$1.14 billion. That is how much Americans lost to romance scams on dating apps in 2023. The Tinder Swindler showed how it works. Thousands of copycats followed.
The US House of Representatives had enough. In September 2024, they passed the Online Dating Safety Act (H.R. 6125) unanimously. The idea: anyone who wants to use Tinder, Bumble, or Hinge would have to show ID.
Then something strange happened. The bill vanished.
What the Online Dating Safety Act Would Have Required
The bill had two core demands that would have introduced mandatory Dating App ID Verification across the United States.
First: every dating app would have to collect government-issued ID from new users. Driver's license, passport, the usual suspects.
Second: if you chat with someone who later gets banned for fraud, the app would have to notify you. Imagine you meet someone on Tinder. You text for a while. Then it turns out this person scammed five other women out of money. Under the law, Tinder would have had to warn you.
Sounds reasonable, actually.
Why the Online Dating Safety Act Died in the Senate
The Online Dating Safety Act sailed through the House without a single vote against it. Both parties agreed. That almost never happens in Washington.
Then came the Senate. Then came January 2025. The 118th Congress ended. The Online Dating Safety Act disappeared into a drawer, never to become law.
In March 2025, Senator Marsha Blackburn introduced a similar bill. She focused on seniors, who fall victim most often. People between 65 and 74 lose an average of over $13,000 per scam.
Will this new attempt succeed? Honestly, I do not know. The odds are probably not great.
The Numbers Behind the Problem
You might think: who falls for these scammers? According to Pew Research, 52% of all online daters have encountered someone who clearly tried to deceive them.
The FTC reports $1.14 billion in losses for 2023 in the US alone. 64,003 complaints. Average loss per victim: $2,000.
This is not a small problem. Romance Scams have become a billion-dollar industry.
If you want to learn how to spot fake profiles before you lose money, we have a practical guide with 5 warning signs.
The Privacy Dilemma
This is where things get uncomfortable.
80% of all dating apps sell your data. The Mozilla Foundation checked in 2024: more than half could not even confirm they meet basic security standards.
These are the same apps that now want your ID. That is exactly what the Online Dating Safety Act would have required from all US users.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls this "at best intrusive, at worst dangerous." That is putting it politely. Dating apps are already a privacy nightmare. If Tinder cannot even keep your location private, should they have access to your government ID?
Privacy Guides makes a crucial point: for LGBTQ+ users, domestic abuse survivors, or people in countries with repressive governments, anonymity can be a matter of life and death.
The GDPR Illusion
European users feel a false sense of security. "We have GDPR." True. And yet:
Belgian researchers found in 2024 that Bumble and Hinge can track your location with meter-level accuracy even when you try to hide it. The apps ignore your settings and triangulate your position through other methods.
The GDPR complaint against Bumble shows that major dating apps already handle personal data recklessly. And now they want your ID too?
GDPR prohibits apps from doing this. The apps do it anyway. Fines come years later, if at all. By then, your data is long gone.
What Other Countries Are Doing
The US is not alone with this problem. While the Online Dating Safety Act failed in Washington, other countries have found their own ways to regulate dating app safety.
Australia relies on voluntary self-regulation. With a threat in the fine print: if you do not regulate yourselves, we will do it for you.
The UK has run out of patience. The Online Safety Act includes fines up to 18 million pounds. Or 10% of global revenue. Whichever is higher. The apps do not understand polite requests. They understand money.
The EU? No unified plan. Interestingly, Germany is implementing age verification without ID requirements. A middle ground that balances youth protection and privacy.
The Verification Trick
Bumble paid $315,000 in fines in New Jersey in 2024. They had let users believe that verified profiles had also undergone background checks.
They had not.
Dating App ID Verification says nothing about whether someone will scam you. Verification only means: this person exists. It does not mean: this person is trustworthy. It does not mean: this person has no criminal record. It does not mean: this person will not scam you.
This is not the only case of questionable security practices: Match Group maintains a secret database of known offenders but keeps them active on Tinder, Hinge, and OkCupid.
The blue checkmark is theater. It is not security.
What the Failed Online Dating Safety Act Teaches Us
The Online Dating Safety Act reveals a dilemma no country has solved yet: how do you protect people from fraud without endangering their privacy?
Mandatory ID verification sounds like a simple solution. But it ignores that dating apps already have a massive privacy problem. The Online Dating Safety Act would have made Dating App ID Verification mandatory. But verification alone does not create safety.
The real lesson: technical solutions alone are not enough. As long as apps sell our data and scammers face few consequences, little will change.
What This Means for You
The law failed. The apps will not regulate themselves. The scammers will not stop. Even without the Online Dating Safety Act, the problem remains.
You are on your own.
The blue checkmark will not protect you. Verification will not protect you. The terms of service will not protect you.
What helps: distrust. Do not send money to people you only know online. Learn the romance scam warning signs before it is too late. If someone asks for money, block them. If someone seems too perfect, they are not. If something feels wrong, it is wrong.
Dating apps have proven they cannot protect your data. Do not expect them to protect you from scammers either.
Frequently Asked Questions
This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. At SparkChambers, we use verified profiles that balance safety AND privacy, without storing your ID in databases. Learn how we balance safety and privacy.
