BATTLE BUDDIES

BattleBuddies Safe Dating Tips

Effective: October 5, 2026

Your safety is the mission. Read this before your first message—and before your first meetup.

BattleBuddies is operated by 13 Foxtrot, LLC, an Ohio limited liability company doing business as BattleBuddies. The BattleBuddies app and BattleBuddiesDating.com are available only to United States residents who are at least 18 years old. The platform is limited to Active Duty service members, Reservists, National Guard members, and Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces.

First Meeting Safety

Meeting someone from an app for the first time carries real risk. Treat it like a tactical operation: brief your team, plan your exit, and stay alert.

Meet in Public

First meetings belong in coffee shops, restaurants, parks, or other populated public places—never at home or in a private location.

Brief a Buddy

Tell a trusted friend or family member who you are meeting, where you are going, and when you expect to be back. Consider arranging a check-in during the date.

Arrive Separately

Drive yourself or use a rideshare. Do not accept a ride from someone you have not met in person before, and do not disclose your home address unnecessarily.

Keep Your Phone Charged

Bring a fully charged phone. If appropriate, share your plans with a trusted person and establish a check-in time.

Know Your Exit

You can leave at any time, for any reason. Have a transportation plan and a pre-planned excuse ready if you need one. You do not owe anyone an explanation for leaving a situation that feels unsafe.

Watch Your Drink

Never leave your drink unattended. Order your own drink and watch it being prepared or poured.

Online Safety

Protect your personal information until you have built real trust. The early stages of any connection are when you are most exposed.

  • Do not share your home address, workplace, daily schedule, deployment dates, or other sensitive details until you know the person well.
  • Use BattleBuddies messaging rather than moving to personal phone numbers, email, or other private channels too quickly.
  • Reverse-image search profile photos if something feels off. Scammers often use stolen photos, including photos taken from military personnel’s public profiles.
  • Video call before meeting in person. Someone who repeatedly refuses or always has a technical excuse may be hiding something.
  • Never send money. Do not send money, gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfers, travel funds, military gear, or financial assistance to someone you met through the platform.
  • Be skeptical of “love bombing.” Intense affection, pressure, or promises very early in a connection can be manipulation rather than genuine interest.
  • Keep control of your accounts. Do not share passwords, verification codes, financial login information, or access to your devices.
  • Do not send intimate images to someone you have not established trust with. Assume anything you send may be saved, forwarded, or shared.

What Verification Does—and Does Not—Do

BattleBuddies uses VerifyPass as its primary verification method. An optional secondary method is a one-time check using a .mil email address. A .mil address is not required, and BattleBuddies does not encourage members to use an official work email for personal purposes.

For the optional .mil method:

  • The address is used only for a one-time confirmation of access to a .mil domain.
  • The address is not stored. BattleBuddies retains only a dated “verified via .mil” status flag.
  • BattleBuddies does not send communications of any kind to a .mil address, including marketing, match notifications, account messages, or transactional messages.
  • The check confirms access to a .mil domain only. It does not confirm the person’s identity, rank, unit, component, or length of service.

Verification is limited, and no verification system is foolproof. A verified badge means that the member passed the available verification steps at the time of verification. It is not a guarantee of the member’s identity, intentions, honesty, safety, rank, unit, service history, or criminal background.

Do not rely solely on a badge. Use your own judgment, take reasonable precautions, and independently verify information when it matters to you. A “Pending” or self-report badge is not full verification.

OPSEC-Safe Location Design

BattleBuddies is designed to reduce unnecessary location exposure.

  • Members manually enter a city, state, and/or ZIP code if they choose to use location-related matching.
  • The location field is optional.
  • BattleBuddies does not use GPS, device-location permissions, geofencing, background location tracking, or IP-derived location.
  • The app converts the location a member manually enters into approximate coordinates solely to calculate distance for matching and search.
  • Leaving the location field blank may limit location-related matching.

Do not enter a home address, exact workplace, barracks location, deployment location, or other unnecessarily precise information. Never share classified, operational, mission-sensitive, or otherwise sensitive military information on the platform.

Romance Scam Warning

Active-duty service members, Reservists, National Guard members, and Veterans are frequently targeted by romance scammers who create convincing profiles, build emotional trust, and then request money or other assistance.

Warning signs include:

  • Requests for money, gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfers, or financial help
  • Claims of being deployed and unable to access money or communicate normally
  • Refusal to video chat or meet in a safe public place
  • Pressure to move communication off-platform immediately
  • Rapid declarations of love or intense emotional pressure
  • Stories involving emergencies, travel problems, medical expenses, leave, or military equipment
  • Requests for account credentials, verification codes, financial information, or intimate images

If someone asks you for money, stop and reassess. Do not send funds. Preserve relevant messages and report the account through the app or by contacting safety@battlebuddiesdating.com. You may also report suspected fraud to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

Military OPSEC Awareness

You already know operational security. Apply it here. The person you are talking to may not be who they claim to be, and even a genuine connection does not automatically justify sharing sensitive information.

  • Do not share deployment dates, locations, or unit information in early conversations or on your profile.
  • Do not post photos that reveal base locations, restricted areas, classified equipment, tactical information, or sensitive documents.
  • Review photos before uploading. Watch for unit patches, name tapes, access badges, maps, screens, equipment, location markers, and identifying backgrounds.
  • Watch for targeted questioning. Someone asking unusually specific questions about your unit, mission, schedule, equipment, movements, or installation may have motives beyond dating.
  • Foreign nationals and unknown actors have targeted military personnel on dating apps. Do not assume a profile or conversation is harmless simply because it appears romantic.
  • If something feels like an intelligence-collection attempt, report it to BattleBuddies and consider reporting it to your unit security officer or other appropriate military authority.
  • Do not discuss classified, operational, mission-sensitive, or otherwise protected information—even with someone you trust.

Sharing operational details about deployments, unit locations, mission timelines, or duty schedules can create real security risks for you and your fellow service members.

Military Career Risk Warning

This warning applies equally to Active Duty, Reservists, National Guard, and Veteran users across all branches and components.

Screenshots and Investigations

Anything you send on BattleBuddies—including messages, photos, profile content, and videos—can be screenshotted, forwarded, or used as evidence in military disciplinary proceedings, Department of Defense investigations, courts-martial, or civilian criminal cases.

Nothing you share on this platform is guaranteed to remain private. Treat every message and photo as potentially viewable by your command, military investigators, a court, or another person connected to the recipient.

Criminal and Career-Ending Conduct

Using the platform to pursue relationships involving minors, engage in non-consensual conduct, harass another person, solicit commercial sex, engage in trafficking, or commit other unlawful conduct can result in account termination and referral to appropriate authorities.

BattleBuddies is not a substitute for military legal guidance. If you have questions about fraternization, rank, authority, command relationships, or other service-specific rules, consult your chain of command, JAG Corps legal assistance, or a licensed attorney before engaging.

Verify Before You Connect

Take responsibility for your own due diligence. Independently verify a match’s age, marital status, and rank before pursuing a relationship. Avoid relationships that could create a perceived abuse of rank, position, authority, or supervisory power.

When in doubt, consult your chain of command or JAG Corps legal assistance before engaging—not after.

Trust Your Instincts

If something feels wrong, it probably is. You have been trained to read situations—use that instinct here too.

  • You do not owe anyone your continued attention, time, or personal information.
  • Discomfort is information. Act on it.
  • Blocking someone is a complete sentence. No explanation is required.
  • If you feel unsafe during a meetup, leave immediately.
  • Do not let embarrassment, politeness, rank, status, or emotional pressure override your safety plan.
  • Tell someone you trust if an interaction becomes threatening, coercive, or unusual.

How to Report Someone

BattleBuddies takes safety reports seriously. Reports may concern a profile, photo, message, scam, impersonation, harassment, abuse, OPSEC concern, or other unsafe conduct.

To report a profile or message: Open the user’s profile or message, select the report or flag option, choose the reason, add relevant details, and submit the report.

For urgent safety concerns: Contact safety@battlebuddiesdating.com.

You may also review the Community Guidelines and Safety Policy at:

When reporting, include relevant details such as the profile or username, dates and approximate times, screenshots, and message content. Do not alter screenshots if they may be needed to understand what happened.

In an emergency, contact local law enforcement by calling 911 or contact installation military police first. BattleBuddies is not an emergency service and cannot provide immediate physical protection or emergency response.

For mental health support, contact the Veterans Crisis Line:

Questions and Support

For safety reports: safety@battlebuddiesdating.com

For account or general support: support@battlebuddiesdating.com

For appeals of account actions: appeals@battlebuddiesdating.com

BattleBuddies is operated by:

13 Foxtrot, LLC
36550 Chester Road #4003
Avon, OH 44011

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