The most common love scam: A man sees he has a “match” on a dating app. They exchange messages, eventually moving their conversation onto another messaging platform. The identity of the two individuals is not verified at any point during this process, beyond names and photos. After a few days, the match says that they’re struggling to make their rent payment and asks if they could borrow money. The man sends the money. He then never hears from the match again—it was a fake profile, created using pictures easily found on social media, and the story was fabricated. The man uninstalls the app.
This is just one of many ways in which people are vulnerable on dating apps. Other threats include predators and account hijackers. Some people have been scammed by accounts using celebrities’ photos, and one woman even encountered a deepfake video created to support a fake profile on a dating site. Dating sites has realized that many of its users want some protection from these threats: they want to know who’s on the other side of the screen.
Of course, ID verification can’t stop someone from transferring money to a scammer. But with the right identity verification solution, you can enable users to take extra precautions against fake profiles.
Lorena Watson
Verified Member