Senate report finds Tinder scam-detection models went years without updates

Nearly 1.5 million bad-actor accounts matched Tinder or Hinge users

A bipartisan US Senate investigation released Tuesday found that most of Tinder’s machine-learning models had not been updated for years, leaving Tinder less able to detect scammers and other bad actors and struggling to keep pace with emerging threats on the platform. The report from the Joint Economic Committee was produced by senators Maggie Hassan, a Democrat of New Hampshire, and Marsha Blackburn, a Republican of Tennessee, after an inquiry the senators launched last September into romance scams on dating platforms operated by Match Group, including Tinder, Hinge, Plenty of Fish and Match.

Internal Match Group documents cited in the report found that “as of the second half of 2025, Tinder had not updated most of its machine learning models in years” and “as a result, Tinder detected scammers and other bad actors less reliably and struggled to keep pace with emerging threats.”

Data Match Group provided to the committee and cited in the report showed that through the third quarter of 2025 in the United States, nearly 1.5 million scammers or other bad actors on Tinder and Hinge had “matched with at least one other user.” The report also showed that nearly 500,000 of those accounts “exchanged contact information with another user.”

The senators launched the investigation last September, noting at the time that romance scams “have become a leading form of financial fraud in the United States and cost Americans at least $1.3bn annually.”

One victim interviewed by committee staff was Mary, who said she lost about $100,000 in cryptocurrency to a man she met on Plenty of Fish in 2024. Mary, who asked that her last name be withheld, told the Guardian: “There was a lot of conversation, and then it started with the constant contact, pressure and repeated asks for money. It just escalated really, really quickly.”

Mary described how the man would contact her constantly, knew where she lived, and told her he needed money for work-related expenses and medical emergencies. She ultimately sent about $100,000 in cryptocurrency payments. “They never leave you alone,” she said. “I call it like being in a vortex. You don’t even realise what’s happening. You’re sending money, and it’s adding up, but each one of those times that you send money, it’s, like, not connected to the other times.”

After realizing she had been scammed, Mary said she blocked the man’s number. He would then switch phone numbers and contact her again, she said. Mary has since sought to identify the people behind the fraud and discovered other Plenty of Fish profiles using the same photos as the man she had spoken to; she has reported them to the platform.

“If you knew me, you would say she would never do that,” Mary said, adding that she struggles to understand how it all happened, but believes it is “really a lot about force of control.”

Tuesday’s report noted that since the launch of the investigation last September, Match Group has “introduced and expanded important measures designed to combat scams,” including a facial verification feature on the Tinder app across the US, “requiring all new Tinder users to complete a video selfie verification process.”

In a separate news release on Tuesday, Hassan and committee Democrats added that Match Group also “instituted new efforts designed to remove harmful accounts more effectively,” including, in the first half of 2025, a “new AI model” that examines profiles and other information to detect scammers and other bad actors.

“It is encouraging that following committee outreach, Match Group introduced new AI models,” the report states. However, those “changes came after a prolonged period during which scams continued to proliferate on Tinder.”

In a statement Tuesday, Yoel Roth, Match Group’s senior vice-president of trust and safety, said: “We’re grateful the committee recognized our significant advancements to protect our users against romance scams. That said, the report mischaracterizes both the historical scale of our investment and the work already complete. Alongside our engagement with the Committee over the past year, we’ve made the largest safety advancements in Match Group’s history. 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 also said much of the safety work, including the face check feature, was already under way before the committee’s investigation began, according to The Guardian.

Hassan, in a statement released alongside the report, described romance scams as “devastating – both financially and emotionally – to people who are looking for connection and instead find themselves targeted and exploited by global criminal enterprises.” She added: “During the course of our investigation, Match Group made progress in combating scammers – but it shouldn’t have taken so long, and there’s still more that Match needs to do.”

“As criminal networks use AI to supercharge their scams, dating apps and all companies must quickly and proactively keep their scam defenses up to date,” Hassan said. “Companies must stay vigilant and prioritize comprehensive scam prevention at every level to protect consumers and block fraudsters from infiltrating online platforms.”

In June, Hassan introduced legislation with Senator Rick Scott, a Republican, that would establish a central portal for Americans to report scams and “get the help they need from law enforcement and agencies.”