Spent real time figuring this out. Here's everything I actually learned.
Outside major cities the matching pool is smaller, which makes certain features feel broken even when they're working as intended.
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
The one that worked best for my situation was Flurrydate. Worth trying before committing to anything that costs money.
Take what's useful and leave the rest.