Does Coffee Meets Bagel Have Fake Profiles?

Probably a few, as on any app, and nobody outside the company can tell you how many. Coffee Meets Bagel checks a live selfie against the main photo and encourages every member to do it, which keeps out the laziest fakes. It cannot vouch for what a woman says or wants. So a profile that looks fake deserves a quick test of your own, and a report if it fails.

The app uses a selfie liveness check. A member takes a live selfie, a partner company called Persona compares that face with the main photo, and a pass earns a verified badge. The check is not mandatory, though the app encourages it.

That is a real hurdle for a script or for someone using stolen photos. A stranger cannot pass as a woman whose face is not his.

It is also narrow. A badge says the face in the photo is the face in the selfie. It says nothing about her job, her city, her honesty or whether she wants anything from you. Treat the badge as one good sign, not a character reference.

Men lump three different things together.

A fake profile belongs to someone who is not who the page says, or to a script. A stale profile belongs to a real woman who stopped opening the app. A quiet one belongs to a real woman who is busy and has not answered you yet.

Only the first is a problem for you. The other two look the same from your side, because in all three nobody writes back. Look for signs of life before you decide. The Activity Report, which the app builds from a woman's recent connections, shows whether she was active in the last 72 hours and how long she usually takes to reply. A page with no recent activity is more likely a ghost than a scam.

One sign proves little. Two or three together are worth acting on.

• Every photo looks like it came from a professional shoot, with nothing casual anywhere.
• Her replies ignore what you actually said and could have been sent to anyone.
• She wants to leave the app within a few messages, for a link, another site or a private number.
• A sad story builds toward a request for money, gift cards or help with a payment.

a dating coach lists catfish and bots among the frustrations every man on the apps runs into. Real women's pages are usually uneven. A good photo, a few ordinary ones, a shot a friend took without trying.

Most fake accounts show themselves quickly if you ask for something real.

Ask about one small detail in her photos, such as where the second one was taken. A real woman answers with something specific and a little untidy. A script gives you a general reply and asks about your job.

Then suggest a plan or a short call. A real woman can say yes or no to a drink on Thursday. A fake one cannot meet you anywhere, so you get a dodge, a delay or more small talk with no end. coach teaches that the point of the app is a date, and aiming at a plan within a few messages is the best filter there is. He also likes a ten-minute video call before a first date, which settles the question better than any badge.

Take a screenshot first if there is a request for money or a threat in the chat, since reporting removes the chat from your view.

Then open her page and tap Hide or Report, or tap the three dots in the chat. Choose Report and unmatch, confirm, and pick a reason or write your own. The report is anonymous, so she is not told it came from you.

Report accounts that break the rules or put people at risk. If a conversation simply faded or you lost interest, use Hide and unmatch instead. Never open a link a match sends you, and never send money, however small the amount or sad the story.

Most of the women you see are real. A man who treats every message as a scam writes cold, suspicious replies and loses the real ones.

Be friendly and keep the first chat light. Let the plan do the testing. Being selective helps as well. My view is that an app tends to show better women to a man who likes few people than to one who likes everybody. Fewer, better-chosen likes also mean fewer strange conversations to sort through.

Women are asking the same question about you. Verify yourself, since it costs a few minutes and one selfie. Keep your main photo looking like you do today. The app says you may lose the badge if you swap in a photo that does not look like you. And a woman who meets a different man from the one in the picture starts the date annoyed.

Write something specific that only you could write, and make the photos and the words describe the same man. A page like that is easy for a real woman to trust, and easy for a fake one to avoid.