A widow who turned to Tinder for companionship after her husband's death lost more than $700,000 (£530,000) in a romance scam and a subsequent cryptocurrency recovery fraud. Her experience has renewed scrutiny of dating app safety, as a US Senate investigation raises questions about Tinder's ability to identify and block fraudulent accounts.
The woman matched with a man who claimed to be from New Jersey. He allegedly invented a series of emergencies, including problems on an oil rig, an arrest in Mexico and a heart attack, to persuade her to send him money.
After she realised she had been scammed, another group claimed it could recover her stolen funds. Instead, she became the victim of a second fraud involving a fake cryptocurrency recovery scheme.
Her case highlights the potentially devastating consequences of romance fraud. Separately, a wider Senate investigation has raised concerns about the technology dating platforms use to identify suspicious accounts.
Tinder's AI Scam Detection Systems Under Scrutiny
A report released on 13 October by the US Senate Joint Economic Committee detailed shortcomings in Match Group's efforts to tackle romance scams across its platforms, including Tinder, Hinge, Match and Plenty of Fish.
The investigation, led by Sen. Maggie Hassan, the committee's ranking member, found that Tinder had not updated most of its machine-learning models used to detect scammers and other bad actors for years, according to internal documents provided to the committee.
The report also found that views of scam profiles on Tinder increased by more than 700% between May 2024 and December 2025. This figure refers to the number of views received by the median scammer's profile, not an increase in the number of scammers or victims.
The investigation raised further concerns about how the platform's recommendation system worked, finding that Tinder was more likely to show users profiles belonging to scammers or other bad actors than those belonging to legitimate users.
The scale of the problem extended beyond profile visibility. During the first nine months of 2025, nearly 1.5 million scammers or other bad actors on Tinder and Hinge matched with at least one user in the US. Almost 500,000 of those accounts exchanged contact information with another user.
Hassan warned that advances in artificial intelligence were making fraud increasingly difficult to combat.
'We are seeing scams just explode as AI has developed and become more and more effective,' she told The Washington Post.
However, the investigation examined dating platforms' ability to detect fraudulent accounts. It does not establish that artificial intelligence was used by the man who targeted the widow or that Tinder's detection shortcomings directly caused her losses.
Match Group Points to New Safety Measures
Match Group has disputed aspects of the investigation's findings while highlighting changes it has made to improve user safety.
One of its major measures was Face Check, a video-selfie verification feature rolled out nationwide on Tinder in the US in early December 2025. The feature requires new users to verify their identity using a video selfie.
Match Group told the committee that, within a month of the nationwide rollout, Face Check had reduced user interactions with scammers, bots and other bad actors on Tinder in the US by more than 70%. The company said the reduction was sustained for at least the following seven months.
The company also introduced a new AI model in the first half of 2026 to examine profiles and other information to identify scammers and suspicious accounts.
Yoel Roth, Match Group's senior vice president of trust and safety, said the company had made significant progress in improving platform security.
'That said, the report mischaracterizes both the historical scale of our investment and the work already completed,' Roth said.
He added: 'Trust and safety is a foundational priority, and we intend to continue leading the industry in building tools that promote authentic, safe connections.'
Match Group's reported results suggest that its newer safety measures have helped reduce interactions with suspicious accounts. However, the investigation highlights the challenges dating platforms face in keeping pace with fraudulent activity.
Romance Scams Can Destroy More Than Savings
The widow's account also highlights the emotional consequences of romance fraud, which can leave victims questioning their judgement and struggling to trust others.
In her testimony to investigators, she described the damage that extends beyond financial losses.
'A romance scam takes more than money, there are wounds nobody sees. You question every conversation, every promise you believed. Some lose savings, homes, and futures. Some lose faith in love somehow,' she said.
The case also illustrates how victims can be targeted again after an initial scam. Fraudsters posing as recovery specialists often exploit the desperation of people trying to retrieve money they have already lost.
Romance and confidence schemes are driving nearly $1 billion (£760 million) in annual losses, according to the FBI Internet Crime Report for 2025.
Although checking profile photographs, verifying identities and being cautious about requests for money can help reduce the risk, such precautions cannot guarantee protection against increasingly sophisticated fraud.
