Tinder forces everyone to show their face in new verification crackdown

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Tinder is rolling out mandatory face verification for all new US users, starting in California this week before expanding nationwide.

The move comes as dating apps struggle with an epidemic of catfishers, scammers, and AI-generated fake profiles that have turned swiping into a digital minefield.

The Face Check feature requires new users to record a short video selfie, which is compared against their profile photos.

The system creates a 3D model from multiple angles to verify you’re both real and actually the person in your pics. Once verified, the video gets deleted, but Tinder keeps an encrypted face map to catch future fraud attempts.

“Face Check is perhaps the most measurably impactful Trust and Safety feature I’ve seen in my 15-year career,” says Yoel Roth, Head of Trust & Safety at Match Group. That’s quite the endorsement from someone who’s seen every dating app disaster imaginable.

The feature is already live in six countries, including Canada, so this isn’t exactly beta testing.

Tinder’s targeting the usual suspects: people running multiple fake accounts, scammers using stolen photos, and increasingly sophisticated bots powered by generative AI that can churn out convincing fake profiles at scale.

It’s a smart move, honestly. Dating apps have become playgrounds for bad actors who exploit people looking for genuine connections.

While some users might grumble about the extra verification step, it beats matching with someone who turns out to be a 45-year-old dude named Gary using his nephew’s photos.

The real test will be whether this actually reduces the scammer population or just forces them to get more creative. Either way, it’s about time someone took a serious swing at cleaning up the digital dating cesspool.

Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com.