What 'Catfish' Host Nev Schulman Has Learned About Online Trickery Ahead of New Twist-Filled Season (Exclusive)

Over the last decade, Nev Schulman has learned more than anyone the ins and outs of catfishing, but there's still plenty to surprise him when it comes to online trickery in the new season of Catfish: The TV Show, premiering Wednesday on MTV. Ahead of the new season, in which he tracks down potential catfish with the help of "hopefuls" looking for the truth of their relationship and co-host Kamie Crawford, Schulman opened up to PopCulture.com about why the phenomenon persists in an age where his show is a household name.

"How long have people been playing the lottery?" he asked rhetorically as to why people are still falling for the same old deception a decade after the practice of lying about your identity online was explored in a documentary centered on Schulman's own experience. "For people who feel lonely or isolated ... if you wake up one morning and you feel like you've won the lottery, you have this lovely attractive person who wants to talk to you all day, it gives you hope."

While people are becoming more tech literate, and online platforms are increasing their identity verification processes, Schulman bluntly explained, "People have been lying forever, and they're not stopping anytime soon."

"I haven't seen scientific study of this, but I have to assume because our lives are spent online, and there are more ways to interact and more platforms bringing us together, we are more vulnerable to being deceived and interacting with someone who is not being honest," he added.

Despite having seemingly seen every kind of twisted catfishing situation under the sun, Schulman said there's plenty that surprised him in the new season of cases, including people reaching out asking the team to help friends they suspect are being tricked.

"The human condition and the imagination is a very complex and varied ... ocean of possibilities," he told PopCulture. "While the setup to which we end up making an episode of the show tends to follow similar pathways, what makes making the show so interesting for me is you never know how people are going to react to each other in a situation, especially one that is high stakes and high emotion."

Even after watching everything go down in person, there are some episodes this season that Schulman can't manage to parse out even now.

"There are a few episodes where I'm not sure how I feel at the end," he confessed. "Who is right and wrong? There are a couple strange situations where we're not really sure who to believe, and if one person is more right than the other."

Don't miss the exciting return of Catfish: The TV Show on Wednesday, January 8 at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.

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