Why Did Christian Mingle Block My Account?

Christian Mingle says an account is blocked for safety, security or location reasons. The usual causes are signing in from outside the countries it serves and using a VPN. Others are putting a phone number or link on your page, and complaints from matches about how you treated them. If your account qualifies, the blocked screen on the website shows a Verify my identity button. Some blocks cannot be reversed that way.

Christian Mingle is available only in the United States, Canada, Australia and the outlying U.S. territories. Signing in from anywhere else, such as on a trip abroad, can block the account.

A VPN or proxy can cause the same result. It can make you look as if you are somewhere it does not operate, and it can trigger the security systems. If you use one on your phone for work, check it before you open the app.

Adding a phone number, email address, social media handle or outside link to your page is against its Terms of Service, and it can lead to a block. Men do this innocently. They want a woman to find them easily, and so they put a handle in their About section.

The rule is about your page. Keep contact details off it, and check Christian Mingle's own terms before you share them anywhere else on the site.

Christian Mingle lists a group of behaviors that can cause a block:

• Harassment, scams or solicitation
• Fake or impersonated pages
• Inappropriate content
• Multiple accounts
• Not meeting the age and eligibility rules
• Suspicious or automated activity

Read that list honestly. A man who sent the same copied message to forty women may think of it as efficiency, and the site can read it as automated activity. A man who made a second account after a bad month is breaking the multiple-accounts rule. Women also report members, and a few reports can draw attention to an account.

If your account qualifies, the blocked screen on the website shows a Verify my identity button. Verification uses a government photo ID and a selfie video. A company called Persona handles it.

Do it on the website, from the blocked screen itself, and nowhere else. Anyone who contacts you offering to unblock your account in exchange for a fee or a password is not Christian Mingle.

Accounts blocked for chargebacks or Terms of Service violations cannot be restored through identity verification. In those cases, and in others where the button does not appear, you contact Customer Support from your account email.

Be plain in that message. Say what happened, say what you were doing on the site, and ask what the reason was. A short, calm message gets read. A long angry one gets filed.

Include the email address on the account, the country you were in when it happened, and whether a VPN was running. Support can only look into a case it can find, and a clear first message saves a round of back and forth.

Do not open a second account to get around a block. Multiple accounts are one of the reasons it blocks people, and a second block makes the first harder to appeal.

A block is a pause that can last a while, so use it. Write down what you did in the week before it: where you signed in, which devices you used, and whether you changed anything on your page. If support asks, you can answer in two sentences.

Then go further. Look at your own page the way a stranger would, and ask what a reviewer might have read badly. Remove any contact details. Look at the messages you sent and ask whether a woman reading them would have felt hurried or pressured.

a dating coach's advice for any app is to treat it as a test you can run again: change one thing, test, and adjust. If your messages were being copied and pasted, the fix is a better first line that mentions one real detail from her page. That gets more replies and draws fewer complaints, and it keeps you well inside the rules of any app you use next.