Sometimes, it’s just a nagging feeling that something isn’t quite right. His profile pic is slightly too flawless, his eyes slightly too blue, 6”7 seems an inch too tall in his ‘About Me’ section… In fact, you have a worrying feeling you might have seen his photo on a billboard on the Tube this morning.
Is it really Ryan, 28, the 6”7 actor that you are exchanging gifs with?
Getting catfished has long been seen as an annoying yet inevitable aspect of online dating. But there’s one app that’s trying to change this. It’s called Badoo.
Badoo is the biggest social discovery (but let’s just say dating…) app in the world with 350 million registered users, but it’s just as big about online safety.
That’s right, Nev. Badoo is putting its 11 years of experience to good use and bringing the trust back to dating. Here’s how:
Verification, verification, verification
Straight from the moment users set up a profile on Badoo they can choose to get verified and prove themselves before you’ve even matched. There are loads different ways they can do this; through a phone call (no need to actually pick up), their social media profile like Facebook and Insta, or via photo verification.
The photo verification process is incredibly quick, you just take a selfie and within minutes one of Badoo’s 5,000 moderators will have approved it (if you are legit).
Plus (and this is the big one) YOU CAN CHOOSE TO ONLY CHAT TO VERIFIED USERS. If they’ve got a blue tick, it’s safe to give them a cheeky click ;)
Selfie request
You can also be your own moderator. When you match with dreamy Ryan, you can see if he actually is just a dream by hitting the Selfie Request button. Ryan can either accept and send over a selfie there and then or refuse and you can decide whether you still want to hit him up or say ‘bye’.
Pretty safe, right?
It’s not me, it’s you
And if any of the creeps manage to get through regardless, Badoo’s got your back 24 hours a day. Their moderation team is constantly on hand to respond to any suspicious profiles you report. Just hit the ‘Report’ or ‘Block’ button and you can literally delete them from your network. If only it were so easy to delete f*ckboys in RL…
Conclusion: You can never completely stop creeps, but at least you can try… and right now, Badoo is the only app out there that is trying. To download the app and get verified yourself, check out Badoo here.
