{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2025/9/crime/technology/senators-blackburn-hassan-press-match-group-for-answers-on-romance-scams", "Senators Blackburn, Hassan Press Match Group for Answers on Romance Scams", "2025-09-24", "2025", "2025-09", "Republican", "Senate", "TN", "Marsha Blackburn", "B001243", "www.blackburn.senate.gov", "blackburn", "https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/news/cc8c80c1-d564-4bbb-93a4-f1d772346ae0", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Technology, and Data Privacy and member of the Joint Economic Committee, and Senator Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee, today pushed Match Group, the operator of a number of major dating apps, including Hinge, Tinder, and OKCupid, to provide information about romance scams on its platforms. Romance scams, in which fraudsters form relationships to induce money or gifts from victims, have become a leading form of financial fraud in the United States and cost Americans at least $1.3 billion annually. Match Group\u2019s platforms are used by nearly half of all online dating users in the United States, and more than half of all users believe they have encountered a scammer. In the letter, the Senators asked the company for information about its efforts to detect scammers on its platforms, crack down on fraudulent usage, and protect users.\n\n\u201cMatch Group\u2019s platforms have become a breeding ground for bad actors who prey on vulnerable Americans, especially seniors who have lost their life savings because of scams,\u201d said Senator Blackburn. \u201cDespite public promises to improve safety, the company\u2019s practices and algorithmic design raise serious concerns about whether it\u2019s truly protecting users. We\u2019re asking for answers and transparency to ensure these platforms are not enabling bad actors.\u201d\n\n\u201cRomance scams are robbing Americans of millions of dollars every year, and taking a devastating emotional toll in the process,\u201d said Senator Hassan. \u201cThe companies operating dating apps must be honest with the public about the extent to which these scammers have infiltrated their platforms and must do more to protect their users from fraud.\u201d\n\nClick here to read Senator Blackburn and Hassan\u2019s letter to Match Group, or see below:\n\nDear Mr. Rascoff:\n\nGiven Match Group\u2019s stated commitment to improving upon its historical practices relating to user safety, we write today to request documents and information about the company\u2019s policies, procedures, and practices related to fraudulent activity on its platforms. Romance scams, in which fraudsters form relationships to induce money or gifts from victims, have become a leading form of financial fraud in the United States, with annual losses reaching at least $1.3 billion, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Independent research indicates that nearly half of all online dating users in the United States have used a Match Group platform, and more than half of all users believe they have encountered a scammer. On a recent earnings call, you stated that Match Group would improve trust and safety and \u201cprioritize users over short-term revenue and profit,\u201d marking a shift from the way the company \u201coperated historically.\u201d\n\nOver the years, many events have raised questions about whether Match Group\u2014in its business practices and algorithmic design\u2014has contributed to the proliferation of romance scams online. In a 2019 complaint, FTC alleged that Match Group knowingly exposed users to fraud. In fact, FTC alleged that between 2013 and mid-2018, up to 30 percent of new Match.com members were scammers. FTC further alleged that Match.com sent mass emails to non-paying users promoting paywalled communications from accounts it suspected or knew were fraudulent. This led nearly 500,000 users to subscribe within 24 hours of receiving an email or other advertisement that involved a fraudulent communication. These allegations raise concerns about whether and how Match Group protects users from fraud on its platforms.\n\nMatch Group has stated that it \u201cpermanently discontinued\u201d the above practices. Publicly and privately, however, individuals who have worked at Match Group have suggested that \u201c[rooting out scammers] wasn\u2019t a real priority backed up by resources\u201d and that the company\u2019s \u201cobsession with metrics ... [is] potentially dangerous.\u201d At a recent panel appearance, Match Group\u2019s Head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, acknowledged that organized criminal groups increasingly carry out romance fraud in technologically sophisticated overseas scam compounds. Mr. Roth also said that Tinder\u2019s \u201cselfie-verification\u201d process\u2014whereby users create and verify their own accounts\u2014is \u201cpretty simple for a human to pass,\u201d and that Match Group had seen thousands of submissions with similar backgrounds, likely originating from a scam compound. One expert has warned that the process offers \u201cno guarantee against [deceptive profiles] because the images used for verification ... need not be the ones used on a person\u2019s dating profile.\u201d These statements appear consistent with the experiences of many online dating users. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, for example, users are more than three times as likely to rate online dating companies as \u201cvery bad\u201d instead of \u201cvery good\u201d at removing fake accounts.\n\nWe are also concerned that Match Group, through its algorithmic design, creates trust that romance scammers can exploit. According to former OkCupid CEO Christian Rudder, for example, \u201cusers sent more first messages when we said they were compatible\u2026[e]ven when they should be wrong for each other.\u201d Studies also suggest that increased platform use may foster greater trust in dating algorithms. As a result, a persuasive algorithmic design may help facilitate romance scams when it recommends fraudsters who benefit from users\u2019 trust in the platform\u2019s judgments of compatibility.\n\nMatch Group\u2019s business model is to keep users engaged, but this engagement is dangerous when it involves scammers. Online dating platforms drive user engagement, in part, with the promise of connections based on compatibility. Tinder, for instance, represents that its algorithm can \u201cpick better potential matches\u201d and helps users \u201csee people they\u2019ll vibe with.\u201d Expert research into romance scams, however, has identified recurring characteristics and patterns among perpetrators and victims. Scammers often quickly escalate emotional intimacy (often termed \u201clove bombing\u201d), to which users prone to romantic idealization are especially vulnerable. These interactions can generate engagement metrics\u2014such as high positive reply rates and low negative reply rates\u2014that algorithms may interpret as indicators of compatibility. As one study on machine learning systems noted, \u201cvulnerabilities can be automatically exploited when the vulnerable state or condition of an individual becomes entangled with the optimization criteria of an algorithmic system.\u201d In that context, Match Group\u2019s ability to monitor and influence user behavior, paired with limited transparency about potential harmful outcomes, raises concerns that its platforms may, even inadvertently, create conditions where romance scams are more likely to begin.\n\nTo aid Congress in understanding Match Group\u2019s efforts to prevent romance scams and the factors that allow these scams to begin on its platforms, please provide responses to the following document and information requests. These requests cover the time period of January 1, 2022, to the present, unless otherwise specified. Please provide your responses no later than October 15, 2025.\n\n1. A description of the \u201csignals\u201d associated with accounts suspected or known to be fraudulent or scammers and how Match Group accounts for these signals in detection systems, recommendation algorithms, and the Trust and Safety team\u2019s fraud review process;\n\n2. All policies and procedures concerning the detection, review, and removal of accounts suspected or known to be fraudulent or scammers; their\n\nalgorithmic treatment; and any restrictions on their visibility or communication with other users;\n\n3. For any accounts suspected or known to be fraudulent or scammers, documents sufficient to show for each quarter:\n\na. The number of these accounts, whether they were removed, and their geographic distribution;\n\nb. Median time between account creation and (1) detection and (2) removal, broken down by detection method (e.g., user reports, manual review, automatic review, etc.) and \u201csignal\u201d (e.g., false identity, automated behavior, behavioral or language patterns, etc.);\n\nc. The number of accounts detected but not removed within 24 hours, broken down by reason for non-removal (e.g., insufficient evidence, user remediation, process delay, false positive, etc.);\n\nd. Total number of user messages sent and received; total number of \u201cmatches\u201d (or platform equivalent); total session duration in which users interacted with these accounts; and aggregations of any other metrics used to evaluate engagement, profile quality, and \u201cmatching\u201d outcomes; and\n\ne. Platform revenues from in-app purchases by these accounts and users who liked, matched, or messaged (or platform equivalents) with these accounts within 24 hours before purchase;\n\n4. Memoranda, presentations, reports, studies, analyses, audits, and meeting notes referring or relating to the algorithmic recommendation of accounts suspected or known to be fraudulent or scammers;\n\n5. All internal reports, studies, or analyses referring or relating to the specific attributes, including demographics, platform use, and off-platform behavior, of:\n\na. Accounts suspected or known to be fraudulent or scammers; and\n\nb. Users targeted by or interacting with accounts suspected or known to be fraudulent or scammers;\n\n6. All documents and communications concerning the design, development, effectiveness, or consideration of fraud prevention measures, including measures discontinued or not implemented;\n\n7. Itemized quarterly investments in trust and safety, including but not limited to the following categories:\n\na. Trust and safety policy, operations, and data;\n\nb. Social advocacy;\n\nc. Law enforcement operations and outreach;\n\nd. Platform safety services and features; and\n\ne. Safety by design;", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2025/9/crime/technology/senators-blackburn-hassan-press-match-group-for-answers-on-romance-scams"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6579481307417154, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}