What makes the internet as amazing as it is is the fact that it is open to almost anyone. There are of course limitations when it comes to needing a device and service in your area, but for the most part, the internet is open to everyone. It is the same way when it comes to dating apps. If you can get online, you can more than likely create an account on any of the different online dating apps. This is great for us because it means we'll be able to match and connect with a multitude of different people, giving us the ability to match with almost anyone. But, of course, that also means there is going to always be some people you would rather not match with. Because of this, we're not surprised so many people as us: who should I avoid on dating apps?

There are a lot of different potential answers to that question, as it mostly depends on the kind of person you are looking for online. The obvious choices to avoid are scammers, bots, and fake accounts. But depending on what you are using the app for and who you want to match with you might also be looking to avoid embarrassment by finding coworkers, close friends, ex-partners, bosses, or even family members.

The EzHookups.com team has had to deal with all trying to avoid all of these kinds of accounts and more through our own dating app adventures. Let us pass on some of our hard earned knowledge to you, and hopefully, you will become better equipped to navigate through any and all potentially embarrassing or unsafe situations when you're using your own dating apps of choice.

The kind of accounts and profiles were are going to talk about first are the ones that everyone should want to try and avoid. The kind of accounts that could put you into a potentially negative situation, or at the very least a very annoying one. These profiles range from the mostly harmless to very dangerous, and it is always better to avoid them all regardless of what kind of match you are looking for. Let's start with one of the more annoying things about most popular dating apps: dead accounts. These are the accounts that people created and then stopped using altogether. But because their profile still exists, it shows up in your feed and causes you to waste time and energy navigating through them all.

There isn't much you can do to simply avoid these kinds of profiles, but there are some indicators that you can look out for so you can hopefully not spend too much time dealing with them. If you ever see an account that looks like it hasn't been updated in a while chances are it's one of these accounts. Do their pictures look out of date? What about their bio? Sometimes you might also get a profile that clearly looks like the person has abandoned it. These are all key signs of accounts that are probably not active anymore.

Another mostly harmless account you want to try and avoid are bots. We don't consider these accounts to be all that dangerous because of how poorly they are put together. Most bot accounts are very quickly revealed and most of the time they just spam you to try and visit some cam site or another dating site. You can tell if an account is run by a bot in a few different ways. The first is the profile, often times it will be written very poorly and will look either very vague or extremely mediocre. The profile pictures on the account will also tend to look like they were taken off the internet because chances are they were. And if you end up matching with a bot account, you will often very quickly get an automated message telling you to chat with them somewhere else. The conversations bots have aren't sophisticated so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out that you're talking to one. Luckily the block and report tool exists just for this kind of scenario.

While bots and dead accounts are mostly harmless, there are a few accounts you can find on dating apps that are definitely more dangerous for you. We can narrow these kinds of accounts down to scams and fake accounts. Fake accounts are the more harmless of the two, as they are generally someone who is pretending to be someone else.

Similar to a bot they will often want you to visit a different site, or sign up for an account somewhere else. If that's what they are after it is very easy to avoid. The other side of fake accounts are people who use their false identity to manipulate you or lure you into dangerous situations. There are some good steps to take to determine if you are being tricked that we will go over when we talk about spam accounts in a little bit.

When it comes to spotting fake accounts, things can be a little tough. Most times they steal all the profile information from another real account, so it can be difficult to spot on before you start to talk to them. So unless they are unlucky enough to use the identity of someone you already know it might not be possible to spot one from their profile alone. Scam accounts are by far the most dangerous of the accounts that you want to avoid. We've talked about all the different ways to protect yourself from dating app scams in a different article you can read here.

There are a few different things you can look for in the potential scammers fake account that range from things you can find in their bio to what their pictures look like. The best way to determine if you have been matched with a scam account is to look at how they communicate with you. If anything feels weird about how they are talking to you or what sort of information they are looking for there is a good chance the account isn't real. In the case of fake accounts and spam accounts, one of the best ways to the account out is to ask them to video or voice chat. It's easy to hide behind some pictures on an account, but unless they look and act exactly like they do in their profile it will be easy for you to figure out. Chances are, they won't even attempt to try and will decline the invitation to chat instead. Like we said, there is enough information about how to avoid scam accounts that we wrote an entire article about it. Make sure you check it out for the full write up.

Aside from all the dangerous and annoying accounts, you want to avoid on dating apps, there are also some potentially embarrassing accounts that you would probably rather not run into either. Depending on what the app site is for, it can be pretty embarrassing running into or matching with a co-worker or even your boss. Do you want them to know the kinds of things you do online? What happens the next time you run into them at work? Do you bring it up or pretend it never happened? We're already feeling uneasy just thinking about it. The same thing goes for your close friends and family. Do you want your friend circle to know what kind of dating apps you're using? There are plenty dating apps out there that you might want to keep private for various reasons. We know we all have of those ourselves and we definitely wouldn't want our group of friends to know about them. And we absolutely wouldn't want to run into a family member on those apps as well. Talk about an awkward family dinner scenario! The most potentially embarrassing situation you might want to avoid is going to have to be an ex-partner. Can you think of any scenario where you would want to match with an ex on a dating app? We certainly can't think of one, luckily neither of you would probably be interested in connecting so the embarrassment will probably be pretty short lived.

As with most questions that we get asked about dating apps and different dating app situations, it all comes down to what and who you are looking for. For the most part, many of the more embarrassing accounts to avoid we just talked about might end up being exactly what you are looking for. Maybe you have been interested in a co-worker and didn't know how to start talking to them? Matching with them on a dating app could be a great way to break the ice and get the two of you together. Same goes for matching with one of your close friends. You might have been friends for a while but matching on a dating app could be the start of a deeper relationship. Or maybe just a few nights of fun. Either way, you might not have known what they were looking for or how to bring it up with them. We will even go as far as to admit that there could be a situation where matching with an ex-partner might be a good thing. If things ended abruptly and you both have leftover feelings for each other it could be a good way to get back together. Or if you had been out of contact for a while it could give you a good way to reconnect and see where things go. At the very least, it might rekindle some memories of nights you spent together and that could lead to a fun night or two in your future.

We hope we have given you a pretty good look into some of the more important dating app profiles that you might want to avoid. Some you will want to avoid because they could put you in a very unsafe situation, while other profiles could put you in an embarrassing situation. And while we don't want to downplay the importance of keeping yourself safe when using online dating apps, the chances you run into a potentially dangerous account aren't very high. There are millions of accounts on all the different apps and with all the safety and security features that are built into the apps you aren't likely to actually find yourself matched with a fake account or a bot. And if you are it is pretty easy to block that account and avoid seeing them altogether. And when it comes to the more embarrassing accounts to avoid, the chances of you matching with a co-worker, friend, or ex-partner are also extremely low. And, as we just discussed, chances are matching with them could actually be a good thing. There are lots of different dating apps that can help you match and connect with your ideal partner, so don't be afraid to use them just because of the chance you might run into one of the types of accounts we talked about. And if you are worried, just make sure you keep our advice in mind to avoid any troubling dating app situations.

No matter who you were trying to avoid or why we hope that you were able to gain some valuable knowledge you can use to your advantage. If you want to see us tackle even more questions about online dating apps, check out our other articles here.

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