Safety guidelines

Before you accept a request

• Read the whole profile, not the photograph request alone. Look at whether the details are consistent.
• Do not treat email confirmation as verification of a person. It confirms an inbox, nothing more.
• Check that the stated city, profession and immigration status fit together sensibly.
• If anything reads as vague or evasive, decline. There is no cost to declining.

After you have exchanged numbers

• Keep the early conversation between the families, not between the couple alone.
• Meet in a public place or at a family home with elders present, never alone the first time.
• Verify independently: the employer, the qualification, the address, the family. A genuine family will not object to this.
• For overseas matches, ask to see the actual immigration document. Claimed status is the single most common lie in overseas matchmaking.

Warning signs

• Any request for money, however it is framed — a visa fee, a medical emergency, a business opportunity, an investment.
• Pressure to move the conversation off WhatsApp immediately, or to a different platform entirely.
• Refusal to involve family, or refusal of a video call.
• Refusal to show a document that they themselves claimed on their profile.
• Photographs that look like stock images or a model shoot.
• Urgency — a nikah being pushed within days or weeks with no family involvement.
• Requests for your intimate photographs. Report immediately; no genuine rishta involves this.

Protecting your privacy

• Use the guardian contact setting so the first number released is your father's or brother's.
• Do not put phone numbers, email addresses or social media handles in your About text. They are stripped automatically.
• Revoke photo access from your dashboard the moment a conversation ends.
• Pause your profile once you are in serious discussion with one family.

If something goes wrong

Report the profile to complaints@byahme.com with the profile ID and any screenshots. If you have lost money or been threatened, also report it to the Federal Investigation Agency's Cyber Crime Wing in Pakistan, or to your local police if you are overseas. We will cooperate fully with any lawful investigation.