16 Signs His Dating Profile Isn’t Going To Match What He’s Like In Real Life

Don’t get swept up into thinking the guy you’re chatting to on a dating app is going to be perfect for you. You might be fooling yourself. Here are 16 signs his dating profile falls short and you could end up with a really disappointing first date:

  1. He’s wearing sunglasses in every pic. Sure, you see him wearing sunglasses outside and think he’s just an outdoorsy person, but it’s troubling if he’s hiding his eyes in every single picture. What is he really hiding? Could it be that he doesn’t want to be recognized, as in, by his wife or girlfriend? Is he constantly stoned and has bloodshot eyes? Something’s not quite right.
  2. He calls you romantic nicknames. During conversation, he calls you “honey” or “baby” or anything else that people use for their partners… even though you’ve only been chatting for a few days. Creepy! Chances are, he’s getting ahead of himself by treating you like his girlfriend, which isn’t going to feel cute in real life. He doesn’t even really know you!
  3. His profile looks a little too familiar. If his picture resembles an actor or model, do yourself a favor and conduct a Google image search to be sure he hasn’t stolen the guy’s pic. You might think it’s crazy to do such a thing but it happens more often than you think.
  4. He’s posing with an animal. He’s either holding up a fish he just caught (can guys please stop doing that?!) or posing with tigers. Lame. So lame. It could be a sign that he’s trying way too hard to look like he’s leading a courageous, exciting life. The exception here is if he’s with his dog or something—that’s actually cute.
  5. He’s educated but his spelling is crap. He’s got loads of degrees and qualifications, but the dude can’t spell! What gives? Is he hoping to try to seem really educated or trying to impress people with his academic skills, meanwhile showing serious cracks?
  6. His photos look way younger. He says he’s 34 but in his photos, he looks like he’s 24. If he’s using pictures of himself when he was much younger, he could be trying to impress women by making them think he still looks like that. Fake-ass. It also shows that he’s got some serious self-esteem issues.
  7. He has a long shopping list. He has a long section describing exactly what he wants and doesn’t want in a partner. It might make you glad to see he has high standards, but it could be something else. He might be ridiculously self-righteous, thinking he’s perfect. On the other hand, discussing all the things he hates from previous dating experience potentially points to a guy who’s become quite cynical about relationships.
  8. He only has one profile photo. This is shady because he probably chose the best photo and discarded the other 200 less-than-flattering ones. He could be hoping to keep his height, weight or age out of the picture to make you think he’s the lean, gorgeous guy you said you wanted.
  9. He describes himself positively. On his profile and in conversation with you, he uses words like “loyal,” “really nice,” and so on to describe himself. Honestly, a man who’s truly those things won’t have to try to sell himself.
  10. He’s open about his past relationship. Perhaps a little too open about it. If he’s always talking about his ex, but interested in meeting up with you, something’s off. Clearly he’s not over her. He could be hoping to use you as a distraction from his pain.
  11. He claims not to be like other men. If he says he’s not like other men who are cheats and liars, he’s trying to impress you, knowing that many women moan about those kinds of jerks who are on dating apps. But boasting about himself? Ugh, the arrogance.
  12. He’s always so poetic. He seems romantic when he dishes you a beautiful line, but if all his responses are poetic, it starts to look dodgy. It’s highly unlikely that he’ll speak like that in real life, so what’s he up to? He could be using Google to find those poetic sentences just to try to impress you.
  13. He’s done all your adventure sports. Really? It might seem cool that you have so much in common, but he might be mirroring you. This is when he takes on your interests and passions in the hope of building a connection. On the other hand, it could be that he’s the type of guy who wants to be the best at everything. Prepare for lots of mansplaining from this one. Yikes.
  14. He’s super successful. When you start chatting about your careers, he throws in that he earns a good income. Before you think he’s stable and successful, an OkCupid study found that guys lie about this—you should knock approximately 20 percent off the amount he gives you to get a realistic figure of how much he earns. It’s actually really shady if he’s even talking about money and how great his career is at this stage—TMI, dude. It just makes him seem materialistic and desperate for approval.
  15. He’s done such cool things. You can tick boxes of your interests and passions on dating sites. But the problem is that he could be ticking boxes listing things that he’s only done once, meanwhile, he’s making you think that they’re serious hobbies, such as snowboarding, cooking Mexican food, and archery. Before you think he’s super interesting, ask him specific questions about his interests and see what he says. Yup, you probably won’t be going on an amazing sailing trip with this guy anytime soon because he’s only tried it once, 10 years ago.
  16. His profile seems too perfect. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. He might have hired a company to write his profile for him—yes, that actually happens. No wonder you want to quit online dating forever!
Giulia Simolo is a writer from Johannesburg, South Africa with a degree in English Language and Literature. She has been working as a journalist for more than a decade, writing for sites including AskMen, Native Interiors, and Live Eco. You can find out more about her on Facebook and LinkedIn, or follow her on Twitter @GiuliaSimolo.
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