Dating safety.

Encore exists to reconnect people who noticed each other in real life — which means, if it works, you'll eventually be sitting across from someone you don't really know yet. Please read this page. It's short, it's honest, and parts of it are the safety notice that state law requires us to give you.

Encore does not conduct criminal background screenings on its members.

We don't verify anyone's identity, history, or intentions. Phone verification and a linked Instagram confirm control of a phone number and an Instagram account — nothing more. Anyone who is able to commit identity theft can also falsify a dating profile.

Online dating safety awareness

• There is no substitute for acting with caution when communicating with any stranger who wants to meet you.
• Never include your last name, email address, home address, phone number, place of work, Social Security number, or any other identifying information in your profile, check-in notes, or first messages. Share your daily routine with no one you haven't met.
• Stop communicating with anyone who pressures you for personal or financial information, or attempts in any way to trick you into revealing it.
• Take your time. People who rush intimacy, profess strong feelings unusually fast, or always have a reason they can't meet are showing you a pattern — trust the pattern.

Meeting in person: protecting yourself from sexual assault and dating violence

• If you choose to have a face-to-face meeting with another member, always tell someone in your family or a friend where you are going and when you will return.
• Never agree to be picked up at your home. Always provide your own transportation to and from your date, and meet in a public place with many people around.
• Keep your phone charged and with you. Stay sober enough to keep your judgment, and keep an eye on your drink.
• If something feels wrong, leave. You don't owe anyone an explanation. Non-consensual sexual conduct is a crime — full stop.

Protecting yourself from financial crimes

• Never send money — especially by wire transfer, gift card, or cryptocurrency — to someone you met on a dating app, even in what they describe as an emergency. This is the single most common romance scam, and a request for money is the moment to stop talking and report.
• Never share financial account information. Encore will never ask for it either.
• Requesting or accepting money from other members is banned on Encore. Report it the moment it happens.

The tools Encore gives you

These are designed to help — they add layers of friction against bad actors, but no tool guarantees your safety, and none of them replaces the advice above.

• Exposure is bounded by design. Your check-in history is never published, nobody can message you without a mutual match, and you appear to another user only if you both logged the same venue on the same night (name, age, photo) or you chose to tell them you noticed them. Nobody can browse you.
• Report anyone, from anywhere. Every profile, message, and conversation can be reported from the “···” menu. Reports come straight to us, and we aim to review every report of objectionable content within 24 hours. You can also email admin@encoreconnections.com — including about a member you encountered off the app.
• Block instantly. Blocking is immediate, silent, and mutual — they can't see you, you can't see them, and they are not told.
• The phone shield. In Settings, you can list the phone numbers of people you'd rather never encounter here (an ex, a boss). If a listed number ever belongs to an Encore account, you're both hidden from each other, silently.
• If we ban an account for using a false identity or attempting to defraud members, we may notify people who interacted with it.

If you were the victim of a crime involving someone you met on Encore: report it to local law enforcement, and tell us too — it helps us keep the person from reaching anyone else. You are not to blame for someone else's crime, and reporting it may prevent them from victimizing someone else.

How reports and bans work

• What's prohibited: conduct that threatens anyone's safety — violence, sexual misconduct, stalking, harassment, threats, drugging, theft, fraud — along with everything in our Terms of Service. Non-consensual sexual conduct violates this policy and the law.
• What happens to a report: a human reviews it — we aim to review reports of objectionable content within 24 hours — and the outcome can be a warning, content removal, suspension, or a permanent ban, at our discretion. Accounts reported for conduct threatening safety are reviewed first.
• Screening and verification: we do not conduct criminal background screening. Accounts are age-gated at 18+ by date of birth, tied to one phone number each, and may link an Instagram account — none of which verifies identity.
• Notifying affected members: if we ban an account for using a false identity or attempting to defraud members, we may notify members who interacted with it.
• Appeals: if you believe your account was suspended or banned in error, email admin@encoreconnections.com within 30 days and we'll take a second look. Safety bans are reversed only if the report was mistaken or false.

Encore is not an emergency service

If you are in danger, call 911 (or your local emergency number) first — not us.

Help and resources

• RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline — 1-800-656-4673, or online chat at hotline.rainn.org (free, confidential, 24/7).
• National Domestic Violence Hotline — 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788.
• FTC guidance on romance scams — consumer.ftc.gov, and report fraud at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
• NYC Safe Horizon (victim assistance, all crimes) — 1-800-621-4673.

Contact

Safety questions or reports: admin@encoreconnections.com