How to tell whether someone is genuine
Most advice on this subject lists things that feel suspicious rather than things that are actually predictive. Here is the difference, and what is actually worth paying attention to.
The signals that actually hold up
These are ordered by how reliable they are. The first three are the ones that matter most, and they are all about behaviour rather than appearance.
- They will video call, or meet, without a long list of reasons why not. Refusing both for weeks is the single strongest signal there is, and it is the one thing almost every romance scam has in common.
- Their story stays the same. Ask the same small thing twice, weeks apart - where they grew up, what they do - and a real person answers the same way while a fabricated one drifts.
- They are willing to be seen. Somebody who has confirmed a photo or an ID with the platform has at least proved they are the person in the pictures, which is more than a matching name proves.
- They do not steer you off the app before you have met. Moving to a private channel early is common in scams, because it puts the conversation somewhere the platform cannot see it.
- They ask about you in specifics. A script has no follow-up questions.
The signals people overrate
These two feel like evidence and are not. Plenty of genuine people do both, and plenty of fakes avoid both.
- Profile photos that look professional. Anyone can use a stock image or a photo of somebody else. A good photo is not evidence of anything except a good photo.
- A long, well-written bio. It takes a language model about four seconds to produce one. Writing well has never been a trust signal and is now less of one than ever.
The pattern that matters most: money
If money comes up at all before you have met in person, treat it as a hard stop. Not a flag, a stop. The variations are endless - a customs fee, a medical bill, a crypto opportunity, an investment tip from a relative - and the mechanism is always the same: create urgency, make you the person who can solve it, and ask before you have met.
A genuine person who is short of money before a first date is not asking a stranger they met last week for it. That is not a character judgement, it is a description of how people behave.
If something feels off, it probably is
Your instinct is picking up on something even when you cannot name it - a slight inconsistency, a story that is a bit too convenient, an eagerness that does not match the situation. You do not need to prove anything to end a conversation. You never owe a stranger an explanation for stopping.
Every account on 6on7 can confirm a photo or an ID, and the profile tells you which checks a person has actually completed. That is useful, but it is not a substitute for the signals above - a confirmed identity is not the same as good intentions.