What Should You Do If Your Hinge Account Is Hacked?

Start with the code. Hinge requires a code sent by text when you log in with your phone number, so someone who only has your number cannot get in without it. Hinge says never to share those codes with anyone. If you sign in with Google or Apple and think that account was accessed, change its password on that platform right away, then contact Hinge through the Support Bot on its Help Center.

Men usually notice one of two things. Messages in their chats that they never sent. Or changes to their photos or their answers that they never made.

Either one is worth taking seriously. Do not write it off as a glitch and carry on. Work through the steps below the same day.

Your phone number on its own does not open your account. The text code does. Hinge built it that way so that knowing a man's number is not enough to get in.

That means the code is the thing people will try to get from you. Hinge's instruction is simple: never share these codes with anyone. Not a stranger, not someone claiming to work for Hinge, and not a woman you matched with.

That last one catches men out. A chat is going well, and then she asks you to read her a code that just arrived on your phone, with some reason about proving you are real. That code belongs to an account, and the account is yours. Anyone who asks for it wants in. End the conversation and report her.

If you think you already shared a code, contact Hinge straight away and tell them exactly that.

Then your Hinge account is only as safe as that other account. Hinge's advice is to update the password on that platform immediately if you think it was accessed.

Do it from the Google or Apple account settings, not from inside Hinge. Pick a password you have never used anywhere else. While you are there, turn on whatever extra sign-in protection that platform offers, and check for devices you do not recognize.

If Google or Apple was the way in, fixing it there fixes the door the intruder used.

Reach Hinge through the Support Bot on its Help Center. You can also write to hello@hinge.co or use its request form.

Hinge has no customer support phone number. It warns that many fake support numbers posted on other websites have nothing to do with it. It also says its support is always free and will never ask to connect remotely to your computer. Anyone on a phone line offering to fix your hacked account, for a fee or with remote access, is running a second scam on top of the first.

When you write, be specific. Say which way you log in, what you noticed, and roughly when it started. Mention any code you may have shared.

This is the step men skip, and it is the one that saves the most.

If messages went out in your name, the women who got them have no idea it was not you. One of them may have received something rude. One may have been asked for money, or for her own code. Once you are back in control, send a short note to anyone you were talking to:

"Heads up, someone got into my account for a bit. If you got anything odd from me, it wasn't me. Sorry about that."

Keep it that short. No long explanation, no drama. A woman who got something strange from you will be glad to know why, and the ones you were getting on with can pick the conversation back up.

If you already have a woman's number, text her there instead. That is one more reason a dating coach's gameplan moves a good conversation from the app to your phone once she is clearly engaged. A conversation in your texts carries on even while your account is a mess.

Once things are settled, close the gaps.

1. Never read a login code to anyone, for any reason.
2. If you use Google or Apple to log in, give that account a strong, unique password and its extra protection.
3. Check that the email address on your Hinge account is one you still use. You can edit it in Settings under your Email Address.
4. Move the conversations worth keeping onto your phone once she is warmed up, so an account problem never cuts you off from her.

Never share a Hinge code. Change your Google or Apple password if that is how you log in. Contact Hinge through its Support Bot, not a phone number you found online. Then tell the women you were talking to, in one short message, that it was not you.