Dating apps are increasingly requiring users to submit facial or biometric scans to prove they are real people, as AI-generated fake profiles, chatfishing and voice cloning fuel a surge in romance scams. Tinder made its Face Check tool mandatory for new members in October 2025 and is now extending the requirement to existing users in core markets including the US and UK, with owner Match Group describing it as "a statement about what human connection online should require". The trend, now used by more than a dozen major dating platforms, marks a significant shift towards biometric verification becoming a prerequisite for using such services.

Nearly half of current US online daters have been targeted by a dating scam, with the FBI reporting romance scam losses exceeding $4 billion between 2015 and 2025. Verification methods include liveness checks, 3D authentication and video selfies, while Tools for Humanity's World ID uses iris-scanning via an "orb" device to issue a "verified human" badge, a system it says deletes images after coding them. However, cybersecurity researcher Katie Moussouris warns that such measures amount to "security theatre", as face or ID scans confirm only that someone was present or presented documentation, not that they are trustworthy, while critics note the shift also raises new privacy and surveillance concerns.