Scam guide
How to Spot a Fake Profile on Chat and Dating Apps
By the Bakkar team ·
A fake profile is the starting point for almost every scam on these pages. You don't need special tools to catch most of them.
Five quick checks
- Search their photo. Save the profile picture and search it with Google Lens. If it shows up as a model, an influencer or under another name, you have your answer.
- Ask something local. A real person from your city can tell you which bus goes past their college or where they get chai. A script can't.
- Watch for copy-paste. Replies that ignore what you said, or arrive instantly with the same warmth every time.
- Notice the rush. Feelings, a new app, a video call or a money problem, all in the first few days.
- Suggest a quick public meet. Daytime, busy place. Someone who always has a reason not to is telling you something.
What a badge proves
On Bakkar, the blue tick means the person uses a real photo, taken or uploaded, instead of a cartoon. Bakkar doesn't check IDs, so the tick is not proof of who someone is (see what the blue tick means). The same is true of "verified" labels on most apps: check what the app actually verifies before trusting it.
What isn't fake
Bakkar's AI dosts are not fake profiles: they're AI chat buddies, always marked AI, with no distance and no tick, and they say so if you ask (see Is AI dost a real person?). A profile pretending to be a person when it isn't is exactly what we don't allow.
What to do
- Stop replying. You don't owe a scammer an explanation.
- Don't pay. Paying once never ends it; it tells them you will pay again.
- Save the evidence before you block: screenshots of the profile, the chat, any numbers, UPI IDs or links they sent.
- Report and block them on Bakkar from the chat or their profile. See what happens when you report.
- Report it at cybercrime.gov.in or on the 1930 helpline, even if you lost nothing: it helps catch the same people.
- Tell someone you trust. Scams work best on people who feel alone with them. If it's weighing on you, Tele MANAS on 14416 is free and open 24x7.
