Is Plenty of Fish safe?

What is Plenty of Fish?

Match Group brand, historically free-to-message, combining browsing, algorithmic matches, and messaging for a cost-conscious, broader-age audience.

Category: Mainstream/general, free-first, broad/older demographic

Safety rating: Moderate

Genuine Face Check/age-detection selfie system and named crisis-support partnerships, but the company itself states verification "is not foolproof"; background-check access (Garbo) ended 2023.

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.

Plenty of Fish safety features

• Face Check (TM) / Age Detection selfie-vs-profile-photo checks
• Selfie biometrics (FaceMaps) retained, deleted within 30 days of account closure
• Reported (not independently confirmed) partnerships: Noonlight, Crisis Text Line
• Ban policy for felony/sexual-misconduct convictions
• Background checks: ended Aug 2023

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

Features and pricing

• Free: historically POF's main differentiator, free messaging
• Paid Premium: removes ads, who-liked-you, boosts
• Browse + algorithmic suggestions, open messaging historically

How to report a scammer or harassment on Plenty of Fish

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

• help.pof.com/hc/en-us/categories/360006564311

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 Plenty of Fish

• Our research did not find a photo-verification feature on Plenty of Fish, 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.

“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.

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.

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