Tinder makes facial verification a must for US users

Tinder will now ask users in the US to verify their identities via its “Face Check” feature. This move should reduce impersonation attempts and help real users avoid scams.

Match Group, Tinder's parent company, has announced that new users in the US must verify their identities using Face Check.

This facial liveness verification tool requires users to take a “short video selfie” to verify that they’re real and their faces match their profile photos.

If users pass the mandatory verification, they’ll be granted a verification badge, showing other users that they’re legitimate.

Face Check also detects whether the same face is being used across multiple accounts, which should help clamp down on fake profiles.

Tinder designed Face Check so that video selfies are only used to complete the verification process and are promptly deleted after review, Match Group claims.

However, Tinder stores encrypted face maps and face vectors to “help verify new photos, detect fraud, and prevent duplicate accounts.”

This tech has been previously rolled out in Colombia, Canada, Australia, India, and various countries in Southeast Asia, but had yet to reach the US until now.

Match Group plans to roll out this feature to users worldwide “in countries where local regulations permit.”

“When coupled with other recent safety initiatives, early results have shown meaningful improvements in user safety and confidence,” Match Group said in a statement.

Improvements include a more than 60% decrease in exposure to suspected bad actors and an over 40% decrease in bad actor reports.

This rollout comes after Tinder’s parent company was asked by US lawmakers to prove that it has proper user protections against romance scams and dating fraud.

Lawmakers presented the CEO with a five-page letter containing eight requests for more information about the company’s business practices and algorithmic design.

Billions of dollars lost to romance scams

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received roughly 64,000 romance scam reports in 2023.

While this isn’t as high as reports of business and government-related scams, the amount of money lost to romance scams isn’t insignificant.

Americans lost $1.14 billion to romance scammers in 2023, which averages out at around $2,000 per US citizen, the FTC said in a previous report.

Romance scams have reported the highest losses compared to any other scam, making it an efficient form of cybercrime.

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