The world of dating apps is under fire, with late-stage capitalism’s surge towards enshittifcation driving user experiences into the bucket of badness.

Once popular (and even loved) apps like Bumble, Tinder, OkCupid, and Match are degrading their experience to prioritise endless profit. Many are now actively using dubious tactics to con unsuspecting, desperate geezers out of money.

If you have a look around online, many users are aware of this and quite happy to bollock these companies with brutal, harsh, and volatile online reviews. We find it all very intriguing and so had a closer look into this world of modern dating gone horribly wrong.

💝 Dating Apps: A World of Angry 1/5 Online Reviews 💝

For the purposes of anonymity, we’re not going to mention any names associated with reviews. Rest assured, though, these reviews are very real, not AI, and we had a tour through TrustPilot to pick out our favourites.

TrustPilot upated its UI recently and now includes a review summary at the top of its feed. Oh joy, this is generated by AI. But it does at least convey the general consensus amongst reviewers. Here’s a revealing one:

“Most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Consumers express widespread dissatisfaction with the app’s functionality and performance. People report issues such as the presence of fake profiles and scammers, which diminishes the chances of finding genuine connections.

Reviewers also voice concerns about subscriptions and payments, with some mentioning unexpected charges and difficulties in canceling their accounts. The contact and customer service experiences are also points of contention, as consumers report unresponsiveness and unhelpful support. Overall, the sentiment towards the app is overwhelmingly negative, with many feeling that it does not deliver on its promises.”

That’s for Tinder. It has 4,400+ reviews and 89% of those are 1/5. Many of the reviews left are from very angry people indeed! Thus, let’s explore these.

Thus, if you’re from an older generation and never used these things before, below is a demonstration of the JOYS of modern dating. And by JOYS we mean the deleterious horrors that are adding to the ever-worsening political climate in the West.

Enraged Reviews of Tinder

The reviews ahead are largely from men, many of whom have figured out what these businesses are doing. The guys are very angry about this indeed, with the terms “con” and “scam” used repeatedly.

It’s worth noting Tinder, Bumble, Hinge etc. don’t respond to any of the accusations on TrustPilot, which has opened the door for a total free-for-all of disappointed swearing and rage.

---

What a con

Isn’t it weird that when your subscription is about to expire you suddenly get lots of new profiles that you have never seen before? Is this called fraud?

---

totally shitty app

totally shitty app. they showe you still same people and want earn money not meet someone. yeah and it’s full of scanmers.

---

I have Tinder Is a Corporate Scam Built on Fake Profiles and Lies” used Tinder multiple times over…

I have used Tinder multiple times over the past year, each time giving it the benefit of the doubt. I even paid for features like Tinder Gold, Boosts, and Super Likes — all based on promises of better visibility and more meaningful matches.

But what did I get in return? Nothing but a sea of fake profiles, mostly run by bots or catfish accounts — especially from Eastern Europe and Russia. There is no real human interaction, no genuine connection, and certainly no return on the money I spent. The idea that someone can go weeks or months without a single legitimate like — especially after paying for premium features — is not just frustrating, it’s statistically and humanly impossible.

This isn’t just poor performance. It feels like organized fraud. Tinder appears to be a platform designed to exploit lonely and vulnerable people by selling them hope — while in reality, all they’re doing is lining their pockets with millions of dollars through fake, non-existent profiles.

To everyone who has been emotionally manipulated or financially deceived by this platform: I urge you to stand up and speak out. Let’s file a collective complaint to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and hold this company accountable for its systematic deception. We deserve better — and they deserve to answer for it.

---

Such a scam

Such a scam! Just a money grab by Tinder, while they have u by the emotional short hairs! I signed up for a free account… and started getting ‘likes’ – but I couldnt see ’em unless I paid,,, I switched to paid account… then I got virtually no interest when I had a paid account, but the minute it lapsed, I start getting ‘likes’ left and right again…
The scammers on the site are bad enough – but u also get scammed by Tinder, itself!
Just a cesspool of crap!

---

Very frustrating

I haven’t got a good match in years (literally). I have swiped to the right on all the girls I like but I’ll never get a match. It looks like the app is hiding my profile on purpose to make me go to a paid plan. Opening this app and seeing 0 matches every day, no matter on how many girls I swipe really harms my self-esteem, making me think I’m broken or unlovable.

On this last one, we’ve seen this documented a number of times across various review platforms. One Apple review noted the Bumble dating app was making them feel like ending it all.

The apps seem to be now reliant on men desperately sticking with the platform, swiping forever, paying for more and more premium services believing that’ll get them interest from women. As soon as they leave a subscription, that’s when a mass of fake likes and messages arrive from AI to draw them back in and subscribe again.

Enshittification. It’s quite astonishing the apps are allowed to get away with doing this, but there we go. That’s late-stage capitalism for you.

It also highlights the obvious. Geezers! Get off these stupid things and just go out into the real world and meet people. You’ll have a laugh, will get rejected a bunch, but at least you won’t be trashing your money away.

Enraged Reviews of Bumble

This first one we’re listing is rather sad and was on a different review platform. Bumble, however, does respond to customer reviews on there with a typically generic template response denying any sort of wrongdoing. The reviews are exactly the same everywhere—a tsunami of angry 1/5s.

Pay to play

The pay to play element of this app really ruined my self esteem. I use the same photos as hinge where I do just fine average 2 matches a day, but here I get absolutely nothing. They’ve now changed the spotlight boost from 2 to 3 spotlights required. And of course the £30 premium comes with 2 spotlights. I travelled 150 miles away and got 30 matches in a couple of hours. Come back home and use spotlights on a Sunday evening. 0 matches. Nothing for 3 weeks. Cancel subscription. All of a sudden 10 people have liked me within a few hours after nothing for 3 weeks. You are scum. Deleted.

That sums up the almost quite tragic nature of all this. By “spotlights” this user means a boost system usable to bring your dating profile to the front of the algorithm. That’s what the service alleges, anyway, and you get 2/3 and then have to pay for more.

This system is designed to play further on the desperation and ramps up the costs.

Bumble responded to this user with corporate bollocks from a generic template. They kind of have to do that, we guess, as there are so many thousands of negative comments like it.

---

Total scam

Total scam. They show you supposed “likes” so that you pay for a subscription. After you have paid, they reveal likes in OTHER countries. Hundreds of miles away from the settings that you selected. NO matches under the parameters that you set. I then tried cancelling the subscription. It was impossible. I will be claiming the money back through a bank dispute. Utterly deplorable company.

---

LADIES – SAVE YOUR MONEY

Absolutely shocking experience. If you want to sleep around with knuckle dragging idiots, this site is perfect! Statistically speaking, these sites are complete failures. Too many dudes after free sex chat. Hardly any of them can string a full sentence together. And they appear to swipe right on EVERY profile. Free bonking site for losers treating women like FREE HOOKERS. AVOID

This 1/5 review highlights what it’s like for women. The stats are something like 10 times more guys on these apps than women, which creates a hellish warzone of desperation.

Women get bombarded with attention from rampant guys, many of whom are bad actors/sociopaths/psychopaths/narcissists/fans of dick pics etc. Women get more and more frustrated, meaning they’re less likely to engage with men or use the apps at all.

There was even the instance of the affair promoting dating site Ashley Madison, in 2015, having so many male users compared to women they invented masses of fake profiles. This baited men in to paying, with the company’s employees responding to users with template responses.

After that scandal, the site still operates to this day and guys are on there using it.

---

Scam

Matches were bots to get you to sign up. Uses deceptive practices and makes it intentionally difficult to find someone. Predatory monetization. Only paid for a week and cancelled this 2 days in. AVOID AVOID AVOID

---

After paying for lifetime member, its a shit show

After paying for lifetime member, I’m 150% sure they dont show my profile anymore as I get next to no matches whereas when i was a non member I get a ton of matches which were invisible to me so they get me to pay to see. Its such a scam app. You’d think they would reward their users who spend money but its totally opposite. After you pay a lifetime member, they kick you to the curb cos you dont matter anymore as they squeezed $$ out of you.

The “lifetime membership” is one of many fancy new (and expensive, but of course) features the apps have rolled out in recent years. These are designed to offer exclusivity and further promises of finding love more effectively by forking out more to cut some queues.

This lifetime thing costs £100 ($229.99), to which we found this comment on Reddit.

“Lifetime subscription (apparently 5 years in reality) is for me roughly the same cost as the four months I spent on it last year. However I have heard that the algorithm deprioritises you should you opt for that, as less money to squeeze from you. I would like to hear from people’s own experiences (especially those based in the UK) with that. Have Bumble themselves commented on this? It makes commercial sense for them but is a total dick-move ethically.”

Out of 2,100+ reviews, Bumble has an 86% 1/5 rating. This was the last dating app we ever tried several years ago (FYI we’re never trying one ever again), during which time we experienced the whole process of singing up and getting “attention”, subscribing to see the who likes you, and then there’s nothing at all—total silence. Like it’s a dead app.

Once you unsubscribe, the likes and messaging magically return to lure you back in. It’s a total con, the businesses know that, but is dependent on desperate and vulnerable people to keep on subscribing.

All whilst they’ve skyrocketed their pricing models, some of them costing £25 a week, we believe OkCupid is £50 a month etc. Sadly, there are enough people so desperate for love they’ll hang around for years forever swiping into an existential void.

Dating apps sell the lovelorn a dream. You could be one swipe away from meeting the man/woman of your dreams. NEVER GIVE UP! 

Except, do. Give up and stop using these stupid things.

Conclusion: Love Ain’t for Keepin’

We recently discovered web developer and YouTuber Vanessa Wingårdh’s channel and she has a great take on modern conundrums. The above video highlights the level of growing frustration in society these apps are responsible for.

The popularity of dating apps is severely waning. Their heyday was around 10 years ago, but now people are losing interest:

• Women as they’re annoyed by the toxic behaviour of so many men
• Men as they get no interest from women

This dating app situation is actually adding to the strife between men and women, with some of the more toxic former types aligning with the hard-right in frustration at being rejected during dating. They think feminism is to blame for their single and lonely life.

Again, it’s important to stress the obvious—get off these apps. Stop bloody swiping. If you want to date, get out and meet people at events at the like. And be a natural human being, not someone desperately trying to get into someone’s pants and turn them into a doting housewife.

But as interest dwindles, the businesses are trying to milk customers for all their worth until they fully run out of steam. But it has all contributed toward creating a toxic modern dating scene (pushed forward further still by polarising modern political opinions). It’ll take a long time to return to any sense of mutual gender harmony.