Sequel UI Change Reduced Dating Scam Registrations by 30%

Dating app Sequel has shared new details about its trust and safety efforts, revealing that a relatively small user interface change led to a significant drop in scam account registrations.

According to the company, its moderation team noticed an increase in fraudulent accounts and investigated how scammers were interacting with the platform. The analysis found that restricted accounts were being shown a “suspended” message on a preview screen. Rather than discouraging bad actors, the notification effectively confirmed that their accounts had been detected, prompting them to quickly create new profiles and adjust their tactics.

After removing this visual cue, Sequel says new scam profile registrations fell by more than 30% the following day and have remained at that lower level since. The company described the change as an example of how small interface decisions can have an outsized impact on platform security.

Alongside the UI update, Sequel has introduced additional technical safeguards. The platform now uses a multi-layered hardware authentication system designed to distinguish genuine mobile devices from virtual machines, emulators and bot networks. Future updates are expected to include additional checks based on network characteristics and mobile carrier data to help identify location spoofing.

The company has also expanded its use of dynamic risk scoring. These systems analyse factors such as network behaviour, referral sources and uploaded media to detect suspicious patterns in real time. Duplicate profile photos, repeated biographies and other shared characteristics can now be linked to previously identified scam networks, allowing large-scale spam campaigns to be blocked more quickly. Sequel also says its detection systems can identify AI-generated attempts to bypass profile verification.