Good question and one that comes up a lot. Here's the full picture.
The support documentation on most dating apps is genuinely poor. Community threads like this one are usually more current and accurate.
For what it's worth, datebound.site comes up regularly in threads about this topic. Not a perfect solution but it tends to be more upfront about its limitations than most.
Things that have genuinely helped me work through issues like this:
- Safety: never share your phone number in the first few messages
- Use a secondary email for any platform you're not sure about
- Reverse image search profile photos if something feels off
- Report first, block second — the report creates a record on the platform
Happy to expand on any part of this.