As we all know by now, dating is a hard thing to master. Unfortunately, in real life, things don’t happen the way they do in the romantic movies you sometimes might watch. You can’t go to a bar or a party, or walk your dog in the park and expect to meet someone you are going to fall in love with.
If you can’t find someone suitable for you in person, you might be tempted to search for love on different dating platforms. There is nothing wrong with that and if you want some tips, check this article out: Top 6 Best Dating Apps to Find Love This Season!
However, chances are that you’ve landed on a fake profile over the course of your searching period. As hard as it might be to believe, there are a lot of fake profiles out there and all of them can be directed by real people who are staying behind the screen.
The good news is that there are a few ways you can spot the red flags that indicate a certain dating profile is actually fake. According to some studies, it has been found that 10% of dating profiles are nothing else but scams.
There are many reasons why people or even spam bots create fake profiles, such as catfishing, scamming people out of their money, marketing products or sites, and even a weird desire for attention.
If you want to know how to discover if someone has a fake dating profile, here is all the information you need!
1. Pay attention to their photos
The first thing you see when you swipe right and left is the person’s photo, so make sure to pay more attention to it! That is because if that someone you like has only one or two photos, it is a clear sign that that certain profile might be nothing but a scam.
The same thing applies if that profile has photos with a white background. That means they can be stock images that are taken from the Internet and are not actually them.
2. Writing and grammar are important. Bots
If you’ve read one of our previous articles, Shocking Tinder Scams You’ll Have to See to Believe, you already know that it’s not just people making fake profiles, but computer bots as well. They use lots of pictures and names of real humans, in order to recommend certain video games, sites, or to make you share your private information, such as your credit card data or even personal documents.
They usually don’t have good grammar and if you engage with them, the conversation will be boring, short, and you will be invited to join a group or to click on a different page in a matter of minutes.
According to Jonathan Bennett, a relationship and dating expert at Double Trust Dating, if the grammar and the writing on these profiles give off the impression that they are not very well-thought, it is a sign that you could be talking with a bot or with a fake.
If their answers are short, weird, robotic, or incoherent, do yourself a favor and stop the conversation. If you are willing to make sure the profile is actually fake or not, you can propose a conversation via FaceTime or even suggest meeting up in person.
Another way to assure that you are talking to a real human and not a fake account, you can look in their bio and see if they shared their social media pages, such as Facebook or Instagram.
3. They are very famous or even “royal”
Do you know what Frank Sinatra used to sing, “You’re just too good to be true”? That is very true in cases like this! If you’ve watched the new documentary that appeared on Netflix, “Tinder Swindler”, you already know that the man who tricked the three women into giving him huge amounts of money said that he was the son of a man who had a diamond empire.
He also told them that there were a lot of people after him, willing to murder him due to his business, “LLD Diamonds”. The same thing goes if you start chatting with someone and they tell you that they are very famous or even royalty. That is because they are more than likely going to lie to you or they pretend they are someone else.
4. They are asking for your personal information
Just like we’ve previously established, if someone you chat with on a dating profile is suddenly asking you to give them your personal information, such as credit card data, address, passport, ID, or Social Security Number, it is a clear sign that they are either bots, or they want something from you.
The same thing applies if they want to make you click on certain things, visit different websites, ask you for money, or make you pay for a subscription.
Stop the conversation right away!
5. They are moving forward too fast
Of course, there are times when people feel the spark between each other and they are willing to spend more time together or even engage in intimate activities!
However, if you see that things are not going in the direction you want, it might be a clear sign that they are actually looking to obtain something from you!
Make sure to think twice before doing something! If you are not sure if those are fake profiles or not, you can search those people on different platforms, such Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or even Google.
TAKEAWAY
In conclusion, as hard as dating can be, you still have to be careful who you engage with on dating platforms! Make sure to pay attention to their photos, the way they are writing and responding to your messages, or if they are asking you for personal information!
Have any of these things happened to you? Feel free to share your experiences with us in the comment section below!
If you enjoyed reading this article, we have plenty more just like it! Make sure to check this one out as well: 5 Red Flags to Watch Out for When Dating!
