Know the tells · 03

Off the app, fast

Two days in: "This app is so glitchy — what's your WhatsApp?" It sounds like enthusiasm. Often it's exfiltration.

The pattern

Early, insistent pressure to move the conversation to WhatsApp, Telegram, Google Chat, or text — before you've video-called or met. The FBI's romance-scam guidance flags the quick move to private channels, and the FTC documents it as standard scammer procedure.

Why they're in a hurry

Dating platforms scan for scam patterns and ban fraudulent accounts constantly — a scammer's profile is a ticking clock. Moving you to a private channel does three things at once: it escapes the platform's moderation and detection, it keeps the connection alive after the profile is inevitably removed, and it moves the conversation somewhere with no report button standing between you and the eventual money ask. The rush is the point: the profile may have days to live.

What to do

· Stay on the platform early — its detection and report tools protect you precisely during the phase when you know least about this person.
· Treat urgency as information. "Why the rush?" is a fair question; watch how it lands. Real interest survives a week on the app.
· Moving later is normal — after a live video call or an in-person meeting, switching apps is just logistics. The tell is off-app before verification, not off-app ever.
· If their profile vanishes shortly after you switched — that was the plan. Stop and run the scam check.

Already moved — and now something feels off?

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