Safety Center

How to report someone, how blocking works, and how to look after yourself when you meet people from the app.

Reporting someone

You can report any profile or any message. On a profile, open the overflow menu (the ⋮ or More button) and choose Report this profile. On a message, press and hold it and choose Report. Tell us what happened — reports go to our safety team.

Reporting is confidential — the person you report is not told who reported them. If we find a breach of our Terms we may remove content, suspend the account, or ban it. We may act on a pattern of reports even when no single report is conclusive on its own.

If someone is in immediate danger, call 911 first. We are not an emergency service and cannot respond in real time.

Blocking

Blocking is immediate and does not notify the other person. A blocked user is removed from your inbox, hidden from your grid, and cannot contact you or see your profile.

Blocking also removes the conversation from your own inbox, so it takes your copy of the messages with it. If you might want a record of what was said — for harassment, threats, or anything you may want to report later — take screenshots before you block or report. You can block someone without reporting them, and report someone without blocking them — but for harassment we suggest both, screenshots first.

Staying safe while you chat

Good judgement online matters as much as good judgement in person.

• Hold back identifying details early on. Your full legal name, employer, home address, and financial details (bank, card, or crypto wallet information) don't need to go to someone you just matched with. Share them only once you trust the person, if at all.
• Assume anything you send can be saved. Screenshots, screen recordings, and saved photos are all possible regardless of what an app promises — treat every message, photo, or video you send as potentially permanent and shareable beyond the person you sent it to.

Meeting someone safely

• hankerchf has no in-app video or voice calling. If you want to video chat before meeting to confirm someone is who their photos say they are, that means moving to another app — make that your own choice and on your own terms, not because the other person is pushing you to switch apps quickly.
• Meet in public the first time, and stay in public until you are comfortable.
• Tell a friend where you are going, who you are meeting, and when you expect to be back. Share your live location with them.
• Arrange your own transport both ways, so you can leave whenever you want to.
• Keep control of your drink and don't leave it unattended.
• Trust your instincts. You never owe anyone an explanation for leaving. Leaving early is always allowed.

Recognising romance scams

Romance scams follow a recognisable shape. Someone is unusually intense unusually quickly, always has a reason they cannot meet or video chat, and eventually needs money — for a flight, a medical bill, a customs fee, or an investment they want to let you in on.

The rule that catches almost all of it: no genuine match asks you for money. Not by bank transfer, not by gift card, not by cryptocurrency, not by payment app. Requests for gift-card codes or crypto are essentially never legitimate, because both are effectively impossible to reverse.

Other signs worth pausing on:

• They want to move to another messaging app straight away.
• Their photos look like stock or model shots. A reverse image search often settles it.
• They claim to be working overseas, on an oil rig, or in the military — a set of stories chosen because they explain away never meeting.
• They ask for intimate photos early, which are later used to extort you (sextortion).

If you are being extorted over intimate images, do not pay — paying almost always leads to further demands. Report the account to us and to the FBI at ic3.gov. There are also free services that can help get intimate images taken down from participating platforms: if you were under 18 in the images, use NCMEC's Take It Down; hankerchf is an adult (18+) app, so if you were 18 or older when the images were taken, use StopNCII.org instead — it is the equivalent service for adults.

Report scam accounts to us, and to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

Getting help

These are independent organisations, not part of hankerchf. All are free and confidential.

Contacting us

Safety and abuse reports: [email protected]
General support: [email protected]