Some want to find love on Tinder, others just want to make new friends. But among the large selection of potential partners, many a fake profile has crept in. TECHBOOK explains how to recognize fake accounts.
The dating app Tinder arranges quick and uncomplicated dates. When looking for the next flirt, the focus is on the profile picture – it influences the user’s decision by 90 percent. If a suggested person likes it, the user can mark them. “It’s a match,” they say, even if she thinks it’s good. Then a contact is made, the two can chat and maybe exchange phone numbers. But be careful: Many profiles are not real! Fake profiles are now a problem on many social media platforms and some of these fake profiles are also hiding on Tinder. They usually have the purpose of excluding the app users.
Some profiles turn out to be a subscription trap
The fake profiles on Tinder are often female profiles, which criminals use to trick predominantly male victims into clicking on a link. This is supposed to serve to verify your profile, as reported by the watchlist-internet.at portal. However, the link leads to a paid subscription that costs up to 50 euros per month.
Behind the fake profiles on Tinder are not necessarily real people, but so-called bots, i.e. robots that first arrange a meeting with the victim in the course of the conversation. Almost casually, they mention having had bad experiences in the past and ask the person they are talking to to verify themselves using the link provided.
The link leads to various platforms that advertise free membership. There you will be prompted to enter your chat name, password and email address. After clicking on the “Start Now” button, you should enter your credit card details. With the subsequent confirmation, however, you conclude various memberships that cost between 37 and 50 euros per month. Therefore, caution is advised: Expensive subscriptions may be hiding behind the fake profiles on Tinder.
Since Tinder already offers the option of having one’s profile verified, one should be skeptical of such requests from third parties, according to watchlist-internet.de. This is almost certainly a fake profile on Tinder, because individual users would never ask you to verify themselves. For those who have already fallen into the trap, the portal recommends not to respond to any monetary demands under any circumstances.
Also Read: How to Find and Delete Your Old Internet Profiles
Recognize fake profile on Tinder and Co
You should carefully consider who you want to connect with on Tinder. Is the new flirt perhaps too good to be true? Social Media Expert Bastian Scherbeck from the communications agency Kolle Rebbe GmbH has five tips on how users can easily identify a fake profile on Tinder.
Photo: Kolle Rebbe GmbH
Tip 1: The profile is not filled out
Can’t find any further information about your job, hobbies and/or interests? Tinder doesn’t give its users much space to describe themselves anyway. However, if you find NO further information apart from a photo, this is often an indication of a fake profile on Tinder. If there are still strange links (usually short URLs) in the bio of the profile – preferably with a teaser (“If you want to know more about me, click here”) – it means: hands off!
Tip 2: The profile only has one photo
Only a single photo in the profile – and no information in the bio? Does this one photo look like it was professionally taken or even “photoshopped”? Then you are almost certainly dealing with a fake.
Tip 3: The profile reacts super fast to messages
You have a match, message them and get a quick response. fantastic? Not necessarily. If the answer comes so quickly that Sie wondering how man/woman can type so fast, you might be dealing with a bot. He takes advantage of the moment to get information that you would otherwise not give out. Accordingly: No matter how tempting it may be, it is better to break off a conversation too soon than too late.
Tip 4: Your match desperately wants to continue the conversation on another channel immediately
Barely met your match and they’re already asking for your phone number? Stay away – if you release these now, you’ll mostly get spam messages and bot calls. An alternative: The conversation should be continued directly in another social network that you do not know? Hands off here too! Someone is either trying to get personal information or advertise for another social network.
Tip 5: The profile is too good to be true
Unfortunately, at the end of the day the following often applies: if the profile, from the professional photos to the bio to the job, is absolutely amazing – it sounds like the perfect partner – Caution! A lot is possible. But how high is the probability that this is not a fake? So keep your hands off! Currently, this is often the case with profiles of heavily retouched Asian women. These are mostly fakes. They build the conversation and eventually switch to financial topics.
Is a fake profile on Tinder punishable by law?
The creation and use of fake profiles on Tinder or other social networks is prohibited according to the terms of use. So if you register, you have to register with your real name, which can also be assigned to a real person.
Although the use of fake profiles is prohibited, illegal use does not automatically result in criminal proceedings. But be careful: This only applies to pure fake profiles. Anyone who misappropriates the identity of another person or uses a false name to oblige users with a link to paid subscriptions is liable to prosecution in any case.
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Why are there so many fake profiles on Tinder?
The motives behind a fake profile on Tinder are different. Some are just having fun, others suffer from a complex personality disorder. But there are also professional rip-offs. The cybercriminals try to lure people who want to flirt with the fake profiles to dubious sites. This is how their scam works:
A profile on Facebook is controlled by a bot (computer program). The pictures used in the profile on Tinder are all fake and only show pretty people. If you slide such a profile on Tinder to the right, the bot automatically starts a conversation in the open chat. After a few comments, however, we quickly get down to business. The bot invites you to play an online game with it or sends you another link to open. If the game or the link is clicked, malware is loaded directly onto the computer, smartphone or tablet.
This is how you can protect your profile
Fake profile or not, you should generally never click on links sent via Tinder. behind often hides something different than expected. If you value anonymity and still want to use the app, you can also create a Facebook profile especially for Tinder, on which only the relevant information is available.
For this you should not create a fake profile with invented birth details and names, but a real profile with separated photos and fewer details and no personal likes. Once the registration is complete, you should start registering on Tinder with the newly created profile so that the new Facebook profile can be linked to Tinder.