From catfish to Chris; Claire’s tale of the unexpected

Authenticity starts in the heart.

With the new series of The Circle airing on Channel 4, featuring Muddy Matches member Farmer Sy, the hot topic of catfishing has raised its ‘you can never be quite sure who’ head again.

Here at Muddy Matches HQ, we take great pride and great care in protecting our country-loving singles, wherever possible, from the perils of the unknown. Our processes and checks at point of sign up are all done with a cautious eye and we act fast when something does fall through the net; just ask Claire.

After a series of less than pleasant encounters on other mainstream dating sites, Claire was on red alert for catfish when she landed on Muddy Matches. However, as you should expect from an award winning specialist dating website, we make extra effort to keep things genuine; no fake profiles, no dodgy photos. In a world of farmer dating and country life loving, we ‘vet’ everything – hard.

Claire felt the full benefit of our commitment to member safety; she was more than reassured with her experience and even bagged the man she’d always hoped for (after doing her due diligence to check him over!).

“It’s a bit mad really.” says Claire. “I was on one of the well known dating sites and had no success, not even a date. So I went on Muddy Matches as well and thought ‘why not?’”

She soon bumped into a familiar fake face she had come up against on other sites but a quick message to our lovely customer care girls and, a spot of internal checks later, saw the subject of her concern reported and duly removed. BLOCKED.

“It’s only thanks to my daughter for making me watch for catfish that I knew what to look for and spotted him to report – and then, then I saw Chris.”

As one of our many thousands of Scottish rural romantics, Chris was 400 miles away from Claire’s hometown but had done enough with his photo choices, profile and bio to catch her eye.

“I did the checks you recommended, like you do, and he seemed normal”, Claire added. “That was a positive so we chatted for a good month.”

After taking her time to feel comfortable in the online company of Chris, Claire decided to engineer the next step forward; a real life meet. It was big step for our logistics worker but one she was willing to make – and even go the extra mile for.

“I made up some story of having to make a delivery up where Chris lived and that I would be around on a specific weekend.” she told us. “I drove up, found a small place to stay over and we met on a Friday night. We had a few drinks and spent the next five hours talking, about everything.

“He is the sweetest, nicest guy there is and it doesn’t seem to matter to him that I have an 18 year old, or three cats and a dog, or bell ring at churches, or work a shift on a Sunday at the pub, as well as hold down a full time job.”

Things have progressed nicely since for Claire and Chris and, a year on, it’s Claire who’s taking the bold move to relocate.

“We see each other every couple of months. He has met my family and my mum, dad and daughter love him to bits. We chat every day, twice a day and now, after a year, I am looking to move up to Scotland. We have been through a hard time really for a number of family reasons, but it has been so, so worthwhile.”

At Muddy Matches HQ, we wish Claire and Chris the best of luck in where the next part of their journey takes them.