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What to save, when to block, how to report dating-app harassment and how to respond when unwanted contact continues elsewhere.
Document the minimum useful record
- Capture the profile, username, full message, date and time - Not only an isolated sentence.
- Keep voicemails, call logs, emails and any new accounts used to contact you.
- Write a short timeline while events are fresh, including witnesses and offline encounters.
- Store a copy somewhere the harassing person cannot access, or share it with someone you trust.
Do not negotiate access to you
If it feels safe and you want to, one written statement - ‘Do not contact me again’ - Creates a clear record. You do not have to send it when doing so may provoke the person. After that, avoid repeated replies: they often create more opportunities for argument and distress.
Block the account, phone number and connected social profiles. Review followers, location sharing, shared albums, cloud sessions and account-recovery options.
Make the platform report specific
Choose the closest reporting category and describe the behaviour plainly: threats, impersonation, sexual harassment, repeated new accounts or offline stalking. Mention if the person knows your address or has threatened to share intimate images.
Keep the report confirmation. A platform action is not a safety plan, so continue practical steps outside the app.
Escalate when risk changes
Seek local emergency help for an immediate threat. For ongoing stalking, threats or image-based abuse, a specialist domestic-abuse or stalking service can help you assess risk and local legal options.
Avoid publishing the evidence as a warning post while the situation is active; it may reveal your location, complicate reporting or trigger retaliation. Share it with the people helping you instead.
Build a record that another person can understand
Save the full context before blocking when it is safe to do so. A clean record includes the account name and profile URL, dates and times, the messages before and after a threat, call logs, payment requests and any new accounts used after a block. Screenshots are useful, but an exported conversation or screen recording can show sequence and reduce ambiguity. Keep an untouched copy in a secure location and write a short timeline while events are fresh.
Do not keep replying just to collect more evidence. Continued contact can increase distress and may reveal which messages affect you. Use in-app reporting first when the conduct is on a platform, then adjust privacy settings and tell trusted people what has happened. If the person knows your routines, consider changing predictable public check-ins and alerting a workplace or building contact only with the information they need.
- Record what happened, where it happened and who witnessed it.
- Keep original files rather than editing or annotating the only copy.
- Note each report number and the response from the platform or authority.
- Contact local emergency services when you face an immediate threat.
Trusted further reading
The practical information on this page was checked against these specialist or public-interest resources.