On the current season of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days, 52-year-old single dad Ben is preparing to head off to Peru to meet his 24-year-old online girlfriend, Mahogany, for the first time. However, Ben and Mohagany have never even video chatted. He has only seen what are obviously VERY heavily filtered images and a very brief video clip with similar editing.
The situation has viewers, and Ben’s family, wondering if he is being catfished by Mahogany. In the scene where Ben reveals his relationship with Mahogany to his kids and his ex-wife, he shares a photo of her from his phone.
“That is so fake!” Ben’s 14-year-old daughter Joy says immediately after seeing Mahogany’s photo. “That is the fakest picture I have ever seen in my whole entire life. That is so fake.”
Here is the photo of Mahogany that TLC shows viewers — there’s no way to know if it is the same photo Ben showed to his family:
“It could be filtered,” Ben concedes. “Maybe she has a really good camera.”
Here are some additional photos of Mahogany using her really good camera from her Facebook profile — click to enlarge:
It’s very obvious that Mahogany’s photos are heavily filtered. But how heavily? And is she starting with photos of herself or someone else? In other words…
Is Mahogany A Catfish?
A catfish is someone who uses a fictional online persona to deceive others. Given that is is already very clear that Mahogany at least uses A LOT of filters to alter her appearance online, I think the more accurate question would be: What degree of catfish is Mahogany?
We can begin to answer that question with the help of TLC. The network issued promotional portraits of all the couples featured on Before the 90 Days Season 5, including Ben and Mahogany. The photo of Mahogany does look like a different person, but still an attractive young lady that vaguely resembles the heavily filtered images online:
There are also multiple photos of Mohagany that were posted by friends and family in which she is not filtered. Here are some examples that were recently shared on a 90 Day Fiance subreddit:
The two images with Mahogany wearing red were posted in December of 2019. I do not know when the other photo was posted.
When I looked into Mahogany, I found LOTS of social media profiles on multiple platforms. It seems she has been leaning heavy on filters for at least five years. Here’s an image from her best known @passion70roll Instagram account posted in February of 2016:
Here’s a photo posted the same month by Mahogany’s dad, accompanied by the words “with Mahogany” as a caption:
UPDATE – Here is a gallery of professionally shot photos of a Mahogany Roca from 2017:
In addition to her appearance being a bit different than what she shows online, it may be that Mahogany’s age is a bit off as well.
Mahogany posted a photo on Facebook on January 5. Someone commented that it is “pretty obvious Ben is getting Catfish by a Nigeran [sic] scammer.” That elicited this response from Mahogany’s account:
I agreed to be on 90 day fiance to share a dramatic story to watch. Keep looking and you will be surprised! but I clarify to be real and a young woman of 22 years.
Ben believed that Mahogany was 24 when he filmed for the show, which looks to have been August, September and October. If her Facebook post is correct, that means she was actually either 21 or 20 at the time Ben filmed.
In summary, it appears that Ben is in for quite a surprise when he finally meets Mahogany for the first time! If he actually meets her! To find out how this all plays out, be sure to tune in for new episodes of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days airing Sunday nights at 8/7 on TLC
OK, the next big question is whether or not Ben and Mahogany’s story line is real or fake. There is definitely some evidence suggesting that it is the latter, and I will compile that in a new post coming soon!
AND HERE IT IS:
#BeforeThe90Days Is the Ben and Mahogany relationship fake and scripted? Check out the evuhdense binder and decide for yourself! #90DayFiance #Benogany (Yes, that's Ben in a musical stage production of Tarzan) https://t.co/vytLupxfbe pic.twitter.com/MZrnyciRb7
— Starcasm (@starcasm) January 24, 2022
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
