As the internet matures, dating apps continue to take the world by storm filling the romantic void in the hearts of many. However, the advancements in connectivity via the internet and related technologies have not yet been met by innovations in online Identity Verification (IDV). This has led to a surge in online dating fraud, multiplying the need for stronger online dating Identity Verification services.
Ensuring your online dating site has sufficient IDV measures, particularly regarding age verification, is necessary to protect minors from explicit and inappropriate content. Not to mention save thousands of individuals (or millions of dollars) from romance scams on dating apps.
This guide celebrates Valentine’s Day, reminds readers of the importance of providing their users with a secure platform to date safely, and discusses the most significant focal points of robust dating app identity verification.
What is Know Your Valentine?
Know Your Valentine (KYV) is the process of mitigating the dangers that exist within the online dating industry. Online dating security starts at the point of customer acquisition, where a thorough IDV procedure is required.
3 in 10 American adults use an online dating service – a number that continues to grow each year.
Given that nearly 3 in 10 American adults use an online dating service – a number that continues to grow each year – it is now more imperative than ever to raise awareness of the necessity of user identity. This is particularly pertinent now as it is common practice for users to have multiple dating and even social media accounts. This uptick in account volume makes conducting a romance scam easier, as there is far more opportunity for scammers.
Integrating a robust Identity Verification process will deter romance scammers and malicious individuals from exploiting minors and other individuals. As a provider of dating services or any social media platform, instilling trust in your platform will retain confidence in your brand and increase usage, driving revenue up.
Challenge
The online dating industry is a breeding ground for malicious activity and individuals intent on scamming users looking for love. 67% of users believe that more could be done to improve the safety and operational security of dating platforms.
67% of users believe that more could be done to improve the safety and operational security of dating platforms.
In 2022, catfishing scams cost an average of $132.5 million a quarter in America, increasing over 10% from 2021. This notes the considerable increase in the prevalence of dating app scams which demands a change to be made.
A 2023 Snapchat report showed that from a pool of 6000 Gen-Z users from Australia, France, Germany, India, the UK, and the US, nearly 66% of them had experienced catfishing. They were requested to send private information or indecent images to be later used against them.
This challenge faces both users and providers of the platform in this fun but often dangerous industry. However, this is not an industry that should be defined by its perpetrators. Online Identity Verification providers encourage dating sites to proactively look for ways to mitigate the risks that malicious individuals bring to their services.
Consideration
Know Your Valentine is the methodology online dating platforms should follow and is a reminder of these dangers. Online dating sites must look for ways to counter the innovations and lies romance scammers employ to conduct malicious activities, such as catfishing. As digital platforms become more inundated with fake profiles, action must be taken to ensure user security, privacy, and data are not compromised, and trust is built on these platforms.
To enhance trust in their services, dating apps must establish robust mechanisms for generating age and identity assurances. This requires implementing comprehensive and up-to-date IDV and KYC processes that can scale with the exponential user base dating apps are fostering.
Additionally, the need for effective passive security measures is just as critical. This includes the ability to report any inappropriate content to preemptively prevent harm by identifying and reporting a potential romance scammer early on.
Importance of Trust for Online Dating Sites
A platform that harbors instances of catfish scams and other deceptive or fraudulent activities is a platform that tacitly endorses such crimes. These activities significantly undermine the trust in your company’s ability to safeguard its users. This can lead to:
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Increased customer churn
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Deterioration of brand reputation
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Weaker growth prospects
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Potential fines for non-compliance
Counteraction
Digital Identity Verification solutions provide a tailored offering for mitigating fraud, deception, and exploitation. Using AI-powered authentication engines, they provide autonomous customer acquisition workflows that extract data precisely and give complete customizability to their clients.
Dating site users are fickle, wanting a secure platform without lengthy onboarding times. These solutions do the heavy lifting to provide secure and precise customer acquisition mechanisms. Using automated and customizable workflows, you can choose the level of friction that works for your business.
Online Dating Identity Verification Workflow
A secure Online Identity Verification service follows a straight forward and seamless flow that balances safety and a great customer experience:
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A User decides to sign up for your online dating service.
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The user is redirected to an IDV and KYC onboarding workflow.
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They walk through an easily comprehensible program.
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IDV checks are run, and data is extracted instantly.
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This data is sent back to the provider’s platform (for ComplyCube, this would be their portal), and the user returns back to your app/site.
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The user is either instantly accepted and is granted access or required to submit more information.
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If this occurs, an onboarding team can create a case through the portal to be manually completed.
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A Case Management team assigns tasks to be conducted via the portal.
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The user is accepted if tasks are done adequately or rejected due to suspicious activity.
Identity Verification Methodology
Artificial intelligence is paramount to the successful automation of these workflows. Machine learning technologies can perform the tasks that a human would accomplish in a fraction of the time and to a far higher degree of precision. This leaves your customers satisfied with a seamless process and provides your business with the assurance that compliance and security obligations are thoroughly met.
Document Verification
Document Verification authenticates a government-issued ID such as a passport and extracts the available data in seconds. This process ensures that the user has provided a genuine identification document and eradicates human error from the verification process.
Moreover, registering on a dating or social media platform using a government-issued ID guarantees that individuals can establish only one account. This approach effectively addresses the problem of multiple signups, automatically denying registration if the ID is already in use. Additionally, it plays a significant role in thwarting attempts by fraudsters and bots to compromise the integrity of genuine user accounts, enhancing overall platform security.
This process alone acts as a strong first step towards improved regulation and excluding malicious individuals from online platforms; however, many services still do not request such basic proof of information.
Biometric Verification
Typically coded into the same workflow as a Document Verification, but available as a less stringent stand-alone option, biometrically authenticating a user does two things to mitigate identity theft:
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Tests for liveness with machine learning technology and Presentation Attack Detection (PAD). This ensures selfie integrity by checking for manipulation in the image, from pixel tampering to signs of distress (from the individual) in the supplied image.
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Matches the supplied selfie to the stock image in the KYC document. This provides the company with a high level of identity assurance when combined with document verification. Dating sites can choose their own ‘friction’ levels, setting their own similarity score thresholds between the document image and the selfie.
For more information on Biometric Verification, read: The Advantages of Biometric Authentication.
Age Estimation
ComplyCube’s sophisticated AI-powered face recognition system delivers immediate age estimations for users using the same advanced liveness and anti-spoofing technology found in standard Biometric checks. This approach ensures a one-step age verification process without compromising on precision.
Age estimation is an ideal solution for businesses offering products or services with age restrictions, aiming to minimize onboarding barriers. This method is flexible and accessible, allowing customers to estimate their age quickly and conveniently with just a selfie, anytime and anywhere.
Is Your Business in Need of an Online Identity Verification System?
Robust Identity Verification procedures in the online dating industry will provide users with a safe and secure experience, mitigating the fraudulent risks that are now synonymous with the industry.
Instant Document Verification
The online dating sector has standardized lengthy and drawn-out waiting times for Document Verification. IDV solutions can verify a government-issued ID in seconds, providing a streamlined user experience without compromising the integrity of the data extracts.
Seamless Biometric Verification
Document Verification is strengthened by following up with a Biometric Authentication. This not only provides assurances over the user’s genuine identity via microscopic pixel detection, but corroborates user identity from the ID image to the supplied selfie. Combining these two processes into one flow takes less than 1 minute to complete, disrupting the industry standard of multiple-hour waits on profile verification.
Frictionless Onboarding
ComplyCube’s onus is to provide flexible and customizable services. Clients can choose which solutions to incorporate into their onboarding workflow based on their personal corporate tolerance. Because of this, they are quickly becoming the go-to as a one-stop shop in Know Your Customer and Identity Verification services.
This hyper-focus on flexibility means clients are provided with frictionless onboarding processes for their users, who begin their relationship with the platform as favorably as possible. This ultimately acts as a revenue driver as failed signups are deterred and client retention is maximized and brings an unparalleled reputation to your platform. Users feel comfortable knowing that measures are being taken with their security in mind and that they are not signing up for one of many fake dating sites.
Prevent Minor Exploitation and Romance Scams
These processes are designed with the security of the user in mind. Thorough Identity Verification methods will foster a safe online dating experience on your platform and ensure you meet the rapidly evolving compliance regulations. This is most pertinent in regard to minor exploitation on dating apps.
Underage use and abuse on dating and social media platforms is rising, and while regulation is also evolving to deter this trend, platform providers must take action into their own hands, seeking innovative solutions.
Leading IDV and KYC Solutions
ComplyCube is a leading force in digital Identity Verification, providing multiple proprietary AML, KYC, and IDV solutions that make it a front-runner in the industry. ComplyCube plays host to a plethora of institutions’ compliance efforts and has shaped their operational efficiency and helped maximize profits.
However, it can be difficult to choose a KYC and IDV provider in the modern day as there are an increasing number of services that come to market. A few questions to keep in mind when deciding are:
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Does this service cover the breadth of countries we operate in?
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Are their technologies proprietary, and are they reliant on others?
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How customizable are their plans?
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How easy is it to integrate this technology into our existing stack?
ComplyCube prides itself on having all of this, and more, in abundance as they provide the best-in-class for customization, range of operations, in-house developed technologies, and ease of integration. For businesses seeking a reliable partner in Identity Verification, get in touch with one of our AML, KYC, and IDV specialists today, and see how we can reshape your customer acquisition processes.
