Determining whether a Tinder profile is a catfish or not isn’t as easy as it may seem.
Bot profiles are usually pretty easy to determine, but if someone’s taken the time to create a catfish profile, they usually put a little effort into it.
Though, there are some surefire signs that someone you’re talking to on Tinder is a catfish. Here’s what you need to look for to tell whether they are a catfish not.
They obviously ask you for cash
The most obvious way to tell whether someone is a catfish is that they ask you to send them money.
People that create catfish profiles typically have one goal in mind – to get money out of you.
So at some point over the first weeks, you’ll likely get a message asking you to help them out by sending you money.
If you do get a message like this, you should run for the hills and unmatch them immediately, then move onto the next match.
Catfishing takes time, but most people using a fake profile to catfish will not want to chat for months or years before asking for money.
They’ll typically cut right to the chase after building an initial emotional connection – this gives you a chance to cut them off when you first see warning signs.
Their only photos are professional
Photographs by professionals are a dead giveaway that you’re talking to a catfish.
A profile containing professional photographs is not necessarily fake, but it’s one of many factors that can be pieced together to identify a catfish.
This is especially true if they have only professional photos on their Tinder profile. Normal folks take candid pictures from everyday life and post them on their profile, catfish often do not.
So, it’s important to look through their photos and determine whether they’re something that a genuine person would post to their account.
They’re a celebrity
Though some catfish profiles use the images of everyday people taken from Instagram, often you’ll see that the catfish is actually a real person they’re impersonating.
One way you can tell if this person is genuine is performing a reverse image search.
To do this, you can take a screenshot of their profile picture. Then, upload it to images.google.com.
This will use Google’s image recognition software to see where else the image has been posted online.
If it’s a celebrity, then it will show along with other similar photos and where else the image has been uploaded.
This is a great way to find other social media accounts that the user has signed up for too.
They refuse to send you pictures or video chat
A very easy way you can find the true identity of your catfish is to ask them to send you active pictures, or even a video chat of themselves.
Most catfish make many friends across multiple platforms, trying to scam as many people as possible. So, ask for a video call to make sure that this aligns with their profile photos.
They may also refuse to meet up with you in real life.
This is the ultimate way to tell whether a Tinder match is a catfish or not, as if they’re not, you’ll eventually end up meeting with them in person.
What to do if you find out your Tinder match is a catfish?
If you find out that your Tinder match is a catfish, there’s no need to feel embarrassed. These people spend a lot of time learning how to try and catfish others, so much so that they become experts in it themselves.
The first thing you’ll want to do is unmatch them. Try to make sure you haven’t given them any personal information – email addresses and passwords are common things that a catfish may ask for.
After you cut ties with them, simply move on and find somebody else to match with on the Tinder platform. And keep the memory as a lesson to keep your wits about you on dating apps like Tinder.
Conclusion
Although most people thing they’d never be caught out by catfish profiles on dating apps, it’s actually more likely than you may think.
Unfortunately, some people use fake profiles for the purposes of tricking other into eventually parting with their cash, and Tinder is no different.
These catfish profiles are usually identifiable by a variety of different methods.
Running through those above should allow you to determine whether your match is genuine, or whether they’re trying to catfish you.
