Almost everyone on a matrimonial site is exactly who they say they are. The small number who are not tend to run the same handful of scripts, because those scripts work on people who are hopeful and in a hurry. Knowing them is most of the protection you need.
The one rule with no exceptions
The request is usually preceded by weeks of warmth and a great deal of urgency, which is what makes it effective. If money comes up, stop the conversation and block the account. You do not owe an explanation.
Move slowly, on purpose
- Keep talking inside the app while you are still deciding. Chat and calls here do not require handing over your personal number, and contact details are only shared when both sides consent.
- Pressure to move to a private number or another app in the first days is itself a signal — not because moving is wrong, but because the hurry is.
- Do a video call before you meet. Consistent refusal to be seen, when the connection is somehow always the problem, is the oldest tell there is.
- Search a photograph you have been sent. A picture that appears elsewhere online under a different name ends the conversation for you.
Verify the things a badge does not cover
Verification badges confirm what they name — a mobile number, an identity document, a pastor's endorsement. Education, employment, income, health and marital status are written by the member and are not checked by us. Before anything is settled, ask for and look at the actual documents: a degree certificate, an offer letter or payslip, a medical report, and where it applies, proof that an earlier marriage has ended.
Asking is not an insult. Any family that treats a reasonable question as an insult has told you something useful.
The first meeting
- A busy public place, in daylight.
- Tell someone at home where you are going, who you are meeting and when you will be back.
- Arrange your own transport there and back.
- Not a home, not a hotel room, not another city.
Bringing a parent or sibling to a first meeting is normal here, and nobody sensible will find it strange.
If something goes wrong
Block the account first — blocking is immediate and the other person is not told. Then report it to us with the Profile ID, so the account can be dealt with for everyone else too. If money has already been taken, that is a police matter: cybercrime can be reported at cybercrime.gov.in or on the helpline 1930.
The full guidance, including what we commit to when you report something, is on our Safety page.