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Ten minutes, four checks
Before meeting someone new, four checks cover almost everything: photo provenance, account history, a live video call, and one detail that only a real local would know.
None of them requires anything intrusive. All of them are things you can do without telling the person you are doing them.
Photo and account history
Reverse-image search the profile photos. If the images appear under a different name, or trace to a stock library, an actor or a public figure, the identity is borrowed.
Then scroll the history rather than the bio. Accounts built for a purpose tend to have a short, evenly spaced posting history, few comments from real people, and no messy everyday content.
The live call test
A short unscripted video call settles more than any scan. Someone who refuses every call while offering excuses that shift each time is not necessarily fake, but the pattern is a serious warning sign.
Ask them to do something live during the call — look out of a window, hold up two fingers, name the street they are on. Pre-recorded video cannot interact.
Keep the first meeting low-risk
Meet in a public place you chose, in daylight, and tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back. Arrange your own transport so leaving is a decision you control.
For a first meeting, do not depend on the other person for a lift, an address, or a way home. The safety plan is worth more than any amount of background research.