If you love making new friends on social media or dating sites like Tinder or Bumble, you need to be very careful of those fake profiles. Most of them are obviously fake without much information or photo while some are not. If you want to know if the person you met online is real and honest about their age, location, marital status or any other aspects, this post introduces the best tools for you to identify a fake profile.

Method 1 – Run a catfish image search

Social Catfish is a powerful online dating investigative service that helps you verify someone’s identity easily. Simply with a picture you uploaded, it can figure out where the picture first originated from and how many of the same photos are used online. If you find many social media profiles based on one picture, it’s likely the profile is fake and the person is a catfish.

1) Visit the Social Catfish image search page. Upload an image and click Search. Or you can select other search types you prefer.

2) Wait until the search completes. Once done, you should see the person’s details and track what websites the person has a profile on.

Method 2 – Do a background check

Before you’re getting serious with the person you connected online, make sure he/she is a genuine person and not pretending to be someone else. And the very first thing you can do is a reliable & professional background check.

With a reliable username search tool like Spokeo, you can look up a username on social media or dating site to uncover everything about your potential dates even what is intentionally hidden. Beyond their personal info, you can learn about their marital status, criminal history and more.

1) Navigate to the Spokeo username search page.

2) Type a username and click Search Now.

3) It takes a few minutes to scan and locate your online match. Then Spokeo will provide you with every piece of useful information including:

• Personal & contact details (full name, age marital status, phone number and email address, etc);
• Location info (address, property ownership and so on);
• Online profiles on other social media, dating sites and more.

Method 3 – Search on Google

If you don’t feel like a paid service, search with Google for free. You can also take advantage of Google’s Image Search, where you’re able to check out if the picture is actually a stock image or stolen from celebrities or other people.

To do this, take a screenshot or save the profile picture of your prospective date and upload it to Google. If the results that turn up don’t match up, you’d better be careful.

Method 4 – Pay attention to these signs

Although it’s difficult to know who the person really is behind a screen, fake dating profiles usually have some warning signs to watch out for. Keep these safety tips in mind to avoid possible romance scams:

• No biography or missing information
  When you see a profile with an empty bio (no occupation, interest or anything), or it’s suspicious like showing spelling mistakes or strange description that doesn’t make sense, it’s likely to be a bot or fake user.
• Professionally edited photos
  Everyone wants to upload the most perfect pictures for dating profiles, but model-like or extremely professional-looking photos can be a red flag. Think it twice.
• Blank social media connection
  Most online dating sites allow users to link their common social media like Facebook or Instagram. If there is one, do check out the social profiles. Accounts that have no connection or activity may be new and set up for spam.

Quite a lot of profiles are so well-prepared that it’s hard to identify, but they may let the cat out of the bag during conversations. For example:

• They’re unwilling to meet you in person or avoid video chat with a variety of excuses.
• They try to move the conversation to other platforms and send suspicious links to a website that you’re not familiar with.
• They ask you for money or gifts and request too much of your private information.
• When you suspect you’re talking to a bot that responds super fast and answers incoherently, try to ask random questions or deliberately make typos to test if they react like humans.

Whenever you’re spotting one of those signs, stay alert. If you want to confirm your doubts, simply do further research on someone you’ve met online with a people search engine.

What to do with fake dating profiles

Once you’re sure the account belongs to a fake user, don’t hesitate to report it. Don’t be afraid to report any fake profiles and get them off the dating site. This will also protect other users from falling for the tricks. If you’re on Tinder, for example, you can open the profile of your match and tap at the three dots icon at the top right corner and select Report.

Conclusion

It’s better to miss out on a romantic match than to get involved with someone with a fake identity. They just try to scam you out of money or play with your emotions. The world of online dating is filled with potential dangers, so always watch out for anything suspicious with your gut instinct and take sensible precautions like running a background check.

Hopefully this post helped. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions about online dating scams.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels