I'm sure you've heard of the term "catfish" or maybe you've been catfished before, but if you haven't, it means that someone is pretending to be someone else by using their photos, identification, etc.
In an episode of Dr. Phil that aired Jan. 27, viewers met a woman who thinks she's engaged to Bret Michaels, frontman for Poison and also tight with Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue and that the two are fighting over her.
"My relationship with Nikki Sixx is a solid, good friendship," declared Tina, the subject of the episode. "And we have great communication between each other."
Vivian (Tina's friend), said that Tina is essentially being catfished by someone who is pretending to be the Motley Crue bassist. He's never wanted to meet her in person and will not have any kind of virtual meeting with her to prove their identity.
"We speak eight to 10 times in a day, mainly through text," Tina continued about her channel of communication with whom she believes is Sixx. "He can't talk on the phone because his management won't allow it."
Apparently, "Sixx" did send her a photo holding his drivers license, and Tina said they video chatted very briefly, but she couldn't understand what he was saying because they were having problems with the audio during the call.
Vivian also says that Tina believes she's in a relationship with Bret Michaels even though they've never spoken on the phone and only chat via Instagram and text. Vivian says that this guy is pretending to be Bret Michaels.
Tina said "I love Bret Michaels and he loves me". She went on to say that "He tells me management pretty much controls him, that he can only text me. He can't talk to me on the phone or send a video for privacy and security reasons.
Dr. Phil added. "Yes, that's right — Tina believes that not one, but two famous rock stars are actually fighting over her. Tina claims she is not only in a committed romantic relationship with superstar Bret Michaels, they are also engaged."
The "Michaels" imposter told Tina he was falling in love with her after three weeks of exchanging text messages. They eventually took an oath over the Bible that they would "be devoted to each other," and the supposed-Poison frontman proposed.
"I said yes!" Tina says excitedly.
"When Nikki found out I was talking to Bret, he was not happy," Tina admitted. "Both of them didn't want me talking to either one of them."
But like the faux Sixx, the faux Michaels doesn't ever make the effort to see Tina or video chat with her and both eventually have asked Tina for money, which as Dr. Phil says, would not ever happen with the real Bret Michaels or Nikki Sixx.
During the episode, the real Sixx and his wife Courtney actually did address Tina face-to-face, and the real Michaels sent her an actual video of himself. Check out the video of Nikki and Courtney Sixx talking with Tina.
Nikki and Courtney even told Tina that when the Motley Crue tour does resume, having been postponed due to Covid 19, that they want to meet her at a meet n greet that as Nikki said, "you won't have to pay for".
