Well, you finally made it to the online dating world, and you head in innocently, hopeful, and looking for honesty. Let me stop you right there. Daters, be warned: If the best profiles can mislead you, they ask for your number on the first day you connect. Advice: Do not give your number out right away.
The reason is that you barely know this person, and now you have given out one of your most precious possessions ---- your phone number. I had this happen a few times when I thought, oh, this is innocent, and maybe it will lead to an in-person date faster – ha, was I a fool or what?
We are going to list some warning signs and tips for making sure the person on the other end is human, not a scamming human, and not a robot:
1) There is a verification process on Bumble, and you can look at verified-only profiles; however, scammers still slip in and ask for your number immediately. Please hold out until you have spoken for a few days or even a week.
2) Another thing to look out for on Bumble is – let’s say you give your phone number out, check back 2 hours later to see if that person has deleted your profile, and take a screenshot of this person to report later.
3) Hinge is a bit tricky. There is no feature to prevent massive fake profiles into the system, even when you pay for the upgrade. We just had someone tell us that they gave their number; the person called them within the hour and talked about “God and their lack of money and relationships” again, watch out.
4) Match: Buyer beware; while Match claims to be one of the best, our experiences differ; again, scammers are all over.
5) Research all the dating applications to see which one may work best for you:
More to the point, do not do the following:
Do not give out your phone number too soon in the game.
· Pay for upgrades if you can afford them to help weed out some of the potential scammers.
· Don did not change over to What’s App –a TRAP for people wanting money, and encrypted messages may be hard to track.
· Do not post your children with you in your profile – you do not want strangers to see the most important people in your world.
· Utilize the tools built out on the dating apps and report any suspicious activities.
· Don’t be afraid to block people on dating apps (they will never find out); if you do not want them constantly to show up in your feed, you must do this.
· Do a background check on every person you may go out on a date with, get their last name, and look them up:
o Whitepages.com
o Instant Checkmate
o Truthfinder
o All social media channels – they may not use social but check just in case; you may be surprised by what you find out.
There are many more, but check and ensure their name matches what they told you.
We want everyone safely date and find happiness, do not trip into these easy pitfalls. You will regret it. You can find a list of all the dating sites here: The Ultimate List of Every Dating App.
Happy searching and safe dating.