Fake ‘Verification’ Sites and Scams Exploit Online Daters

The FBI has issued new alerts warning that online dating platforms are increasingly targeted by fraud schemes that pivot on fake identity-verification services rather than classic romance scams. While many traditional dating scams focus on emotional manipulation and illicit transfers of money, these new variants centre on convincing victims to submit personal‐ and financial information in order to appear “verified,” only to be redirected into fraudulent subscription services.

According to the FBI, victims are often asked to provide their name, phone number, email address and credit-card data under the guise of completing an identity check for the dating site. Once the information is submitted, the user is enrolled in a bogus “secure dating” service and charged recurring monthly fees – while also exposing their personal data to further exploitation.

The entry point for this sort of fraud is usually a genuine dating app or social network where the scammer builds rapport with the user. At a certain point they encourage the target to “move to a safer platform” or engage with a third-party verification site, which is where the fraud diverges. Given the recent rise in the amount of platforms introducing verification systems of their own – whether those are face scanning systems or ones that require your entire ID – more and more users may get accustomed to verifying themselves on any platform they use.

While romance fraud remains prevalent – with victims often asked to send money or invest in a fraudulent scheme – fake verification scams operate by harvesting identity data and generating recurring charges rather than immediate extraction of funds. As verification becomes more and more important in the dating app and social media spaces, apps may be forced to counter these kinds of scams directly by introducing more overt warnings about fake verificaiton methods, or find ways to better educate users that might not realise that these scams exist.