‘Like being in a vortex’: US report details extent of ‘devastating’ dating-app scams
Congress calls for Match Group and others to do more to help victims like Mary, who lost $100,000 to app scammer
TL;DR
- A US congressional investigation, led by Senators Maggie Hassan and Marsha Blackburn, examined romance scams on dating platforms owned by Match Group.
- Victims, like Mary who lost $100,000, reported constant contact and escalating requests for money from scammers.
- Internal documents revealed that Tinder had not updated most of its machine learning models in years, leading to unreliable scam detection.
- Data showed millions of potential scammers matched with other users on Tinder and Hinge, with many exchanging contact information.
- Match Group has since implemented new safety measures, including facial verification on Tinder and AI models to detect bad actors.
- Senators argue that these changes took too long and that Match Group needs to do more to combat scams proactively.
- Legislation has been introduced to establish a central portal for reporting scams and seeking help from law enforcement.