Featured Blogger: Christina Voors

There’s nothing like a dating app to make you realize how many single people are around you. Suddenly, your town is filled with options! With that, it is easy to fall into the trap of swiping right on everyone that catches your eye, leading to conversations and dates that end up being less than ideal. That said, there are signs early on that can give you some red flags on what’s to come. With any of these, it’s usually a good call to abandon ship.

The Profile

• Every photo is a game of ‘Where’s Waldo?’ Sometimes you will stumble across a profile that only shows group photos, leaving you wondering who exactly this profile belongs to. As a fan of transparency, I usually consider it a pro to see who you would be interacting with.
• Shirtless mirror shots. On the other side of the spectrum, there are profiles filled with photos that don’t leave much to the imagination. Excessively posed and stripped shots can be another red flag, leaving the potential for you to be matched with someone who is more interested in themselves than you.
• Their bio is meticulous about what they expect in a match. If they have a shopping list of needs for you to meet, they already have a perfect image of who they want in their head. Honestly, it’s impossible to compete with that on-the-pedestal match.

First Contact

• Excessive messaging. If there’s a stretch of time where you can’t respond and they respond with several messages, back off. If they are this attentive now, it will only increase down the line.
• Never wanting to meet in person. There are two main reasons for this to be the case: they’re not that interested, or they are not who they seem to be. If you have the time to set up your app in search for matches, you should make the time to meet them. Don’t get strung along.
• Immediately speaking sexually. Whether it is an unwarranted photo or invasive questions, this is too much too fast. Let alone, just inappropriate. Keep in mind most websites and apps including Chekmate make it easy to report or block users who abusing their platform.

Be aware and stay safe. Chekmate will bring you matches in the safest way possible, but it’s always good to have an eye out for matches that are ambiguous, unreliable, or uncomfortable.

These aren’t the only red flags in the early dating app stages, comment below to share yours!