The impossible happened to me last week: I got catfished on Bumble. Everyone says, “I would never fall for that!”, but catfishes are getting smarter.
I called my friend (a fellow Bumble user, we’ll call him Cal) to give him the tea, and he told me he had something similar happen last year.
So, we agreed: no gender is 100% safe on Bumble. I’m going to help you so that you don’t make the same mistakes my friend and I made!
How Bumble Catfishing Progresses
In my and Cal’s case, catfishes on Bumble look like literal dreamboats at first glance: model-ish, with great jobs and education and exciting lives.
Cal had been talking to this girl on Bumble for a month straight. She told him she worked in finance and had a master’s…which she did.
But when they went on a date, Cal found out she had been catfishing him with old photos of her from 5 years ago. My situation was a bit different.
The guy who texted me claimed to be 6’0, an engineer, and a Yale graduate who travels often. We talked for 2 weeks, and I was genuinely starting to like him.
He asked me if he could add me on Snapchat. By the second week, my Bumble match started acting odd: he told me he’d fallen in love. Love?!
The finishing blow was when he asked me for money. Yes, despite his alleged success, my Bumble match told me he was short $600 on rent for the month.
This whole ordeal gave me a bad feeling, so I reverse image searched him on CatfishLens to see if my Bumble match was a catfish. This is how it went:
1. I Did Research on What Reverse Image Search Tool I Needed
I knew I needed an advanced face recognition tool that works for blurry AND potentially AI-generated photos, and I came across CatfishLens.
CatfishLens is a reverse face search engine, and in my opinion, it’s a top pick for reverse image searching online dates due to its pay-per-lookup system.
I paid 5 bucks and got access to 2 lookup credits. Good! I was planning on trying CatfishLens on Cal’s Bumble match out of curiosity, too.
Customer reviews say that CatfishLens is the best at finding social media accounts and dating profiles, even for edited photos.
⚠️ CatfishLens has advanced face recognition that most basic tools like Google, Yandex, and TinEye don’t have, which is why I avoid them.
2. I Saved My Match’s Best Bumble Profile Photo
I mean, it wasn’t hard because catfishes typically post 1 to 3 photos to their Bumble profile.
In my case, I used my Bumble match’s face photo of him looking directly into the camera. Minimal facial hair and natural lighting…
🚫 No hats, no glasses, no side profiles, and no group photos because they can confuse the face analysis AI.
Cal sent me his match’s selfie as well, and I took turns trying the photos on CatfishLens. Read more in the next section. ⬇️
3. The Reverse Image Search Results Came In
CatfishLens’s reports came in very quickly, and to no one’s surprise, both my match and Cal’s were catfishing on Bumble. These are the results:
#1 Report (my own):
My Bumble match was likely using the “chadfishing” technique because he had stolen photos belonging to a random, conventionally attractive man.
Multiple people with different fake names were using the poor guy’s selfies to scam women on social media and dating platforms.
I managed to find the real owner after scrolling through the related photos section on CatfishLens.
#2 Report (Cal’s):
Cal’s results showed the right sources using his Bumble match’s photos, but we already knew she wasn’t lying about her name, profession, and life in general.
It turns out she was using AI to enhance her current photos (the few she sent him), which CatfishLens was able to detect.
Conclusion: We now know our online dates’ real identities thanks to CatfishLens (and our own diligence, of course!).
Signs & Patterns of a Bumble Catfish
My match was fully fake, whereas Cal was misled since his match was technically real. These are the most common signs of a Bumble catfish:
- Highly attractive Bumble photos
- Appealing job & education
- Charismatic personality and interesting life
- Never sends live photos (because they look different)
- Ghosts you on dates or flat-out refuses to go out
But because we met different types of Bumble catfishes, my match showcased some rather…unique signs. 🤔
He urged me to leave Bumble because he’d get banned for requesting money, so he suggested a low-key platform like Snapchat and not Instagram.
Note: If you have your Bumble match’s IG, check his profile for these red flags: shady followers, no group photos, or lack of an organic social media timeline.
On the other hand, Cal’s match would only send him low-quality photos taken years ago – any new images would be zoomed in and heavily filtered/edited.
She’d refuse video calls and dates until she eventually caved in. Cal got stood up twice, and she’d constantly make excuses as to why she couldn’t make it.
Why Do People Catfish on Bumble?
Cal’s match represents an insecure catfish: someone who felt as if her current self wasn’t “attractive enough” to gain attention on Bumble.
So she hid behind beauty filters and makeup to impress Cal, who would have liked her regardless, had it not been for her terrible lie.
💵 My Bumble match’s goal was money. He tried a romance scam by trying to get me to fall for him, then asking for money. He tried every trick in the book:
- “I need money for rent!”
- “I am running out of groceries!”
- “I have medical bills to pay!”
- “I need money for a flight back home!”
Bumble For Friends & Bumble Bizz have fake users as well, and not every catfish is the same. Some are trolls, while some are capable of serious harm.
Some lie about their gender/age or “inflate” their identity, hoping to win their Bumble match over first and then reveal the truth later.
Can a Verified Bumble Profile Be a Catfish?
Yes, even a catfish may occasionally slip past Bumble’s Photo & ID Verification by using programs or their friends’ photos (consensually).
I suggest you ask your Bumble match to get verified. Just press “ask for verification” (it’s the blue link you can find in your chat).
Bumble has rolled out Deception Detector, which includes a team of human moderators who help rid the platform of fake profiles.
They claim that this feature blocks 95% of spam/scam profiles and blurs inappropriate content, like unwanted nudes, automatically. (Read more here)
Hopefully, this guide will help you spot a dating app catfish before you start to develop feelings. Take care! 🫂
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