Is Adopte safe?

What is Adopte?

Launched 2007/2008 Paris, built around a "shopping cart" concept where women browse and add male profiles to a basket, giving women exclusive control over first contact. Named France's most popular dating app in a 2021 study by 60 Millions de Consommateurs. Operated by GEB AdoptAGuy, Paris. Free for women, paid for men.

Category: Women-initiate-contact mainstream dating, culturally distinctive French concept · Most popular in: Germany/France

Safety rating: Moderate

Standard in-app reporting/blocking is documented, and the woman-initiates-contact design is a real structural anti-harassment feature frequently cited by reviewers — but no third-party security certification, named safety advisory board, or published transparency/scam-removal statistics were found, unlike Parship/ElitePartner/Meetic.

Ratings are qualitative (Strong, Moderate or Basic) and based only on safety features we could verify from the app’s own help pages and reputable reporting. How we rate apps.

Adopte safety features

• Women have exclusive right to initiate first contact — structural anti-harassment design
• In-profile reporting tool (harassment, fake profile, inappropriate behaviour categories)
• Moderation team reviews reports per company statements
• Blocking function

A red cross marks a feature that has ended, is missing or could not be confirmed.

Features and pricing

• "Shopping cart" browsing metaphor (swipe/select male profiles into a basket); freemium, gender-differentiated pricing (free women, paid men); available internationally under localized names

How to report a scammer or harassment on Adopte

Report the profile inside the app first, then use Adopte’s own help and safety pages:

• [email protected]
• 01 53 40 99 10 (non-premium-rate line)

Screenshot the profile and messages before you block or unmatch, because the conversation may disappear. If you have lost money, contact your bank straight away and report it to the police or national fraud service listed on this page.

Staying safer on Adopte

• Our research did not find a photo-verification feature on Adopte, so reverse-image-search a match’s photos before you invest time in them.
• Keep the conversation in the app until you have met. Scammers push early for WhatsApp, Telegram or text because the app can no longer see or moderate the chat.
• Ask for a live video call before meeting. Repeated excuses, a camera that never works or a face that looks off are all reasons to stop.
• Never send money, crypto, gift cards or a verification code to someone you have only met online, whatever the story.
• Meet somewhere busy and public, arrange your own travel and tell a friend where you will be.

Scams to watch for

Pig butchering

A friendly or flirtatious contact – often on a dating app, social media or a 'wrong number' text – builds a relationship and casually mentions success trading crypto, gold or forex as a 'side job'.

Romance scams

A scammer builds an online relationship using a fake or borrowed identity, often over weeks or months, and invests heavily in attention and affection.

Catfishing and impersonation

Scammers build profiles from photos stolen from real people – often soldiers, professionals or celebrities – and invent a life that explains why they cannot meet: deployed overseas, working on an oil rig, with an international organisation, or too famous.

“Send me the code” account takeovers

A match says they want to 'make sure you are real' and asks for your phone number, then sends you a six-digit code and asks you to read it back.

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