How To Verify Dating Profiles Are Real?
Online dating has become an increasingly popular way to meet new people, but it has also become a breeding ground for fake dating profiles. Fake dating profiles are created by scammers who use these profiles to deceive and manipulate users, often for financial gain. These profiles can be very convincing, and it can be difficult for users to identify them. Scammers use their fake dating profiles to establish relationships with unsuspecting users. Once a relationship has been established, scammers may ask for money or personal information, or they may use the relationship to commit other fraudulent activities. Users may become emotionally invested in a relationship with a fake profile, only to discover that the person they thought they were talking to does not exist. This can lead to feelings of betrayal, anger, and depression. In addition, users may be financially impacted by fake dating profiles, as scammers may ask for money or steal personal information.
How Dating Apps Combat Fake Dating Profiles
To combat the issue of dating profiles, many dating apps and websites have implemented verification processes. The most common verification process is photo verification which is to ensure that the user is using their real photo and not a fake one.
The technique of photo verification that major dating apps are using involves asking users to take a photo selfie or a voiceless video selfie that is then compared to the photos on their dating profile. Below are details of how photo verification is implemented in major dating apps and websites as of the writing of this article.
· Tinder launched a photo verification feature in 2019, which prompts users to take a real-time selfie video to verify their profile photos. The video selfie doesn’t require the users to record their voice.
· Bumble and Badoo also use photo verification to keep fake accounts at bay. But their photo verification feature uses static images instead of videos. Users are prompted to take a photo selfie mimicking a random pose.
· In Nov 2022, Hinge rolled out video verification tool similar to that of Tinder. Hinge’s photo verification process involves users taking a video selfie, which is then scanned for Liveness Check and 3D Face Authentication. The verification is based only on the scan of images and a face recognition tool. No audio is involved.
· Zoosk also uses a voiceless video verification feature to confirm the authenticity of user profiles. Users are prompted to record a short selfie video of themselves, which is then reviewed by a member of Zoosk’s team.
· Like other dating apps being to Match Group, Match.com introduced a photo verification feature in 2020, which simply asks users to upload a video selfie to verify and then uses facial recognition technology to verify their profile photos.
How Scammers Can Bypass Photo Verification of Major Dating Apps
Among the apps that have photo verification feature so far, Bumble and Badoo’s verification process is the weakest one because it relies solely on the user’s own selfie photo as the means of verification. This could make it easier for users to bypass the feature by submitting fake or misleading selfies. The users can point camera to a picture (print or on another device) of someone with similar pose that is picked and then take the photo of that picture. Since the pool of poses that are picked from is only in the order of hundreds, it’s easily for scammers to prepare fake photos of all those poses. Bumble and Badoo’s verification process may not be rigorous enough to catch all instances of fake or misleading photos. For example, the technology used to verify photos may not be advanced enough to detect sophisticated photo manipulations or deepfakes.
While the photo verification technique of many other dating apps that uses video selfie without voice is better than Bumble and Badoo’s, their technique is still not strong enough because it also relies solely on facial recognition technology. Maggie Oates, an independent privacy and security researcher, told Wired that “she believes that relying solely on facial recognition technology for profile verification will only last for so long.”
Scammers can bypass the verification process that uses voiceless video selfie by playing a video of someone they want to impersonate on another device and recording that video as the video selfie submitted for the verification. A voiceless selfie video can also be easily manipulated or tampered with either through the use of deepfake technology or by simply having someone else pose as the user.
How ExtentWorld Combats Fake Profiles
ExtentWorld Dating is a new dating app and website but it has gone to a great length to ensure that there’re no fake profiles abusing their service. The first major measure ExtentWorld deployed to combat fake dating profiles is to detect scammers that hide themselves though VPN, which allows scammers in Nigeria, Ghana, or Senegal to pretend that they live in the United States or other developed countries.
Recently ExtentWorld has also rolled out an account verification feature which asks users to take a real-time video selfie but with voice. While recording the selfie, the users will be asked to read a sequence of random numbers shown on screen. After the video selfie is submitted, it will be reviewed by ExtentWorld’s moderators. Here is a demonstration of how ExtentWorld’s verification process works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGvSpxuKhGk
Video selfie with voice is more reliable than voiceless video selfie to verify user photo because it adds an additional layer of authentication through the use of audio. A voiceless video selfie only captures the visual aspect of the user, whereas a video selfie with voice captures both the visual and audio aspects, making it more difficult for someone to impersonate the user.
A video selfie with voice that users take on ExtentWorld requires the user to speak or say something that cannot be prerecorded. This allows the verifier to match the user’s voice with the visual aspect of the video, ensuring that the person in the video is indeed the person taking the selfie.
As such, ExtentWorld’s photo verification technique is stronger than their counterparts. Its technique is of the same security standard used to verify users in situations where a high level of security is required, such as in online banking or financial transactions, which have much higher risk of fraud.
Parts of this article were first published at the world forum and on my work profile on ExtentWorld Public.
