Tinder to require video selfies to verify user IDs amid dating-app crime

Business

By Alyona Uvarova

Tinder said Tuesday it plans to expand its ID verification requirements – including one that asks users to submit a video selfie –  as crime on dating apps rises and artificial intelligence makes it harder to tell who is real. 

The world’s most popular dating app said the new features – slated to launch across the US, UK, Mexico, and Brazil in the coming weeks and months – will require users to submit a valid driver’s license or passport in addition to the video selfie in order to obtain a blue verification checkmark.

In response, the new system checks the birth date and whether the face on the video matches the profile pictures and ID. 

Tinder said it has successfully tested the process in Australia and New Zealand, where newly verified users got 67% more matches than those who opted out. 

A unit of Match Group, Tinder said it first tested the feature in Japan in 2019, but a surge in date crime has recently made the technology rollout more urgent.

Nearly 70,000 individuals disclosed falling victim to a romance scam in 2022, with recorded financial losses reaching $1.3 billion, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Nineteen percent of the scams started on dating apps, the agency said.

In January, the US Embassy in Colombia warned travelers about a surge in incidents where criminals exploit online dating platforms to entice victims.

“Numerous US citizens in Colombia have been drugged, robbed, and even killed by their Colombian dates,” the embassy reported. “A growing number of US citizens were lured to bars, hotels, and restaurants through applications like Tinder.”

In response, Tinder has notified its users to “please remember to vet your matches, meet in public places and share plans with people you trust. If something feels off, you can end the date.”

In 2019, a US House subcommittee investigated Tinder for lacking safeguards preventing minors from registering on the app. Tinder raised its age limit to 18 from 13 in 2016.

Nevertheless, the app still asks users to enter their birth dates manually with no further proof, according to The Atlantic.