Dating Apps Try to Woo Gen Z Women Amid Threats and Scams

Dating apps have reportedly begun considering new features as younger women sour on their services.

As the Financial Times (FT) reported Sunday (May 26), companies like Bumble and Match are planning to also increase content moderation and introduce other tools to improve women’s experiences, amid a rise in unsolicited material and violent threats.

The report said fixing these issues is critical for these companies, as both Match — which owns Tinder — and Bumble have seen their stock drop more than 80% in the last three years.

Both companies stressed their efforts to engage female users in their latest corporate earnings calls, the report said.

“Our number one job is to help our customers find connections and elevate women’s experiences,” said Lidiane Jones, who became Bumble’s CEO in January.

The companies have some work to do, as many women undergo experiences on dating apps that make them feel unsafe. More than 10% have been threatened with physical harm, while half of all women under 50 have gotten a sexually explicit message or image they didn’t ask for, per Pew Research Center data.

To help improve the experience, Tinder recently expanded its identity verification system, which compares a video selfie with government ID and images on a user’s profile. 

And Bumble in February began using artificial intelligence (AI) to weed out fake, spam or scam profiles. Bumble said initial testing showed the tool was able to block 95% of these bogus accounts automatically.

“Our most recent research made one thing very clear: Our members are anxious about the authenticity of their matches,” the company said at the time. 

“Worldwide, respondents cited fake profiles and the risk of scams as their top concerns when online dating,” Bumble added, saying that 46% of women surveyed said their main issue with online dating was not knowing if the person they’re speaking with is who they say they are.

Meanwhile, scammers are also using AI to impersonate individuals and groom victims as part of so-called “romance scams.” 

These tools have developed remarkable accuracy, making it increasingly tough for even the most digitally savvy individuals to see through, Kate Frankish, chief business development officer and anti-fraud lead at Pay.UK, said in an interview with PYMNTS.

“The more sophisticated these types of frauds get, the more difficult it is for even the savviest person to understand that actually, this doesn’t feel right. It’s not real,” Frankish said, adding that the lines between reality and deception continue to blur, leaving victims increasingly vulnerable to manipulation.