Are There Bots on Tinder?

Yes. Automated accounts exist on Tinder, and so do real people who run fake accounts by hand. Nobody outside the company can tell you the share, and the numbers you see online are guesses. What you can know is what a bot is trying to do, and that it almost always shows itself within a few messages.

A bot is not looking for a date. It wants you to do something with your attention or your money, and it needs to get you off the app to do it.

The usual goal is a link. It may be a site that charges to chat, a webcam page, a "verify you are real" form, an app to install, or something about investing. The woman in the photos is bait, and the conversation is a short script that ends at the link.

That purpose is also its weakness. A real woman has no reason to rush you off Tinder in the first three messages. A bot has every reason.

You do not need a technical test. Read the first few answers like a person who wants to meet someone.

• It answers too fast and too evenly. Instant replies at any hour, each one the same length, with no gap for a job or a night out.
• It answers a different question. You ask about the market in her second photo and she says she loves meeting new people. Her reply could have been sent to anyone.
• It moves the conversation sideways. Within a few messages she wants to switch to another app, or tells you to visit a page, or says she is "not on here much."
• It never uses anything from her own page. A real woman will tease you about the thing she wrote. A script cannot.
• It sends a link, a code or a payment request. A real match asking you for money in the first week is not a match.

One of these can happen with a real woman who is tired and typing fast. Two or three together is a script.

The simplest filter is to ask something that only she, looking at her own page, could answer.

Pick a detail: the dog in the third photo, the trip she listed, the thing she says she is bad at. Ask a plain question about it and add a small joke of your own. A real woman answers in her own words, usually with a short opinion. A bot gives you something general, changes the subject, or ignores it and repeats the pitch.

You can also suggest a quick voice message or a short video call before you meet. A real woman may say no for her own reasons, but she will say it like a person. A bot has no good way to say yes.

Do not click the link, and do not give it a number, a code or a card. That is the whole job. Unmatch and report it from inside the app so it is flagged for the people who review accounts. Tinder says it works to remove fake accounts, and a report is how a flagged account reaches them.

Do not argue with it or try to catch it out. You gain nothing, and a bot costs the other side nothing to keep running.

The risk with this question is the wrong conclusion. A man gets three bad replies in a week, decides everyone is fake, and quits. Most of the women you match with are real, and most of the quiet ones are not bots. They are busy, or lost interest, or never opened the app again.

a dating coach's view is that online dating is a numbers game, and a very winnable one, as long as you read a slow week as part of the count and not as a failure. A fake account is one more entry in the count that does not lead anywhere. Move on to the next match.

Bots have taught women to be careful too. A woman who has been sent a link by an automated account is quick to doubt a man whose first message is generic.

So write like a real person, in one or two lines, about something specific on her page. Say something only you would say. Suggest a real plan after a handful of messages. Keep your own page honest, with clear pictures of your face, so there is nothing for her to wonder about. The same things that make a fake easy to spot make you easy to believe.