Tinder Uses Facial Scanning to Make Catfishing More Difficult
Tinder catfishing is about to get a whole lot tougher. Starting today, new users in California will have to scan their faces when setting up their accounts to ensure they’re real and match their profile photos.
The new mandatory feature, called Face Check , is the first step in a new initiative by Match Group, Tinder’s parent company. The initiative aims to combat “spam, scams, and [bots] creating fake profiles.” Upon registration, users will be required to complete a “relevance check,” which involves taking video selfies from different angles. The app will then compare the selfie with the profile photos uploaded during setup, and if they match, the user will receive a “Photo Verified” badge and be able to complete their account creation. Tinder also claims its system can detect if a photo has been used on multiple accounts to prevent impersonation attempts.
While Face Check is new in the US, it has already launched in Colombia, Canada, Australia, India, and “several countries in Southeast Asia.” According to Tinder, “combined with other recent safety initiatives,” Face Check has reduced the number of users exposed to malicious activity by more than 60%, as well as the number of reports of such activity by more than 40%.
Face Check’s debut also coincided with the rise of AI-powered image generators , and while the company’s announcement didn’t explicitly mention AI, it’s easy to see how it could prove useful against bots that use generated photos to impersonate non-existent people. Traditional catfishing methods, such as the use of stock photos, can be detected through careful reverse image searches, but AI’s ability to quickly generate new, believable, and tailored results has made it more challenging than ever to determine whether you’re communicating with a real person online.
At the same time, as other apps begin collecting personal data like ID , privacy concerns arise. Tinder claims that Face Check only uses your video selfie to complete the verification process and deletes it shortly after verification, although it does create an “irreversible, encrypted face map” that is stored to “help verify new photos, detect fraud, and prevent duplicate accounts.”
As someone who met my husband on Twitter (peace and blessings be upon him), I’ll leave it up to you to decide if it’s worth it. Have you tried simply learning how to post?
In the meantime, you might have to wait a bit for Face Check to actually roll out. Firstly, Tinder doesn’t require existing accounts to use Face Check, so I assume it uses a badge to indicate accounts that have been Face Checked, even though it’s required during setup. Secondly, Face Check is rolling out slowly. Tinder says it will roll out to other states “in the coming months,” though the company hasn’t given a specific timeframe.
As for other apps, Match Group (which also owns OKCupid, Hinge, and Plenty of Fish, among others) says it will expand Face Check capabilities to additional platforms in 2026.