Trust and safety remain significant concerns on dating apps. Earlier this month, journalist Christophe Haubursin released a YouTube video titled “Something very weird is happening on Tinder,” which has garnered over 1.5 million views. Haubursin explored a workaround to Tinder’s Face Check, a facial recognition feature mandatory for all U.S. users since October 2025.
Haubursin and his interviewees found profiles that seemed ordinary, but the final photo was strange—often a digitally-altered image in unusual contexts like billboards or Victorian paintings. When matched and questioned about these images, the individuals behind the profiles would evade answers and instead suggest moving the conversation to WhatsApp, revealing themselves as romance scammers.
The video revealed that Match Group, which owns Tinder and Hinge, requires only one photo for facial recognition. Scammers might use legitimate pictures for Face Check while using internet-sourced images for the rest of their profile.
Though Tinder did not directly comment to Haubursin, a spokesperson told Mashable that the platform is enhancing its Photo Verification, ensuring higher consistency and scrutiny for some cases, and developing Face Check to affirm account authenticity.
Mashable also discussed this with Hinge’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, Ben Celebicic. Although he hadn’t seen Haubursin’s video, he acknowledged ongoing efforts to counter users bypassing safety measures.
About a third of Hinge’s personnel handles trust and safety, and Match Group invests $125 million annually in this area. The importance of trust and safety on dating platforms was also highlighted in a letter from two senators to Match Group’s CEO in September 2025, addressing romance scams, and a class-action lawsuit in December concerning a serial offender’s continued presence on Tinder and Hinge.
With increased age-verification laws, facial recognition usage has risen, permitting access to specific content like explicit materials. However, as with Face Check, there are methods to bypass these scans to view desired content.