Published: 12/07/2024By: Will Garcia
To some people, age is just a number. After all, someone’s maturity level and personality can vary a lot, even if they are the same age as you. Sometimes, though, age can be important. After all, there are legal restrictions based on age for many things, such as consent, drinking alcohol, and even driving.
While age doesn’t often matter as much as many people think, lying about age can really affect trust within a relationship. In the world of online connections, it can be hard to know if the person on the other side of your screen is who they say they are or if they are being honest about their personal details.
There are a few red flags that might indicate the person you’re talking to isn’t being honest about their age. So, what should you do if you aren’t sure about the age of the person you’re talking to? There are a few ways to check whether the age in their social media or dating profile is accurate or not.
Signs Someone is Lying About Their Age Online
You don’t want to live your life being overly suspicious of everyone you talk to, but it’s also important to protect yourself physically, emotionally, and financially. Age fraud can be particularly hurtful and dangerous when it comes to things like online dating.
Someone being much younger than they claim may mean they are a minor. This can put you at risk of unknowingly committing a crime by having inappropriate conversations with them or arranging to meet them in person. A person who is much older could pretend to be younger and could be preying on you, looking for someone young and easy to manipulate.
If you’re the kind of person who is looking to have a family, it might also be harder to have children with a partner over a certain age. It’s best not to get too attached to someone who can’t give you the future you want. Besides, it’s always hurtful to have someone you care about lie to and deceive you.
Inconsistent Backstory
If someone’s story of their life seems inconsistent, it can mean that they are trying to cover up their age. They may be trying to convince you they are younger than they really are by trying to make it seem like they grew up with the same technology or pop cultural references you did.
If you’re talking to a person who is underage or at least much younger than they say, they may try to reference adult things in their life like jobs, investments, and their college career, but without giving specific details or by giving inconsistent details.
Ask for more specific details about their background to try and test the truthfulness of what they say. For example, you can ask what year they graduated or what their favorite childhood film or TV show was to get more details. Always be checking to make sure that what they say makes logical sense based on the information they’ve given you before.
Limited Photos
Having only a few photos on their online profiles could mean that they are trying to hide something. If the photos are from unusual angles, feature a lot of shadows, or look edited, it may not just be an attempt at being artistic; it might be an attempt to deceive.
Photos that look old or like they may have been scanned and uploaded could indicate that the user is much older than they say but is trying to use photos from when they were young.
Ask them to send you a selfie showing where they are or what they are doing currently to test out how honest they are. You can also ask to video chat with someone to see them face-to-face before agreeing to meet them.
You Can’t Find Them on Other Social Media
Once you start talking with someone online, it’s natural to be curious and look for other profiles on social media. It might be suspicious if you can’t find any other accounts matching this person’s name and photo. That could be a sign of something fishy.
There is always a possibility of you getting catfished (getting lured by an online persona). Use reverse image search on their profile photos to see if they come up in connection with other people or even other users on the same site. Plenty of people use fake names and ages on social media and dating sites for a variety of reasons, none of them good. They might misrepresent themselves online to embarrass and manipulate people or try to scam you out of money.
People who are catfishing you will often decline requests to send you current photos or video chat with you as well. They may even avoid voice calls to hide features like their gender or age which can sometimes be discerned from someone’s voice.
Searching for Someone’s Age Online
There are a few ways to find information about someone’s age online. If you have reason to suspect that someone might be lying about their age, you may want to do some research rather than confronting them directly. If you’re wrong, it could really hurt their feelings and ruin a possible relationship.
There are a few ways to find information about someone’s age. These methods will help you uncover the truth about this person.
Social Media
If the person in question does have a social media profile, it may contain their age, date of birth, or other information that can help you determine their age.
On sites like Facebook, for example, you can often see users’ birthdays. Even if they make that information private on their profile, you can use the “About” tab on someone’s profile to see the age of their account. If someone sells on Facebook Marketplace, that profile will often have the account age listed as well. From there, you can get an idea of a person’s age.
By looking at someone’s photos posted on sites like Instagram and Facebook, you can also get some information about their age. People often make birthday posts or receive birthday information as well, so that might be a way to find a specific or approximate age, too.
Certain social media apps are more popular with certain age groups as well, so that can also give you a demographic clue about the person. If they are very active on Facebook, for example, they are more likely to be Gen X or older.
Snapchat and TikTok tend to attract younger users from Gen Z, while Instagram is often a mix of Millenial and Gen Z users.
The way someone writes or their word choice can also give clues about their age. It’s not foolproof, but it can help you to form an impression of their age and determine whether they are being honest with you or not.
People Search Tools
Thanks to online search tools, you can easily search public records to find information about people you meet online. If you have their full name, you can look up their records to see if they match the information they’re telling you. Basic data about their finances, criminal records, and address history are also available on this site.
This type of search will also pull up age data on a person so you can confirm the information on their profile or find inconsistencies. It may also give information that can indicate the person in question is catfishing you.
If you don’t have their full legal name, you can also search for their phone number if you’ve exchanged numbers to chat outside of the app where you first met. This search finds who the registered user of a phone number is and subsequently can help you find all the other information about them.
This type of search is perfectly legal and scans for information found in public databases, but it saves you the hassle of finding and combing through these records on your own. Even if someone isn’t lying about their age, it’s good to find information about possible criminal history and bankruptcy if you’re contemplating a romantic or business relationship with someone.
Protect Yourself from Age Deception
It’s hard to avoid using the internet to make personal connections nowadays, but it can be scary to think about the way other users might be deceiving you. Fortunately, there are many signs that could alert you to the fact that someone is lying about their age. There are also tools you can use to confirm your suspicions.
If you discover that someone has been lying about their age, it’s up to you whether you confront them. In some cases, you may decide it’s easier and safer to simply break off communications with that person, perhaps blocking them on any sites or chat apps where you communicate. After all, you don’t owe a person who has been tricking you anything. Just remember to keep yourself and your personal information protected while communicating with anyone online.
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