Someone Is Using My Photos on a Dating App. What Now?
Entry No. 013 ·
By The IF Team
If someone is using your photos on a dating app, report the profile to that app as impersonation — from inside the app if you are on it, through a friend’s account or the app’s help centre if you are not — and say plainly that you are the person in the pictures. Take screenshots first, because a reported profile can vanish quickly. Then warn the people it could fool, check where else your photos have travelled, and make the public ones harder to borrow. You do not need to know who made the profile to report it and ask for it to be removed.
Finding your own face on a stranger’s profile is a peculiar kind of violation, like being burgled with nothing missing. You did nothing wrong by posting photos of yourself, and you are not overreacting. This is not the everyday dishonesty of dating apps, the borrowed inch or the photo from five summers ago. A profile wearing your face is impersonation, which is exactly what dating apps’ rules against fake profiles exist for.
It is also rarely about you. A profile built from a real person’s photos usually exists to deceive someone else, and researchers now study catfishing as a form of fraud victimisation. Reporting the profile protects you, and whoever is talking to it.
And it is not a reason to disappear. The best answer to a borrowed face is your real one, verified and clearly yours. Put it on the apps you choose, IF among them: the dating app for everyone, single or in a relationship. First, the steps that work on any app.
Save the evidence before the fake profile disappears
If you have found a fake dating profile with your pictures, capture it as it stands before you report anything. Once it is removed, you have nothing to point to if it returns under another name.
- Screenshot every part of the profile: each photo, the name and age, the bio and prompts, and any location or distance it shows.
- Note which app it was on, the date you saw it, and how you found it. A friend’s screenshot counts.
- Keep the originals of your own photos. Their files carry the date you took them, which helps show they are yours.
- If a friend has matched with it, ask them to screenshot the conversation before they unmatch or report, since on many apps the chat disappears when they do.
- Do not message the account. It only warns whoever runs it.
How to report an impersonation profile
The quickest route is the app’s own Report button. Open the profile, choose Report, and pick the reason closest to a fake profile or impersonation; the wording varies by app. Where there is space for detail, be plain: “This profile uses my photos. I am the person in them, and I did not create this account.” Report rather than simply block: a block only hides the profile from you, while a report puts it in front of someone who can take it down, as our guide to what reporting does compared with blocking or unmatching explains.
If you are not on the app yourself
Plenty of people hear about a fake profile from a friend, on an app they have never used. You do not need to join it to have the profile reported:
- Ask the friend who found it to report it from their account, and to say that they know the person pictured, who did not create this profile.
- Contact the app through its help centre, often the only route without an account. Tinder, for example, has an online request form; the other large apps have their own contact routes.
What to send with your report
Make it easy for whoever reviews your report to see that you are the real person:
- The screenshots, with the profile’s name and age visible.
- A link to one of your real accounts where the same photos appear, ideally posted some time ago, or a screenshot of it if the account is private.
- A clear statement that you are the person pictured and have not agreed to your photos being used.
- Only what the app’s official form asks for to confirm who you are. Never send ID or selfies to anyone who contacts you claiming to be from the app.
If the profile stays up or comes back
Keep any reference number the app gives you, and if nothing has changed after a few days, quote it and ask for an update. If the profile reappears under a new name, report it again with fresh screenshots and mention the earlier report, so it is treated as a repeat. If you took the photos yourself, you may also own the copyright in them, and many large platforms have a separate copyright complaint route you can use as well.
Tell the people it could fool
A fake profile does its damage in conversations you cannot see. If it could match with people you know — a colleague, your cousin’s flatmate — a short heads-up spares everyone an odd moment: “There’s a fake profile using my photos on a dating app. It isn’t me, so please report it if you see it.”
Sometimes the message comes the other way. A stranger finds your real account and writes to say they have been talking to “you” for weeks. Handle it kindly: they have been deceived, and you are the proof. What they felt was real, even if the profile was not. Tell them it was not you, ask them to report the profile, and if they have sent money or shared anything private, point them to their bank and the police. Our guide to the signs of a romance scam is a good thing to send them.
Search for your photos, not for people
A reverse image search — Google Lens, Bing Visual Search or TinEye — takes a photo and shows where else it appears online. Run your own photos through one, starting with those on the fake profile, and you may find them on fake social accounts or scam sites, each of which can be reported to its host.
Know its limits. Most dating profiles sit behind a login, so a reverse image search will rarely surface one inside an app. And never use it to find a person. Turned on someone to dig up their name, or to work out which apps they are on, the same tools turn safety into surveillance. If you are worried a match is not who they say they are, how to tell if you’re being catfished covers the one narrow check worth making: whether the photos they have shown you are really theirs.
Make your photos harder to borrow
You cannot make theft impossible without disappearing from the internet, but a few habits make you a less convenient target, and make a copy easier to spot:
- Set personal social accounts to private, or limit who can see older posts and tagged photos. A thief can only take what they can see.
- If it has happened once, run your main photos through a reverse image search every few months, so a new copy turns up early, not when a stranger writes to tell you.
- Get the verification badge on the apps you use. It will not stop anyone copying your pictures, but selfie checks generally compare a live image of your face with your profile photos, so a copy would struggle to earn one, and a badge beside your real profile shows which is you. What each app’s badge actually checks varies.
When it is personal
Sometimes the person behind the profile is not a stranger. If it is someone you know — an ex, a former friend — and the profile is used to embarrass you, to unsettle you or to send strangers your way, it is harassment, and in many countries a crime. Save everything, and report it to the app and to the police.
If you ever feel unsafe, contact your local emergency services, and talk to someone you trust: you do not have to manage it alone. For the wider picture, our guide to staying safe on dating apps covers the habits that protect you before anything goes wrong.
Where IF fits
IF is a dating app for everyone, singles and people in relationships alike, built on one idea: you should be able to say how you feel, as yourself, whatever the timing. Two single people can Like each other, and an accepted Like opens a chat. When either of you is in a relationship, no chat can open, but you can still send an IF: a private, sealed message that opens only once you are both single. How an IF works covers every situation.
That idea only works if the faces are real. Profile photos are moderated before they appear. The optional verification badge needs a live selfie matched to the main photo, and changing that photo removes the badge until the new one matches the verified face, so a badge cannot carry over to someone else’s pictures. Report and Block sit on every profile you can identify. Moderation checks what a photo shows, not whose it is, so the badge and reports are what catch a copy: if your photos ever appear on IF, report the profile as a “Fake profile” and it is reviewed within 24 hours. Not on IF yourself? Ask a friend who is, or email the support address on our safety page with your screenshots.
You also decide who can find you. People who know you can look for you by your email address, phone number or Instagram handle, and if you want a lower profile, turning off Discoverable in Search (free) means anyone searching those details sees nothing, as if you were not on IF.
Having your face borrowed can make you want to step back from dating. You do not have to. On IF, your own face is also how you say what you feel. And if there is someone you have liked for a long time and one of you is taken, telling them in person has its risks. You may be better off saying it once in an IF and letting it wait until you are both single, so that if the timing ever lines up, you are already there to show them how much you have always liked them. It takes a little courage, and maybe it leads you where you were meant to be all along. Your first IF is free.
Questions people ask
Can I find out who made a fake profile with my photos?
Usually not, and the app will not tell you, because the account holder’s details are private too. You do not need to know in order to report it. If you suspect someone who is harassing you, give the police what you have; they can request information from a platform through legal channels. Trying to unmask the person yourself tends to make things worse.
Should I message the fake profile using my pictures?
No. Messaging the account only warns whoever runs it, and they can delete it and start again somewhere you will not see. Save the evidence, report it, and let the app do the confronting.
Is it illegal to use someone else’s photos on a dating app?
It depends on where you live and what the profile is used for. Using your photos breaks the app’s rules on its own, and may infringe your copyright if you took them. It more clearly becomes a crime when the profile is used for fraud, harassment or threats, which is when a police report matters most.
Why would someone use my pictures for a fake profile?
Usually because ordinary, real-looking photos are more convincing than a model’s. Scammers use them to build trust before asking for money, catfishers to be someone they are not, and bots to look human. Occasionally it is personal: someone who knows you, trying to unsettle you. Being chosen says nothing about you, except that your photos looked trustworthy.
Can someone use my photos on a dating app if I’m not on one?
Yes. Fake profiles are often built from photos lifted from social media, so it can happen to someone who has never used a dating app. You can still report it, through a friend or the app’s help centre. And a real, verified profile of your own — on IF, for instance — gives anyone who sees both a quick way to tell which one is you.
Your face should only ever tell your own story. Put it on IF, let the badge show it is yours, and if your IF opens one day, it will be the face they see.