SaucyDates has introduced a new AI virtual assistant that interacts with users while they are chatting with their matches.
In addition to offering advice, the AI assistant, named Scarlet, also gives security tips to users, for example saying “Don’t leave the site: Consider reporting them”, when someone asks to move the conversation to email.
These tips, although they appear within the chat tool, are only visible to the recipient.
SaucyDates said it has coded Scarlet to detect and learn within various types of fraud, including hotel scams, cam scams, sextortion and gift card scams.
The company said this makes it easier for the AI technology to notice trends – when given 100 messages identified by the dating site’s moderation team as a hotel scam, it is able to find patterns and similarities.
Currently, the AI does not automatically delete users, but does help with moderation by re-reading the messages and flagging them via colour coding for the reviewer.
SaucyDates founder David Minns said: “Making our users aware of scams is imperative to our company, many brands hide the problem which is rife within the industry.
“We feel education not only protects our users but helps them spot and report more issues, which is turn helps Scarlet improve her knowledge of scams.
“The virtual assist aspect of Scarlet joining in with conversations has been a major break through in fraud prevention for our dating network.
“If you have static fraud advice on a single page you need someone to read it, remember it and apply it.
“It’s a big ask when a user is taking to someone they are attracted too. Having Scarlet within the live conversations is a fundamental change for the better.”
And since implementing Scarlet a few months ago, the platform has seen the number of fraudulent users drop by 75%.
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