Safety Guidelines

1. Before You Message Anyone

Read the listing carefully. Listings that are vague, weirdly aggressive, or unnervingly polished are usually one of three things: a bot, a scam, or someone whose vibe won't match yours. Trust the writing — real people sound like real people, with typos and personality and small contradictions. Glossy, perfect copy is often automated.

Also: if every detail in a listing maps onto your exact preferences a little too perfectly, slow down. That's how scam profiles are written.

2. Verify Before You Meet

Before you commit to a meetup, verify the other person is real. Three reliable methods, in order of how strong each one is:

• A short video call. Two minutes is enough. Most legit posters will do this. Most scammers won't.
• A fresh photo holding a specific item or making a specific pose (a peace sign, your name written on paper, etc.). Old screenshots can't fake this.
• Reverse-image-search the listing's photos. Google Images and PimEyes are both free. Stolen photos almost always show up elsewhere.

If they refuse all forms of verification, that's the answer.

3. Pick the Right Meetup Spot

For first meets, pick somewhere public and somewhere you control:

• Hotel lobbies are great for this — public enough to feel safe, private enough to move from once you click.
• Bars and coffee shops work too, especially ones you've been to before and where the staff knows the layout.
• Avoid going to a stranger's house or apartment for a first meet. Avoid bringing them to yours.

Move from public to private only after you've actually met and felt out the chemistry in person. Five minutes face to face tells you more than three weeks of texting.

4. Trust Your Gut

This is the unglamorous one. If something feels off — a mismatch between their photos and how they sound, weird pressure to skip a step, vibes that don't add up — leave. You don't owe anyone an explanation. You don't have to be polite about it. Most people who got burned later say they noticed something off in the first five minutes and ignored it because they didn't want to seem rude.

5. Don't Send Money

Real hookups don't involve up-front payments, deposits, verification fees, taxi fees, Uber gift cards, Apple Pay codes, crypto, or anything financial. None of it. If money comes up before you've met in person, it's a scam. Hard rule. No exceptions. We mean it.

6. Common Scams to Watch For

• Verification-site scams. "Send me your card info on this third-party site to confirm you're not a serial killer." No legit person does this. Walk away.
• Deposit scams. "I need a $50 deposit to lock in the meetup." No they don't.
• Sob-story scams. "I just need help with my Uber, I'll pay you back when you get here." No they won't.
• Catfish escalation. Photos look amazing, conversation is great, but they refuse to video call or send a verification photo. The photos aren't theirs.
• Romance pivot. Starts as a hookup, quickly becomes "I need money for an emergency" once you're invested. Block.
• Pre-meet location bait. "Come pick me up at this address" turns into being asked to drive somewhere you don't recognize. Pick the meetup spot yourself.

7. Personal Info You Should Never Share Up Front

Don't share, before you've actually met in person and built some basic trust:

• Your last name
• Your home address
• Your workplace or specific job
• Your bank info, credit card numbers, or payment method details
• The car you drive (license plate, make, model, color)
• Your social media handles, if they connect to your real name

Most of this is fine to share once you've actually met them and trust them. None of it is necessary before.

8. Once You've Agreed to Meet

Tell at least one friend the basic plan: who you're meeting (handle name and any contact info you have), where you're going, and roughly when you expect to be done. Share your live location with them via your phone for the duration of the meet. This is normal, not paranoid. It costs nothing and means a lot if something goes sideways.

Use a separate phone number for hookups if you can. Google Voice is free and works for this.

9. During the Meet

• Watch your drink. Don't leave it unattended. Don't accept a drink you didn't watch get poured. Don't drink anything you didn't order. This applies to first meets specifically — once you trust someone, normal social drinking rules apply.
• Keep your phone charged. Charge before you go. Bring a battery pack.
• Have your own way home. Your own car or your own ride app on your own phone. Don't depend on the other person for transportation.
• Stay sober enough to leave. You don't have to be stone-cold, but if you can't make a clear decision to walk out the door, you've drunk too much.

10. After the Meet

If you had a good time, great. If something felt off, trust that — and don't go again. Block them on whatever channel you used to communicate. If they've turned the corner from awkward into anything actually threatening (showing up unannounced, refusing to stop messaging, making threats), document it: screenshot everything, keep records, contact local police if it escalates.

11. If Something Goes Wrong

If you're in immediate danger, call 911 (or your local equivalent) first. Always. After that:

• For sexual assault, contact RAINN at 1-800-656-HOPE or rainn.org for support and reporting guidance. They are excellent and they will help you with anything you don't know how to do.
• For threats, harassment, or stalking, contact local police and document everything in writing or screenshots.
• To report the listing or user to us, email abuse@skip-the-games.vercel.app with whatever details you have. We can pull the listing and ban the user, but we are not a substitute for local authorities and we can't move faster than they can.