--- title: US report details extent of 'devastating' dating-app scams description: A US Senate joint economic committee investigation into Match Group dating apps found that Tinder had not updated most of its machine-learning scam-detection... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/us-report-details-extent-of-devastating-dating-app-scams-6ertjputh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: US report details extent of 'devastating' dating-app scams | daily.dev og:description: A US Senate joint economic committee investigation into Match Group dating apps found that Tinder had not updated most of its machine-learning scam-detection... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/us-report-details-extent-of-devastating-dating-app-scams-6ertjputh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/6ERtJpuTH.png og:image:alt: US report details extent of 'devastating' dating-app scams og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # US report details extent of 'devastating' dating-app scams **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A US Senate joint economic committee investigation into Match Group dating apps found that Tinder had not updated most of its machine-learning scam-detection models in years, leaving it less able to catch fraudsters. Nearly 1.5 million scammers or bad actors matched with users on Tinder and Hinge through Q3 2025, with about 500,000 exchanging contact information. Victims like Mary, who lost nearly $100,000 to a romance scammer on Plenty of Fish, described relentless manipulation. Match Group has since introduced facial verification and new AI detection models, which it says represent its largest-ever safety investments, though senators say action came too slowly. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 84 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-10-14). **TL;DR:** Developers largely blame dating apps' profit-driven design for failing to curb scams, with many proposing a nonprofit or government-run alternative, while others push back that personal responsibility and basic scam awareness matter too. **Sentiment:** 5% positive · 30% mixed · 65% skeptical **The case for** - A nonprofit dating app could have less incentive to tolerate scammers and dark patterns since it wouldn't depend on engagement-driven profit. - Simple heuristics and better scam education could prevent most romance scams without requiring platform changes. **The pushback** - For-profit dating apps are financially incentivized to keep users engaged rather than help them find a match, so they have little reason to fix scam/bot problems. - Many profiles are inactive or fake and are shown anyway to create a false impression of abundant options. - Paywalls hide the most desirable matches and extract money rather than connect compatible people. - Even with safeguards, scammers quickly move conversations off-app where the platform has no visibility or control. - Victims are emotionally manipulated via sunk-cost dynamics, making it hard to convince them after the fact that they were scammed, and they often resend money even after intervention. **By community** - hackernews (heated): Strong frustration at dating apps' misaligned profit incentives clashes with pushback that victims and the public also need better scam-awareness education and personal vigilance. **Hottest debate:** Whether the core problem is dating apps' profit-driven design enabling scams, or whether individual responsibility/education is the more realistic fix. **Open questions** - Would a nonprofit or government-backed dating app actually reduce scams and improve match quality, or just recreate the same problems? - Could a small cost-per-message or per-email system meaningfully reduce scam volume without hurting legitimate users? - What level of verification/effort should be legally mandated of dating platforms, and where does their liability end? **Highlights** > I'd support a non-profit dating app in a heartbeat. There are so many dark patterns in for-profit dating apps, it's the app equivalent of a funhouse mirror. For one, something like 75-90% of the profiles are dormant/inactive, but they're still shown as active profiles to give current users the illusion that there are lots of options in your area. Second, a successful dating app experience (assuming they're looking for something serious), means the user churns, so the app company is financially incentivized NOT to put you in front of people that you would likely connect with, at least without trying to extract as much money from you at first. Finally, the paid accounts have gotten ridiculously expensive, which drives real users away from the platform. And of course, they don't have to be transparent about any of it. A non-profit app has much less incentive to (frankly steal) from their users because they're able to offer the service at a lower cost, without the need for the funhouse mirror BS, and could even provide meaningful aggregate community data on how many couples they've connected, etc. > — [CodingJeebus on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50092741) > Their goal is to show you what you find attractive not who is compatible with you They also hide the people you find most attractive behind a paywall > — [Madmallard on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50093087) > There is an incentive: if people know your platform is riddled with scammers, they’re not going to use it. There are hundreds of dating apps out there that people just don’t use because they’re not trustworthy. > — [baron816 on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50092055) > Reminds me of a local interview they did with someone whose job is to investigate these scams. It was both fun and tragic to listen to. The biggest problem he has is convincing the target they've been a victim. Repeatedly, they've intercepted the money and returned it to the victim. The victim gets really upset that their loved one isn't getting the money. They show evidence that the recipient is a scammer, and involved in multiple romances, but the victim refuses to believe the officials. He said it's very common that they'll quickly send the money again using alternate channels. The amounts are huge. $100K isn't a large outlier. > — [BeetleB on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50093508) > Emotional manipulation is the obvious answer. Sunk cost "fallacy" helps the scammer a lot. They start with a trivial amount and build from there. Each time, it's emotionally harder for the victim to accept the romance they built in their minds does not exist, AND the money they paid was not spent on a good cause. It's much easier to deceive a person when their subconscious is collaborating with the scammer. > — [aljgz on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50092876) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50091519) · 35 points · 84 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I analyzed 50,000 Dating Profiles to Decipher the Myths of Love in Algorithm](https://daily.dev/posts/i-analyzed-50-000-dating-profiles-to-decipher-the-myths-of-love-in-algorithm-cgsotsle0) · Code Like A Girl · 88 upvotes · 8 comments - [Tinder tries to lure people back to online dating with IRL events, virtual speed dating](https://daily.dev/posts/tinder-tries-to-lure-people-back-to-online-dating-with-irl-events-virtual-speed-dating-vszlit0qv) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#fraud-detection](https://daily.dev/tags/fraud-detection) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/us-report-details-extent-of-devastating-dating-app-scams-6ertjputh) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"US report details extent of 'devastating' dating-app scams","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/us-report-details-extent-of-devastating-dating-app-scams-6ertjputh","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/us-report-details-extent-of-devastating-dating-app-scams-6ertjputh"},"datePublished":"2026-10-14T19:06:17.906Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T19:36:55.028Z","description":"A US Senate joint economic committee investigation into Match Group dating apps found that Tinder had not updated most of its machine-learning scam-detection...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/0b4c43ad048ce2e36abef19857cdb80b?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/0b4c43ad048ce2e36abef19857cdb80b?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/us-report-details-extent-of-devastating-dating-app-scams-6ertjputh","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"fraud-detection","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"US report details extent of 'devastating' dating-app scams"}]} ```