’d call it plausibly deniable catfishing.
They are presenting themselves as a specific person without explicitly saying so, leaving you with less to stand on (in their mind, not in actual reality) when you claim that they are not who they say they are (because they didn’t say that the photo/audio was of them).
It’s pretty obvious to anyone with a brain that if your avatar is of a specific woman, that you at least think of yourself as a feminine person and identify at least a little bit with the imagery of the avatar.
So… for what other reason could they be using these photos and audio? Not many other reasons come to mind, so Occam’s razor (i.e., the simplest answer is most likely) applies, in my mind.