Tinder Is Using Face Scans to Make Catfishing More Difficult
It’s going to get a lot harder for catfishers on Tinder. Starting today, new users in California will need to scan their faces when setting up their account to ensure they are both real and match their profile photos.
Called Face Check, the new mandatory feature is the first step in a new initiative from Tinder’s parent company, Match Group, which says the goal is to help reduce “spam, scam attempts, or attempted scams.” [bots] exploiting fake automated profiles. When registering, users will have to complete a “liveness check,” during which they will take a video selfie from different angles. After that, the app will compare the selfie to the profile photos also uploaded during setup, and if it determines that they match, the user will receive a “Verified Photo badge” and they can finish creating their account. Tinder also says that the system can determine if an image was used across multiple accounts to help prevent identity theft.
Although Face Check is new in the United States, it has already launched overseas in Colombia, Canada, Australia, India, and “several Southeast Asian countries.” According to Tinder, “when combined with other recent security initiatives,” Face Check resulted in a more than 60% decrease in the number of users exposed to “bad actors” and a more than 40% decrease in bad actor reports.
Face Check’s debut also coincides with the rise of AI image generators, and while the company’s announcement message doesn’t explicitly reference AI, it’s not hard to see how it could prove useful against bots using generated photos to pretend to be someone who doesn’t even exist. Traditional methods of catfishing, such as using stock photos, can be detected through diligent reverse image search, but AI’s ability to quickly create new, credible, and specifically tailored results has made it harder than ever to know if you’re talking to a real human online.
At the same time, as other apps begin to collect personal information such as government IDs, there is a privacy concern. Tinder says Face Check only uses your video selfie to complete the verification process and deletes it shortly after review, although it generates an “encrypted, irreversible face card” that is stored to “help verify new photos, detect fraud, and prevent duplicate accounts.”
What do you think of it so far?
As someone who met my husband on Twitter (RIP), I’ll let you decide if it’s worth it. Have you tried to get really good at publishing instead?
For now, though, you may have to wait a bit until Face Check actually comes to you. First, Tinder doesn’t require existing accounts to use Face Check, which is why I assume it uses a badge to indicate accounts that have gone through Face Check, even though it’s required during setup. Second, Face Check is rolling out slowly. Tinder says it will come to other states “in the coming months,” although the company hasn’t provided an exact timeline.
As for other apps, Match Group (which also owns OKCupid, Hinge and Plenty of Fish, among others) says it will expand Face Check to additional platforms in 2026.
