Episode four of MTV’s Catfish was anything but ordinary. Instead of the usual online romance proven to be false, the episode was about a woman who was on a mission to meet the person who scammed her face-to-face.
What made this episode so unusual was that the viewers already knew that the catfish was a scam artist from the very beginning of the episode. It was also a new kind of adventure for Nev and Max as well since they have never worked with someone who already knew that their online relationship was a fake.
The episode starts out in Philadelphia where a disheartened young woman named Lucille tells Nev and Max her horrible story that happened when a man named “Kidd Cole” pretended to be an aspiring hip hop artist online and ended up scamming Lucille and many other people out of thousands of dollars and services. Not only did the man who claimed to be Kidd Cole steal other artists’ songs and claim them as his own, he also claimed to have worked with famous artists such as Kanye West and Wale. Lucille said she found his fake songs online and was quite impressed since she thought them to be his. She private messaged him online and was surprised to get responses back from Kidd Cole.
Lucille was then contacted by Kidd Cole’s “manager” named Miguel who asked Lucille if she would like to help out with some of Kidd Cole’s events such as planning appearances, booking security and finding other services such as hotels and transportation. Miguel promised Lucille that if she did well she could earn a job at Kidd Cole’s record label and earn up to $70,000 a year. Like any normal person, Lucille jumped at the opportunity to get her big break.
However, tragedy struck Lucille after she realized she had been scammed. Lucille had booked appearances and accommodations for Kidd Cole and had racked up a nearly $25,000 dollar invoice. The companies that she hired such as car service and security weren’t being payed either. After she tried contacting Miguel to get an explanation, she never received a response.
After she explained her story to Nev and Max the decided to dig deeper into the investigation of the scammer Kidd Cole. They discovered on Facebook that Kidd Cole had a whole page dedicated to him called, “Kidd Cole Scam Artist.” Apparently other people had been experiencing the same type of scam. They find a lady named Loretta, a limo driver, on the Facebook group page who was also scammed out of around $8,000 dollars by Kidd Cole and reach out to her to hear her story. They also discover that Miguel was made up and that Kidd Cole was actually Miguel since they found out the phone numbers for the two men were registered to the same person. Since all of the action surrounding the scam seemed to be focused in Washington D.C., Nev and Max decide it was time to take Lucille to D.C. meet up with Loretta and then eventually meet face-to-face with Kidd Cole.
Upon arriving in D.C., Lucille, Nev and Max meet up with Loretta who explains her story; that she scammed out of thousands of dollars and eventually found out that Kidd Cole was most likely homeless. Nev calls Kidd Cole and asks to meet with him the next day to which he surprisingly agrees. Once they all meet face-to-face, Lucille starts out by being somewhat pleasant but then gets into the more dirtier questions asking Kidd Cole if he knew that people were being scammed out of money to which he replies no. He also continued to lie about Miguel, claiming him to be a real person. Kidd Cole becomes clearly uncomfortable and nervous so he begins to distract himself by using his phone and basically ignoring the rest of Lucille’s questions. Nev gets so angry with Kidd Cole that he takes his cell phone out of his hands and throws it right into the river in which the group is standing next to. Kidd Cole obviously becomes pretty angry about it and the producers of the show apologize and promise to get him a new phone. That moment was probably the best moment of the whole episode since Kidd Cole had been acting like such a scumbag.
The next day Nev and Kidd Cole decide to put the cell phone incident behind them and Kidd Cole invites the group to come to his “recording studio” to listen to some of his songs. It is clear he is still trying to convince them that he is an artist and that he isn’t a scammer.
They arrive at his so-called studio the next day and Kidd Cole is seen in the downstairs room of a house where he and a friend are looking as if they are recording music. They begin playing a song that they supposedly recorded, so Max takes out his phone to use an application which records the song and will then tell him who the artist is. The end result wasn’t positive since Max’s phone says that the song is another artist’s work. Suspecting that something isn’t right, Nev asks Kidd Cole if he could record something and then they could make a song out of it. The two hesitantly agree but then they seem to not be able to work the recording equipment. The gig is finally up and Kidd Cole is caught red handed, since everything he is doing at that very moment is a scam.
The friend leaves the room and the cameramen catch up with him. He quickly reveals that the house and the recording studio aren’t even his and that he was doing a favor to Kidd Cole who had frantically called him the day before asking him if he could use the space to look as if he was an actual recording artist.
After the friend leaves, Nev and Max tell Kidd Cole that they know he is a fake and Kidd Cole still continues to tell them that he is an artist and that he just wanted people to realize his talents. Nev and Max say while they appreciate the fact that he just wants respect, that is no reason to scam people out of thousands of dollars and that he should try to make an effort to apologize, drop the act and pay back the people who he used. With that last piece of advice the group leaves Kidd Cole to head back to Philadelphia.
At the two-month check in, Lucille tells Nev and Max over video chat that she is now pursuing a college degree in criminal justice thanks to the investigation of Kidd Cole. According to her, Kidd Cole hasn’t changed unfortunately. She said that he is now claiming to be a co-producer on Beyonce’s “Drunk In Love” song and that he will be performing in L.A. He still hasn’t paid back the thousands of dollars he owes either.
Unfortunately what this episode teaches viewers is that the world is filled with some people that are addicted to scamming others and have no qualms about it whatsoever. What it can teach viewers however, is that one must always be careful online when dealing with money. If it seems to good to be true, it usually is!