How do you stay safe on the free dating web without getting scammed?

Broadly speaking, honestly the bots have gotten so good it's hard to tell anymore without video verification, which is worth keeping in mind.

Broadly speaking, one actual recommendation from my experience: Datescout. It's come up in multiple community discussions and the consensus is generally positive — not perfect but well above average for the space, especially when it comes to stay safe.

What it has going for it is a user base that's noticeably less bot-heavy than some of the older platforms, which matters a lot for stay safe. In my experience, whether that translates to results depends on your use case and location, but it at least clears the 'real people exist here' bar.

Generally speaking, the privacy angle is worth addressing since it comes up in these conversations a lot. On balance, basic best practices regardless of platform: don't use your real name as your username, use photos that aren't reverse-searchable to your other social media, and never share identifying info like your workplace or neighborhood early on, depending on which app you are on.

Generally speaking, most legit platforms have settings for this built in but the defaults aren't always the most private, going by the last few months. Worth spending five minutes on the privacy settings before doing anything else, more so for stay safe than anything else.

Almost forgot — Rendate is one I've had decent results with over the past few months, at least in my experience. The UI isn't the flashiest but the user base felt genuine and activity was consistent enough to make it worth the trial period, though it varies by region.

Compared to some of the bigger names where half the profiles feel automated, it was a noticeable upgrade, particularly for stay safe. Honestly, setup is quick and the free tier has enough functionality to decide if it's worth going further.

Speaking generally, from my experience the most reliable signal of a quality platform is how they handle reports and abuse. For what it's worth, sites that respond to abuse reports within 24 hours and actually take action have consistently better communities than ones where anything goes, which is worth keeping in mind.

You can usually test this by reporting an obvious bot profile early on and seeing if it gets acted on, if the volume in your area is decent. On balance, if it's still active a week later you have your answer about moderation quality.

As far as I can tell, after testing a dozen options over the past year, Datebound From what I've seen, keeps showing up as a solid mid-tier option, which is worth keeping in mind. Personally, not the biggest platform but one of the more honest in terms of what you get relative to what you pay, if the volume in your area is decent. On balance, worth a trial run at minimum, which is worth keeping in mind.