How to Spot a Fake Profile Before You Waste Your Evening

Why Fake Profiles on Skip The Games-Style Sites Are So Common

If you've run into fakes, you're in large company. In a 2023 Pew Research Center report, about half of Americans who had used dating sites or apps (52%) said they had come across someone they thought was trying to scam them. That's mainstream dating apps, with big trust and safety teams. Adult classifieds that don't check who's posting are an even easier target.

The reason is money. The FTC's 2023 Consumer Sentinel data, highlighted in a 2024 FTC blog post, counted 64,003 romance scam reports with $1.14 billion in reported losses and a median loss of $2,000 per person, the highest median of any type of imposter scam. Across all fraud types, the FTC says people reported losing more than $12.5 billion in 2024, a 25% increase on 2023. A fake profile costs almost nothing to make. Even if only one in a few hundred people pays, it's worth it to the person running it. That economics is why you'll keep seeing them, and why the habits below matter.

Start With the Photos, Because Fakers Always Do

Almost every fake listing begins with stolen photos. They're the cheapest part of the con: grab a few pictures from an Instagram model, a cam performer, or an old ad, and you've got a "provider" in about thirty seconds. So that's where you start too.

Do a reverse image search. On a phone, long-press the photo and use Google Lens; on a computer, TinEye or Bing Visual Search both work. If the same face turns up under five names in five cities, you have your answer. If it turns up on a verified social account with a hundred thousand followers, you also have your answer. Real providers sometimes repost their own photos across a couple of sites, which is fine; what you're looking for is the same face being somebody different everywhere.

Things that should make you pause

• Every photo is professionally lit, magazine quality, and there's not a single casual shot.
• The photos look like they came from different years, with different hair, different tattoos, or a different body type.
• Watermarks have been cropped out or smudged, leaving a strange blur in a corner.
• The background is a famous hotel or a beach, never anywhere that looks like daily life.

Read the Text Like an Editor Would

Real people write like real people. They have quirks. They repeat a phrase they like. They mention a specific neighbourhood, a specific boundary, something about how they like to be contacted. Fake listings read like they were written to fit every city at once.

I look for three things. First, specificity: does the ad say anything that couldn't be copied word for word into a listing in another state? Second, consistency: does the stated age match the photos, does the location match the area code, does the description match the pictures? Third, the ask: is there anything about money, deposits, or verification fees before you've even spoken? If there is, stop reading. That last one is the whole game for the scammer and no other detail matters after it.

The Conversation Is Where Bots Give Themselves Away

A lot of fakes now are partly automated. The first reply arrives in seconds, is suspiciously warm, and skips right past whatever you asked. You ask "are you near downtown?" and get "Hey babe, I'm so excited to meet you, I just need you to verify on this site first." That's not a person answering your question. That's a script steering you toward a link.

An easy test is to ask something specific that only a real local would answer naturally. "Is parking easy near you?" A real person says "yeah, there's a lot behind the building" or "street parking is a pain, take an Uber." A bot says something enthusiastic and vague, then repeats the link.

Common bot and scam lines

• "I need you to verify you're not a cop" followed by a link or a payment request.
• "My phone only receives texts, I can't call" every single time you suggest a call.
• "Buy a gift card so I know you're serious."
• "I'm only on this other app, add me there," pushing you off the platform immediately.

The stories scammers lean on

The FTC has tracked the lies romance scammers tell most often, and they line up closely with what turns up on classifieds. In 2022 reports to the FTC, 24% of romance scammers claimed they or a family member were sick, hurt or in jail and needed money, and 18% pitched some kind of investment, often crypto. The FTC also flags the endless excuses for why someone can't meet: deployed overseas, working on an oil rig, stuck abroad. On a local classifieds site, the version you'll see is "I'm travelling, just send a deposit to hold the date." Same trick, shorter timeline. As the FTC puts it, sad stories are usually scam stories.

Price Is a Tell, Not a Bargain

Every market has a normal range. Providers in the same city talk, compare notes, and price within a band. When an ad comes in at a third of what everyone else asks, the listing isn't generous, it's bait. The ad is cheap because it doesn't matter what it says; the person posting it never intends to show up as described. In my experience, unusually low rates are one of the strongest single predictors of a fake listing.

The Bait and Switch

This one is less of a scam and more of a disappointment, but it still matters. The photos are real, they're just of someone else, or of the same person from a decade ago. You arrive and the person at the door is not the person in the ad. A good provider would never do this, because it destroys her reputation. The people who do it rely on you being too awkward to leave.

You're allowed to leave. Politely, immediately, no explanation needed. "Sorry, this isn't going to work for me" is all you owe anyone. That's exactly why our safety guide says money changes hands at the start, in person, after you've seen who you're meeting, never before.

What Verification Actually Covers

On Skip The Games we verify providers before their listings go live, which removes most of the stolen-photo problem at the source. I'm proud of that, but I'm also honest about it: verification is a strong filter, not a force field. Somebody can be verified and still be a poor communicator, or change their availability last minute. The habits in this article are worth keeping no matter where you browse.

If you want to understand exactly what our checks involve, the about page walks through the process, and this page answers the "is it legit" question head on.

A Ninety-Second Checklist

1. Reverse image search one or two photos.
2. Check that the area code and location roughly match.
3. Look for at least one specific, human detail in the text.
4. Compare the rate to other listings in that city.
5. Ask one simple local question and see if you get a real answer.
6. Walk away from any request for money before you meet.

That's it. It takes less time than a coffee order, and it filters out the overwhelming majority of the nonsense out there.

Fake Profile Questions I Get Asked a Lot

"Is a reverse image search really enough?"

It's the best single check, and it's one the FTC recommends for anyone talking to someone online: if the photos come up under another name, or the details don't match, you're probably dealing with someone who stole another person's identity. But a clean search isn't proof of anything. Fresh or private photos won't show up anywhere, so use it alongside the other checks, not instead of them.

"They sent me a new selfie. Doesn't that prove they're real?"

Not on its own. Photos can be pulled from someone else's private collection, and editing tools have made convincing fakes easier to produce. What's much harder to fake is a natural, specific conversation and a person who's happy to meet without asking for anything first.

"I already sent a deposit. What now?"

Stop sending money, even if they promise a refund once you pay one more fee. Contact your bank, card issuer or the gift card company straight away, then report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov or ic3.gov. Report the listing to the site it came from too. And if threats follow, which sometimes happens, don't reply; the extortion guide linked below walks you through it.

"Can a verified profile still be fake?"

Verification makes it much harder, because someone has to prove they're the person in the pictures before going live. It doesn't guarantee a great evening. The one rule that holds everywhere is that a real person never needs your money before you've met.

Sources

• Pew Research Center: Key findings about online dating in the U.S. (2023)
• Federal Trade Commission: "Love Stinks" – when a scammer is involved (2024)
• Federal Trade Commission: New FTC Data Show a Big Jump in Reported Losses to Fraud to $12.5 Billion in 2024 (2025)