Identity Verification Solutions to Mitigate Online Dating Scams

Identity Verification Solutions

COVID-19 pandemic and its associated risk with the traditional dates and in-person meetups have given importance to the idea of online dating. Almost 3 million swipes are recorded in a single day on Tinder, and the use of a messaging app called Hinge increased by 30%. However, as online dating may appear to be a safe way in COVID-19, it is not as secure it may seem. Dating apps are full of scammers that create fake profiles to catfish another person and obtain personal data. Because of the vulnerabilities, it becomes difficult for dating platforms to authenticate the identity of users, which may result in customers becoming victims. 

Romance Scams: An Increasing Crime with Time

As much truth as it is, that true love is priceless; it is nearly impossible to deny that romance scams are also prevailing in this age. We can observe the dilemma of the situation from the statement of the Federal Trade Commission that says, “reported scams are merely frivolous, as many victims face humiliation on reporting the case to the authorities. Facebook and Instagram are the two favorite apps of youngsters, and the scams reported to FTC involve the name of the same two apps. Some of the romance scams cases reported in 2021 are:

65-year-old Women Tricked by Romance Scammer

After the death of her husband, a woman aged 65 fell victim to a love scammer. A fraudster approached the victim through Facebook, who pretended to be an army officer. They were involved in a distant relationship as the woman never met the scammer in person. The man requested the woman give him £7,500 so that he could leave the army and be with his family. The sufferer attempted to provide the wanted money, but the financial institution speculated on an irregular transaction and established a protocol alert to the regulatory authority. Afterward, the police notified the victim that it was a fraud.

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Interpol Assisted Hawks to Catch Scammer Group

The Interpol and FBI aided the hawks in arresting eight persons associated with computer scams, global financial fraud, and money laundering in Cape Town. The defendants, aged 33 to 52, were indicted of tricking their victims, many of whom were helpless divorcees or widows. The suspects used online dating services and social media platforms to connect with their victims. They used fake identities and trolled online dating websites. They supposedly designed bewailing stories about why they demanded money such as taxes to clear an inheritance, significant abroad trips, lousy mortgages, then took cash from the sufferers’ accounts to the number of $100 million. 

Dating Websites Require Robust IDV Now More Than Ever Before

To defeat the possible peril of romance scams, the dating websites must include authenticity badges like the blue ones on Twitter. Identity verification will guarantee that the individuals on the platform or chat room are genuine. It indicates that the dating apps have to follow complete steps to detect the true identities by kyc verification. Identity verification service would enable the platform to combat the unrequired threat and give consumers a frictionless dating experience. 

Following are the parameters digital dating websites can get utilizing identity verification solutions:

Enhanced Defense Mechanism

By employing identity verification services, dating apps can give confidence to their customers that they are dealing with genuine persons. Unfortunately, several love scammers use fake biographies to manipulate people through digital courting. However, after using enhanced defense mechanisms, customers are less likely to be victimized by scammers.  

Accountability

Accountability is the most significant point that identity verification offers to a digital dating website and social media apps. When the businesses/platforms include an ID authentication service, consumers can utilize specific data and genuine government-issued identity documents for registration. In addition, the move will deter romance scammers because they realize that their illegal actions would not let them log in to dating platforms. 

A Safer Dating Experience

Final Words

It is doubtless to say that digital socialization is here to stay amid the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond; therefore, online dating websites are required to keep their customers secure from romance scams. Furthermore, these apps need to verify customers before registering them to fulfill the aim of developing genuine and long-lasting relationships. Therefore, identity verification solutions are the best tactics to authenticate customers’ identities and discourage scammers’ evil purposes. In a nutshell, after employing identity verification protocols dating apps can prevent fraudsters from accessing the digital dating ecosystem for their evil benefits.