What Should You Do If a Hinge Match Asks for Money?

Report her and move on. Hinge says scammers often claim to need money for a visa, customs fees, surgery, medical bills, car repairs or plane tickets, and that once money is involved it is best to report them. It advises never sending or receiving money by wire transfer, money order, currency exchange, gift card or investment. It also asks you to report anyone who tells you where to invest your money.

Hinge's list reads like a set of emergencies: a visa, customs fees, surgery, medical bills, car repairs, plane tickets.

Each one is built to make you feel like a decent man for helping. A visa means she is trying to come and see you. A plane ticket means she wants to meet. A medical bill makes saying no feel cruel. The story changes from account to account. The shape stays the same: a problem only money can fix, and you are the person who can fix it tonight.

Hinge's guidance does not ask you to judge whether the story is true. Once money is involved, it says, report and move on. That takes the hardest part of the decision off your hands, because you never have to argue with a good story.

It is natural to think only about money going out. Hinge's advice runs both ways: never send and never receive money by wire transfer, money order, currency exchange, gift card or investment.

Receiving sounds harmless. It can even feel like proof she is genuine, because she is the one paying. It is not a good sign. Money that lands in your account from a stranger can be stolen money. If she then asks you to pass it on, change it into another currency, or buy gift cards with it, your name ends up on someone else's fraud.

So the rule is simple. No money moves between you and a woman you have not met, in either direction, in any form Hinge lists.

This is the version men miss, because nobody asks for anything.

She mentions, a week or two in, that she makes good money trading. Her uncle showed her a platform. She could show you, if you like. There is no emergency and no request, only friendly advice.

Hinge names this one directly: report anyone who tells you where to invest your money. A woman you met on a dating app has no reason to steer your savings anywhere. The warmth of the chat before the tip is the whole point of the scam.

The mechanics are quick. Take screenshots of the messages where money came up, then report her from the chat. If the story is involved, or you want to add the screenshots, Hinge's Submit a Request form takes extra detail.

Do not send a farewell. Do not explain that you have worked out what she is doing. Arguing only hands a practiced liar more material to work with. Silence is the one reply they cannot use.

Send nothing more, however the next request is dressed up. Report the account to Hinge with your screenshots. Then talk to your bank, and report the fraud to the police.

The hardest part is telling someone. Men keep these losses quiet out of embarrassment, and that silence helps the person on the other end more than anything. You were targeted by a professional, at exactly the moment when kindness was the natural response.

In a dating coach's experience, Hinge tends to carry fewer fake accounts than Tinder in American cities. Fewer is not none, though, and his own habits protect him either way.

He gets women on a phone call early, and he likes a video call better still, because it shows him the woman is who her photos say she is. In his order of preference, video beats a phone call, a phone call beats a voice note, and a voice note beats text.

He also keeps first dates easy for himself, somewhere close to him and convenient to reach. That habit sits well next to Hinge's money rules. A woman happy to meet you for a drink nearby is not asking you to fund anything. A woman who needs a plane ticket before she can meet you is telling you something.

The call habit catches a lot of trouble early. A real woman who likes you will usually hop on a short call and then agree to a drink. An account built to extract money has every reason to keep things in text, where the story is easier to control. Get the good ones onto a call and then onto a date, and the chats that were never going to become dates show themselves quickly.