Forget Nev‘s iconic Catfish TV show, this story of a British TikToker being catfished by a man online happened right here in Australia — while he unwittingly worked with him in the outback of the Northern Territory. Buckle up because this shit is truly bananas.
Olly Lewis (@ollytedlewis) worked at a resort in the Central Australia when he decided to join a ~certain app~ (read: Grindr) to see what options were around.
He recalled in a video that there were only “about four” people on the app — which he said was unsurprising given there were like 30 young people in the town to begin with.
“So this one person messages me and they’ve got a blank profile, which typically means they’re kind of on the DL, they don’t want to share the place, probs in the closet,” he said.
After they started talking, the man eventually sent a photo of himself — and Olly recognised him as a “handsome” and “well built” guy he often saw at the gym, who he nicknames Handsome Discrete Gym Boy.
The two created plans to meet that night which didn’t end up happening, but they kept talking. About a week later, things started to get “a little bit unhinged”.
“He starts telling me that he doesn’t want me to message other people and even starts mentioning marriage,” Olly said in his video.
But, because he was basically stuck in the middle of the desert with not much entertainment, he kept talking to Handsome Discrete Gym Boy and rationalised some of the confusing messages as just a miscommunication.
“There was one time where he started talking about ‘sizing up my ring’ and I thought he was being sexual but no, he was actually talking about a wedding ring,” Olly said. RED FLAG RED FLAG RED FLAG.
Things continued to be “bizarre” but Olly rolled with it. Not long after, he actually spotted Handsome Discrete Gym Boy at a local pub — who didn’t even acknowledge him. WTF?
The pair ran into each other at another party, where Olly was again ignored and blanked, despite the pair still texting.
In the messages Handsome Discrete Gym Boy told Olly that if he saw him, to come up and give him a kiss — even though that is not at all the vibe HDGB was giving off IRL, which was standoffish and distant.
And then Handsome Discrete Gym Boy hosted his own party, where Olly was determined to actually get things going. So he got drunk and tried to catch HDGB’s eye all night.
“On reflection, he was looking a bit uncomfortable,” Olly said.
“But I thought he was giving me eyes as well.”
Eventually, he mustered up the courage to finally talk to him IRL just as everyone was leaving the party.
“I’m like, ‘Hey, do you want to hang out for a bit?’” Olly recalled.
“And he looks me dead in the eyes, says no, and slams the door in my face.”
When Olly confronted him over messages about being blanked, Handsome Discrete Gym Boy apologised and said he didn’t hang because he was “working late”. Which made no sense since they were literally at a party.
It’s at this point that I would probably just never speak to Handsome Discrete Gym Boy again, but Olly is a nicer person than me because he just assumed the guy was shy.
Things took a turn when Olly was at a cafe and lo and behold, there was HDGB. If I was running into someone this much, I would actually convince myself the two of us are soulmates, but I digress.
While Olly is watching HDGB, he gets a notification: supposedly a message from the guy, but when he looks up, HDGB doesn’t have his phone anywhere in sight. Ruh Roh.
Olly looks at the location of the guy he’s texting, and realises it says he’s not closeby despite HDGB being right there. And then it clicks. The guy he’s talking to is NOT Handsome Discrete Gym Boy!!! GASP!!!!
After the earth-shattering realisation that he’d been catfished and some conflicting advice from friends, Olly confronted the app man who admitted that it was never him in the photo. He sent a snap of himself, and not only was it a man who was around 20 YEARS OLDER THAN HIM, Olly also recognised him… as a colleague from the resort! No!
“It was one of the most chaotic things to ever happen to me,” he said.
“And I discovered it had happened before, I wasn’t the only victim.
“I work with him, but I never confronted him properly. I felt like it would be too awkward.”
Choosing to avoid further conflict in his life, Olly left it there and didn’t create any further beef with the man who catfished him since the two had to work together.
Honestly, what a nice dude Olly has turned out to be. I would be torching the place after all that.
