This one trips people up constantly. Here's my complete breakdown.
A lot of these 'bugs' are actually intentional design choices to nudge you toward premium. Knowing that changes how you troubleshoot.
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
That's my honest take after a fair amount of trial and error.