What Do You Do if Your Tinder Account Was Hacked?

Contact Tinder's customer support team. Tinder says that if you notice suspicious activity, such as messages you did not send or photos you did not upload, customer support is the place to go. Its security team only deals with reports of flaws in the app itself. Then make sure nobody else can get hold of the codes that let someone log in as you.

Tinder gives two clear examples of suspicious activity: messages you did not send, and photos you did not upload.

Either one means somebody other than you has been inside the account. A chat you do not remember starting, a message in your name that you would never write, or a picture in your set that you have never seen before are not glitches to shrug off. Take a screenshot of anything odd before you do anything else. Support will find it easier to help when you can show exactly what changed.

It sounds logical to write to a security team about a security problem. Tinder is specific that this is the wrong door.

Its security team handles vulnerability reports, meaning reports about flaws in how Tinder itself is built. A stranger getting into your personal account is a customer support matter. Writing to the security address sends your problem to people whose job is something else. Go straight to customer support, describe what you saw, and attach the screenshots.

Tinder requires SMS verification when you log in with your phone number. That code is what stops someone who only knows your number from getting in, which is why Tinder recommends never sharing those codes with anyone.

So think back over the last few weeks. Did anyone ask you for a code? The trick to watch for is a message from a woman, or someone posing as one, saying something like "I sent you a code by mistake, can you read it to me?" Reading it out hands over the key to your account. If that happened, tell support, and never do it again, however friendly the request.

Your Tinder account is only as safe as the two things it leans on: your phone number and your email.

Check that the phone number on the account is still yours and still active. If you changed numbers at some point and never updated Tinder, someone else may now hold your old one. Check the email on the account too, and make sure you can still get into that inbox. If the email account itself has been broken into, secure it with its own provider first, because it is part of how you get back into Tinder when a phone changes.

Once support has helped you back in, update anything that looks wrong under Settings. Put your own number and your own email back on the account, and remove anything you did not add.

If someone sent messages as you, the women on the other end have no idea. Some may have received requests or links in your name.

When you are back in control, send a short note to anyone who may have been contacted. Keep it plain: "Someone got into my account for a few days. If you got anything odd from me, it was not me, sorry about that." Most women will appreciate the honesty. For the ones you were getting on well with, it is a natural moment to suggest a call.

a dating coach's habit with any woman he is unsure about is to get her on a phone call or a video call before he invests more time. After a hack, that same step reassures her you are real, and it moves the conversation somewhere a stranger cannot get into.

A few habits cover most of the risk. Never share a login code with anyone, for any reason. Keep the number and email on the account current, so recovery always reaches you. Use an email you actually read, so you notice anything strange arriving there. And be suspicious of any match who moves quickly to asking for codes, money, or links to click.

A hacked account is a stressful few days, and it can put a man off the apps for a while. Once it is sorted, reply to anyone who wrote to you in the meantime and pick up the conversations worth keeping.

Take it as a nudge to stop keeping everything inside one app. My approach is to take a woman's number once she is open to meeting and set the date by text. A conversation you have already moved to text is one a stranger with your login cannot touch.