Are You Real? The ODDA and Sumsub publish new white paper on romance fraud and platform safety

The ODDA has published a new white paper in partnership with Sumsub examining the growing challenge of romance fraud on dating and social discovery platforms, and what platforms can do about it.

Romance fraud is one of the most significant and fast-evolving safety challenges facing online dating and social discovery platforms. It causes real harm to users, and operators are under increasing pressure, regulatory and reputational, to demonstrate that they are taking steps to address it.

Are You Real? Trust and Safety in the AI Fraud Era brings together the ODDA’s sector knowledge and Sumsub’s identity verification and fraud prevention expertise to offer a clear-eyed picture of the current landscape. The paper covers:

• The scale and changing nature of romance fraud, including the role of AI-generated content and deepfakes in making fraudulent profiles harder to detect
• The regulatory context and what the Online Safety Act, the new Fraud Strategy, and wider legislative changes mean for platforms in practice
• How the verification and fraud prevention landscape is evolving, and what the most effective responses look like right now
• The barriers that still exist to effective sector-wide collaboration on fraud and what a stronger approach could look like

The paper is designed to be practically useful for platform operators, trust and safety teams, and anyone working at the intersection of dating technology and online safety. It is free to download.