Have you ever found yourself several messages into a Tinder conversation with the nagging feeling that you might not be talking with a real live human? If so, then you’re not alone. With recent advancements in chatbot technology, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell which Tinder matches are human and which are not. That’s why knowing how to spot a bot can come in very handy.

Now, before venturing too far into the topic of how to spot a Tinder bot, it’s worth explaining exactly what a Tinder bot is and why they are used. Tinder bots are computer programs designed to converse with humans through the popular mobile dating app, Tinder. While some Tinder bots are rather obvious by design and go straight to spamming users with unsolicited links, others can hold far more natural sounding conversations, making them much harder to recognize and avoid.

As for why chatbots are used on dating apps – there are several reasons. Some chatbots found on dating apps have been added by the app creators themselves to make their members appear more active, while other dating app creators have added chatbots to help superficially even out the often-unbalanced number of male and female accounts. A third type of chatbot is frequently added by outside influencers looking to directly advertise to an app’s users. Such outside influencers may try to direct users to other sites or apps via link spam or simply slip mentions of their products or services into seemingly real conversations for some covert advertising.

In knowing all this, how can you spot a Tinder bot so you can stop wasting your time talking with a computer program and move on to your next match? Though you may have considered just asking your match if they are in fact a Tinder bot, this method isn’t generally recommended. Odds are, if you are talking with a bot, they will have been programmed to lie whenever the ‘bot or not’ question pops up in conversation. Worse yet, if you are talking with a human and question them about possibly being a bot, you might end up sounding like a jerk, driving your match away.

That said, here are four other things Tinder users can do to help spot Tinder bots: