And from my personal experience, its is entirely reasonable to answer every single dm if you want to, even when you are getting large amounts. DO NOT BE FOOLED INTO SENDING ANYTHING that you wouldn't normally. If a scammer cant be bothered to respond to everyone, they aren't even dedicated to scamming!

DO NOT BE FOOLED INTO SENDING ANYTHING YOU DONT WANT TO HAND OUT FOR FREE, If you like sending out your junk, then that is on you. The rest of you dropkicks...... BE SMARTER.

You are not beating the "competition". You are being scammed.

Also image generators have developed to be good enough that the holding up a text saying i'm real with the date and all that BS, is not a good verification.

Have a conversation to see if you like each other, then ask for discrete verification, that is not a face and is random, like a photo of shoes, then after that those shoes with a peace sign.

If you are just after validation that you exist, then by all means just connect with anyone, that's valid.