Dating app Tinder now offers advice on how users can protect themselves from romance scams, highlighting ‘red flags’ such as quickly asking to leave the dating service to communicate directly and emphasising financial obstacles they are facing.

“Figuring out who prefers to pay the bill at dinner is one thing, but being pulled into someone’s personal financial woes or needs is another,” official advice from its website reads. “If this happens, particularly early in conversations, it may be a sign of deeper deception.”

Tinder suggests its users to ask questions of their matches, looking out for inconsistent facts and stories, or vague answers to very specific questions. It suggests considering running a reverse image search on profile pictures you suspect could be fake to see if it’s used elsewhere on the internet.

“Your intuition is your greatest wingman,” it says. “Always use your best judgment, and if something doesn’t feel right, block and report.”

Romance fraud: how to recognise the red flags of a dating scam, and what to do about them