I work at a fairly large tech company in the engineering department, and I am at a loss for how Hinge was able to detect my new account. I did the hard reset to a T. Tell me where I fucked up?
**Here is what I did:**
*\*note: everything was done on a new wifi network + a VPN to be extra safe\**
* Made a completely new Gmail and with it a completely new Apple ID (no relation to my real Gmail or Apple ID)
* I obtained a completely new phone. Someone who is old (late 60s) and married gave me their super old iPhone to use (needless to say Hinge, Tinder or Bumble have never touched that thing)
* I then used that person's REAL phone number to create a new account on that old phone. No Google Voice shit.
* Hinge was downloaded on this fresh Apple ID which had a single payment method that had nothing to do with me. This older individual gave me their debit card to use. *Hinge is pretty useless without the premium subscription IMO*
* I create my account without a hitch (new first name, no last name, different prompts, different birthday, etc.).
* Before adding any photos, all 6 of my photos were opened in Photoshop and edited to add & remove pixels, add visual noise, alter colors, used the liquify filter to mess with a few parts and even slightly cropped each image. Every photo had its EXIF / metadata carefully stripped.
* The account was successfully created, premium subscription added and the matches were rolling in + a few positive conversations.
1-2 hours later I pretend to buy some Roses to check and see if I am being shadow banned, and now I am getting the "Sorry, your transaction cannot... blah blah blah" dialog, confirming I have been shadowed banned.
# Tell me where I messed up in this process?
Extra context for those who want to read and are interested:
* I didn't say anything controversial. I played it extremely, extremely safe and vanilla—i.e. there was no legitimate reason a match would report me in those 1-2 hours. Again, the 1 full convo I did have was positive
* Finally, I will admit I am doing something a slightly shady. My gf and I are conventionally very attractive—not trying to lamely brag on the internet, its just true. We have used Hinge in the past to have multiple threesomes (along with other apps). Somewhere in the last year Hinge must have cracked down hard on couples joining their app. With this most recent attempt, my profile had 3 photos with **both of us** and 3 photos of me individually. The photos with both of us could have \~plausibly\~ been an ex, or a close friend, or hell even an adopted sister—plausible deniability. 2 out of 3 prompts were completely normal. 1 prompt *slightly* hinted at a threesome by simply saying: "\[Leave a comment if... \] you want to cross something off your bucket list 😎" - again, never said "our" bucket list, or cross it off with "us." Hell, I could have been talking about bungee jumping, or traveling the world together. Plausible deniability.
* \^ based on the above, is that enough to warrant a ban?
# My Theory
My theory is there is an actual human looking at new accounts to see if the photos are the same as recently banned accounts—this can't be fully automated. My first, main, real account was banned a week ago for trying to find a third to join my gf and I. I successfully created a second account that lasted about 2 days. Now, my newest third account is banned in 1-2 hours. I have to assume I need completely different photos across the board.
I will attempt a 4th account with fake male photos that look nothing like me and see how long it lasts. God knows I have plenty of real phone numbers, old iPads lying around, and unused credit cards.