What Drives People to Keep Multiple Dating App Profiles and How to Spot Them

*Collaborative Post

Casting a wider net, forgetting to delete an account, or hiding from a partner. Search their pictures on Google, ask to do a video chat, or run a reverse search.

As of April 2024, Tinder had more than 75 million monthly active users. It remains the most popular dating app, with over 6.1 million downloads a month in June. Bumble comes second with more than 3.2 million monthly downloads, and Litmatch ranks third with almost 2.8 million. Bumble had 2.73 million paying subscribers in Q1 2024. Quite a number of people use more than one dating app simultaneously. 

Casting a wider net 

An online dater might have two profiles on the same app: good girl and naughty girl or nice guy and bad boy, obviously to maximize their chances. One profile might be serious, and the second might have similar pictures with funny answers to prompts. The person wouldn’t be lying because both profiles would still be theirs, and the information would be their own.

Research suggests witty responses can help an otherwise average-looking person stand out more. A CBS News poll found that a sense of humor was five times more important for a successful marriage than sex, and a meta-analysis published on Research Gate found that all positive types of humor correlated with relationship satisfaction. 

Forgetting to delete an account 

Perhaps the person’s priorities and perspectives changed; they created a new account to reflect that and forgot to delete the old one. If they had lost the password, they would have started over anyway.

New account boost 

Some apps feature an account “boost”: the app shows new profiles to more people to determine its popularity. That’s not the only reason. The user will see a lot of likes, but they have to pay to see the profiles of the people who left the likes. 

Hiding 

People might have multiple profiles because they are hiding. About 56% of men and 53% of women in anonymous surveys admitted cheating on their partners. Dating sites are rife with cheaters, and one survey found that people are up to three times more likely to cheat if they have cheated in the past. However, data from a Canadian private detective firm shows serial cheating is less common than previously believed. 

Bot or catfisher 

It might not be a real human being’s profile. Bots often have “too perfect” or generic profile pictures, unlike real accounts, which tend to have natural-looking photos. Bots also tend to send generic and impersonal messages.

A catfisher might have multiple accounts, and 10% of online dating profiles are fake. Here’s how to spot a catfisher. 

How to tell a human user has multiple profiles  

Some people make it obvious. The pictures are similar, profile variations are minor, and the pick-up line is the same. Sometimes, there are multiple profiles on the same app.  

If it’s not obvious, but you suspect it’s the case, you need to search their pictures on Google or Yandex. Eventually, they could lead you to the person’s Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok account. Some scam apps pay attractive people to use their pictures. 

If you believe someone is hiding, ask to do a video chat. Bring up something only one person could know to catch them off guard. They might slip up.  

If you know the person’s name, email address, phone number, or social media handle, run a reverse search with Social Catfish. It also works with images. The platform will show you if the person has a hidden dating profile. 

If you know their name and email, you can also use Monster Crawler, DogPile, or WebCrawler to find dating site usernames. Background check services can reveal dating profiles. If not a profile, they might reveal another unexpected fact. Between 70 and 100 million Americans have criminal records.

Final thoughts   

While not inherently wrong, keeping multiple app profiles can create confusion and mistrust in online dating. Spotting users with numerous profiles often comes down to noticing inconsistent behavior, mismatched details, or vague communication.