Omi Facial Verification Hits 60% as Romance Scams Rise in Asia

Dating app Omi – a popular platform in a number of Asian countries – says around 60% of its users have completed facial verification. This comes not long after many countries have attempted to roll out various forms of legislation surrounding verificaiton, with Malaysia in particular officially ruling out mandatory verification only a few days ago.

The facial verification process remains optional because of legal and privacy considerations, according to Omi parent company MatchUp UK Ltd chief information security officer Oskar Levin. However, users who do not complete the process may face restrictions on certain features and could be classified as higher-risk users. Users who pass the facial scan receive a verification badge on their profiles.

Levin said human-operated scam accounts remain particularly difficult to identify because scammers can spend days or weeks building relationships before attempting fraud. Automated bots are generally easier to detect because their behaviour tends to follow more predictable patterns, although AI has allowed these bots to become more flexible and responsive rather than simply repeating pre-prepared messages.

The comments come amid growing concerns over romance scams – and online scams as a whole – in a number of Asian countries, namely in Southeast Asia. Police data reported by the New Straits Times showed that 462 Malaysians lost a combined RM32.7 million to scams originating from people met through online dating platforms over the four years to June 2026. More than 70% of victims were aged between 21 and 40. 85 cases involving Omi were reported to have resulted in losses of RM8.43 million.

According to the UN, scam losses in Asia have increased up to $114 billion, triple that of 2023. While romance scams remain only a part of this figure, it’s still a significant increase, and one that seems to have become more prevalent as AI becomes widely available for creating fake profiles.