This article will examine why you might want to use a burner phone number for Tinder and other dating sites.
“Burner phone” is a term for a phone to be used for a short time. Usually, prepaid phones were meant to be bought, used, and discarded.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it originated in the 1990s as a term for a phone used by baddies (and maybe spies) to conduct illegal business, in theory, without fear of it being wiretapped or traced back to the owner of the phone.
While it is still possible to buy a prepaid phone at WallMart or a 7-11 (and there is nothing illegal about owning one), their use has moved from the criminal world into the mainstream. Burner phones have become just another app you can install on your smartphone.
Table of Contents
- Why Regular People User Burners
- Why Is Using a Fake Phone Number for Online Dating Smart?
- Why Does Tinder Need Your Phone Number?
- How Does Tinder Use Phone Numbers for Verification?
- How Do I Bypass Tinder Phone Verification?
- Can You Use a Burner Number for Tinder?
- Reasons Why You May Not Be Receiving Tinder Code
- How to Get a Tinder Verification Code without Using a Real Phone Number
- Can You Use the Same Phone Number for Two Tinder Accounts?
- Does Your Phone Number Appear Anywhere on Your Tinder Profile?
- Can You Use a Different Phone Number for Tinder?
- How Do I Remove My Phone Number From Tinder?
- Wrapping Up
Why Regular People User Burners
So, Why Would You Want a Burner Phone or App if You’re Not a Criminal Mastermind? According to Hushed.com, the top reasons for using a burner are:
- Dating. You can use a burner phone number in the early stages of a relationship for privacy and security until you know someone.
- Online selling. Listing an item on eBay or selling something on Kijiji, Bumble or Craigslist and don’t want to give out your number
- Sales. Same as online selling, you want to give your customers a way of contacting you without your number.
- Privacy. Use a burner app like Hush to give people a number that can’t be traced to you.
- Friends and family. Suppose you have family far away? Set up a local number so you and them can avoid international phone charges.
- Use the free Wi-Fi available in many places to make calls instead of using mobile carriers to save money.
- Travellers get a local number. Using an app like Hushed, you can set up a local number for your stay to make local calls from your phone or other mobile devices.
As you see, dating sites are one of the principal uses of burner apps like Hushed.
Why Is Using a Fake Phone Number for Online Dating Smart?
The fact is, dating apps are popular. Over 30% of Americans use them, but not everyone you talk to online has your best interests at heart.
According to DatingAdvice.com, one in 10 users are scammers, and more than half of users exaggerate or lie in their profiles.
Pew Research found that about 60% of women said someone on a dating site continued to contact them after they said they were not interested.
Think about the following situations where a burner app would be helpful:
- Security. It doesn’t go well if you go on a first date, so you politely decline the second date. But your date doesn’t like that and begins using your phone number to find personal information online and harass you.
- Privacy. You have a sensitive job you want to keep private or separate your personal and professional lives.
- Social Media. You don’t want potential dates to find your social media accounts until you know them better.
- Casual Dating. You enjoy casually dating and don’t want your actual number known because you know the relationships will be short-term.
So besides avoiding creeps, another reason is if you don’t want to give Tinder or other dating apps your actual number.
Why Does Tinder Need Your Phone Number?
Until 2018, you could sign up with your Facebook account for Tinder. But people are opting for fake phone numbers or even burner phones for verification to protect their privacy. Unfortunately, many bots and fake profiles caused Tinder to change this policy and mandatory phone number verification. The goal was to develop a process to confirm that the person behind an account is genuine.
How Does Tinder Use Phone Numbers for Verification?
As well as activating your account when you sign-up, Tinder offers two-factor authentication. Two-factor means that it uses more than one way of making sure you are who you say you are. One way of doing two-factor authentication is via a code sent to your phone when you log in. Tinder also protects you because it notices when there’s been an attempt to log in to your account from an unknown device or location; Tinder informs you via text message.
How Do I Bypass Tinder Phone Verification?
Tinder doesn’t let you bypass SMS verification at this point. The good news is you can use a burner number instead of your actual number.
Can You Use a Burner Number for Tinder?
You can get a burner number for Tinder (or other dating apps like Bumble or Seeking Arrangement). Then, if things go well, you can keep the burner number to keep in touch with people in your personal and professional life without giving your actual phone number.
Reasons Why You May Not Be Receiving Tinder Code
They are several reasons, such as the number you are using is not supported or already in use or the number has been flagged as suspicious. Finally, it could be a temporary network or SMS carrier issue that will go away. If you don’t receive the code in a few minutes, check you entered the number correctly and ask Tinder to send the code again.
How to Get a Tinder Verification Code without Using a Real Phone Number
Safety is essential when navigating the world of online dating, but you don’t need a reason to decide to keep your personal information private.
The easiest way is to sign-up for a burner account with an app like Hushed. Once you have an account, you should now get the authorization SMS message on your Hushed phone app.
Can You Use the Same Phone Number for Two Tinder Accounts?
You can’t use the same phone number for more than one Tinder account, so a service like PingMe makes so much sense.
If you want to delete your old profile and replace it with a new one, download PingMe, make a second phone number, register it on Tinder, and dump the old account.
Does Your Phone Number Appear Anywhere on Your Tinder Profile?
Your phone number will not appear on your Tinder profile unless you put it on your profile yourself.
Can You Use a Different Phone Number for Tinder?
Tinder identifies you by these two things. Now, your tinder account has been banned, so you need to change both your mobile number (which means you need to get a new sim) and your email address. So you can use the same mobile phone, but you need to change your sim, and you don’t need to use a new mobile phone.
How Do I Remove My Phone Number From Tinder?
It’s easy to remove your number. Just open the Tinder app or visit Tinder.com. Tap the profile icon. Scroll to Account Settings. Tap Phone Number > Update My Phone Number.
Wrapping Up
More people than you’d expect to use burner phones for privacy, security, and convenience reasons. With a burner phone app, you can enjoy online dating with less hassles.
