Could Your Tinder Match be a Scam Bot?

The online dating world has been lit ablaze by the app known as Tinder. Tinder is a location-aware mobile dating app that leverages your Facebook profile, likes, friend information, and photos and attempts to match you with other singles that have common interests, friends, or that live near you and meet your search criteria.

Tinder's popularity very likely has a lot to do with its ease of use. Tinder presents you with a stack of photos of potential matches.

If you like one, you swipe right, if you don't like them then you swipe left. If someone you swiped right on does the same when they see a picture of you, then a match is made and Tinder alerts you both and permits you to talk with each other. Pretty ordinary, right?

Inject: Tinder Scam Bots

As with all good things in the world, scammers and spammers have to ruin them by finding some way to manhandle the technology for individual build up.

Tinder has now become a target for scammers attempting to con users out of money, or getting them to install malware on their computers so that the scammers can make money via malware affiliate marketing programs, and other methods.

So how can a Tinder user know whether the photo they are swiping right on is a legitimate person looking for love or a scammer in disguise?

Here Are five Signs That Your Tinder "Match" Might be a Scammer:

1. They Type Exceptionally Rapid

The Tinder bots you encounter are just that, bots, not humans.

They have a limited set of responses that they are going to be able to give as a bot. One big peak off is that as soon as you get "matched" to a bot then they are going to message you, likely within microseconds of the match.

Is it possible that it's a real person, who is just indeed anxious to talk with you?

Maybe, but it's more likely that the bot that was triggered by the match and sent it's very first message attempting to get you on the hook as quickly as possible. While this sign is not conclusive, it's the very first thing that will very likely clue you in that something is amiss.

As you keep talking, you'll most likely notice that the responses you get back are almost instantaneous, because they have been scripted and are triggered off of your responses.

Two. Their Responses Are Generic. They Don't Seem to Be Listening To a Word Your Telling

Unless the bots are using a sophisticated chatterbot-based conversation engine, they will likely only have a few canned responses that they will give in response to your interactions. Once they've dispensed with a few flirty puny talk remarks such as "I've had a truly busy week, my feet hurt, I need a rubdown" then they will produce their payload, which usually asks you to visit a link that will either require you to download something (malware) or give them your credit card information.

Since the bots responses are scripted, they won't reaction your questions directly. That's not to say that some Tinder scams may have actual live people on the other end who might engage in a real conversation with you before they scam you, but the current batch of Tinder bots won't be able to hold even the most plain of conversations, because their bots.

Once they've delivered their payload, that's most likely the last you'll hear from them, they won't likely react to anymore questions. They are done with you. You either took the bait or you didn't.

Three. You Have No Facebook Friends or Interests In Common

Tinder bots have to leverage information from Fake Facebook Profiles in order to be on Tinder. Since they are bots, so you very likely won't have any Facebook friends in common with them. They may have some generic interests in common with you, but very likely not.

Four. They Ask You to Visit a Link, or do Something for Them Requiring The Use of a Credit Card

The honeymoon is over when this message hits you.

All those previous flirty messages have been intended to set you up for the con. You may have gotten, Five, Ten, maybe even twenty messages, but in the end, they eventually have to cut to the pursue and produce their payload: the message that gets you to download something or pay for something.

Once you get this message, it's best to use Tinder's blocking feature so you can have them eliminated from your "match" list. After you get this message, it is unlikely you'll receive any further communications from them other than repeated requests to perform the same act that they desired you to do in the payload message.

Five. Their Profile Pictures Are Way Too Hot For Facebook

The scammers know that the odds are most likely better for obtaining a match that results in conversation if they use photos of attractive people, because if you don't swipe right then they won't get to talk to you and subsequently scam you. They'll most likely even throw in one or two pics that indeed up the sexy factor in order to grab your attention and make you more likely to swipe right. These pics wouldn't likely be on their Facebook profile where Tinder pulls photos from. Yet another crimson flag to look for.

Be Careful Out There!

Tinder can be a truly joy app for meeting fresh people, just make sure you recognize the warning signs above and don't fall head over heals for a bot.

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